Where's the Landslide?  —  Why isn't Barack Obama doing better?  Why, after all that has happened, does he have only a slim two- or three-point lead over John McCain, according to an average of the recent polls?  Why is he basically tied with his opponent when his party is so far ahead?

Book says White House ordered forgery  —  A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.  —  Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday …

Pelosi: At-risk Dems back drilling  —  California Democrat Nancy Pelosi may be trying to save the planet — but the rank and file in her party increasingly are just trying to save their political hides when it comes to gas prices as Republicans apply more and more rhetorical muscle.

Is McCain's tire-gauge ridicule wrong?  —  Now that many of us have had a good laugh following Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign's use of tire-inflation gauges as weapons of mass distraction against Sen. Barack Obama, can we acknowledge that properly inflated tires could indeed save a tremendous amount of energy?

McCain makes the rounds at biker rally  —  STURGIS, South Dakota (CNN) - Standing on the main stage at a world famous motorcycle rally in rural South Dakota on Monday, John McCain looked out on a sea of denim-wearing bikers and told them he enjoyed their company much more than that of the 200,000 Germans …

Presidential hug for controversial senator  —  Republican Ted Stevens is the king of pork-barrel earmark spending.  The senior senator from Alaska is also the architect of the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, a project to connect the town of Ketchikan (population 8,900) with its airport on the Island of Gravina …

Going for Gold?  McCain Makes $6 Million Olympic Buy  —  Tops Obama Buy by $1 Million  —  WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is buying into NBC Universal's Olympics coverage.  —  The McCain campaign made a last-minute $6 million ad buy …

Obama: ‘National Priority’  —  Here's a second contrast ad on the subject of energy from the Obama campaign, which seeks to paint McCain as the candidate of the past, of Washington, and of Bush, while Obama is the candidate of “new energy.”  —  The script: … I don't have details on where the ad is airing.

Radical Iraq Cleric in Retreat  —  Sadr, Power Waning, Plans Moderate Course; Retaining Militia  —  BAGHDAD — Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — long a thorn in the side of the U.S. military and Iraqi government — intends to disarm his once-dominant Mahdi Army militia and remake it as a social-services organization.

G.O.P. Drops in Voting Rolls in Many States  —  Well before Senators Barack Obama and John McCain rose to the top of their parties, a partisan shift was under way at the local and state level.  For more than three years starting in 2005, there has been a reduction in the number of voters …

Iraq: Gunmen kill US-allied Sunni group leader  —  BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed a senior leader of a U.S.-allied Sunni group and six of his guards in an ambush south of Baghdad, a group member and residents said Tuesday.  —  The U.S. military confirmed casualties in an attack on the man's house but denied that he was killed.