Financial Russian Roulette  —  Will the U.S. financial system collapse today, or maybe over the next few days?  I don't think so — but I'm nowhere near certain.  You see, Lehman Brothers, a major investment bank, is apparently about to go under.  And nobody knows what will happen next.

Bad voter applications found  —  Clerks see fraudulent, duplicate forms from group  —  Several municipal clerks across the state are reporting fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications, most of them from a nationwide community activist group working to help low- and moderate-income families.

Bank meltdown wallops campaigns  —  America's banking instability could upend the final 50 days of the presidential campaign, with both candidates forced to confront a calamity that has gotten only glancing attention during the first 20 months of the race for the White House.

Why Replacing Biden With Hillary Makes Perfect Sense for Obama  —  Sen. Joe Biden's a perfectly appropriate vice presidential running-mate for Sen. Barack Obama.  He's got 36 years of Senate experience, is a true intellect, a foreign policy expert, and a genuinely nice guy.

Palin hit hard on the Sunday shows  —  Palin-mania continued to dominate the conversation on the Sunday morning talk shows, as Democrats slammed Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin for distorting her record in ads and on the campaign trail.  —  The attacks came in the midst …

Biden speech to take hard hit at McCain  —  CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Joe Biden will deliver a high-profile first attack in a sustained anti-McCain offensive in a speech called “Bush 44” Monday in the key battleground state of Michigan.  —  While the lines of attack have long been drawn …

OBAMA TRIED TO STALL GIS' IRAQ WITHDRAWAL  —  WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

Sarah Palin and the full “Dairygate” Timeline  —  I need to thank alert reader Lee Indiana for pointing me to what is now, unfortunately, being called “Dairygate” in some circles and setting me off on a morning's expedition with The Google.  Even if you are already aware of the strange goings …

About that McCain Photo  —  Like others at the Atlantic, I was appalled to read about the actions of Jill Greenberg, the freelance photographer who took the cover portrait that illustrates my article about John McCain.  Greenberg doctored photographs of McCain she took during her Atlantic-arranged shoot …