McCain-Palin Crowd-Size Estimates Not Backed by Officials  —  Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) — Senator John McCain has drawn some of the biggest crowds of his presidential campaign since adding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to his ticket on Aug. 29.  Now officials say they can't substantiate the figures McCain's aides are claiming.

In Office, Palin Hired Friends and Hit Critics  —  WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.  —  So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship.

ABC News Edited Out Key Parts of Sarah Palin Interview  —  A transcript of the unedited interview of Sarah Palin by Charles Gibson clearly shows that ABC News edited out crucial portions of the interview that showed Palin as knowledgeable or presented her answers out of context.

Battlegrounds: Florida, Pennsylvania breaking for McCain?  —  As if the Barack Obama needed any more bad news, the St. Petersburg Times and Zogby both deliver cause for pessimism at Team O. Florida polling shows that despite spending millions in advertising in the Sunshine State and a delay …

Are YOU ready to be President?  —  If Charlie Gibson asked me if I were prepared to be the President of the United States .... and if I had the experience, both life and professional, of Sarah Palin, I would not answer the way she did on http://abcnews.go.com/Video/ playerIndex?id=5793131ABC News this past week.

Campaigns shout it out  —  So much for nuance, or elevating the dialogue.  —  Locked in a political death match with 52 days to live, the presidential campaigns went nuclear on what looked to be a quiet Saturday, with stumping curtailed because of Hurricane Ike's catastrophic overnight hit on Houston.

Forum sells ‘Obama Waffles’ with racial stereotype  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Activists at a conservative political forum snapped up boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap.

Greenspan: No McCain tax cuts without reduction  —  WASHINGTON - Alan Greenspan says the country can't afford tax cuts of the magnitude proposed by Republican presidential contender John McCain — at least not without a corresponding reduction in government spending.

Sarah Palin will be interviewed by Sean Hannity next  —  Next up for Palin: Sean Hannity  —  The Sarah Palin media roll-out continues.  After doing two days of interviews with ABC's Charles Gibson this week, the Alaska governor will sit down with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Tuesday.

Biden prepares for more prominent role in campaign  —  MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The vice presidential nominee you aren't hearing so much about, Democrat Joe Biden, is planning a more prominent role to help validate Barack Obama among white working-class voters and criticize the Republican rival he's long called a friend.

Powerless: More than 99 percent of region in the dark  —  Comments Recommend  —  Daybreak today in Hurricane Ike's wake only revealed what Houston area power providers already knew — the lights are out for roughly 5 million people, and getting the juice flowing again will be a painstaking process that could take weeks.

The latest Sarah Palin smear from the Left: teen molester  —  Just when you thought the Left could not possibly sink any lower in their bid to smear Sarah Palin, Air America manages to provide what hopefully will be the nadir of their efforts.  Randi Rhodes of Air America/Nova M Radio told …

McCain and Palin plan joint town halls in battleground states  —  RENO, Nevada (CNN) — CNN has learned that John McCain and Sarah Palin plan to hold joint town hall meetings next week.  —  A McCain adviser says early plans are to hold the town halls in western Michigan and Wisconsin …

Why McCain is going so negative, so often  —  It's hard to imagine a more unlikely perch for John McCain to be shamed for his increasingly hard-edged and truth-stretching campaign than the middle seat on “The View.”  —  Yet on Friday morning, there sat the Republican nominee …

McCain on FCS: Flip-flop or fib?  —  Has Sen. John McCain renounced his longtime antagonism toward the Army's Future Combat Systems?  —  On Sept. 8, the Republican presidential candidate told a rally crowd in Lee's Summit, Mo., about an Obama video message to a liberal advocacy group.