Wire Presidential Election News

The Cabinet that President-elect Barack Obama picked on a fast track has an unexpected opening, with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's choice for commerce secretary, withdrawing under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract.

On a typical weekday, hundreds of thousands of people commute to the nation's capital, snarling roads and packing subway trains and buses during peak hours.

A handful of pro-Palestinian activists protested outside President-elect Barack Obama's vacation home on Tuesday and urged a new approach to the Middle East. Obama did not acknowledge them.

Staying out of the public eye during an extended vacation doesn't mean staying away from the golf course for President-elect Barack Obama.

President-elect Barack Obama and his family planned a Christmas Day that includes opening presents in the morning and sharing a traditional turkey and ham dinner in the evening.

Now the country has a clearer picture of its choices. The first back-to-back political conventions in half a century gave Americans a blur of late-summer political activity that nominated the two major-party presidential candidates, unveiled the vice-presidential running mates, and laid out their visions for the future.

Alaska delegates to the Republican National Convention got a strong message this week from Republican officials as the media swarm kept bugging them about Gov. Sarah Palin: "STAY POSITIVE when talking with reporters." The one-page "Republican National Convention Talking Points" sheet provided to them added: "No one is better suited to deal with the largest issue on voters minds: Energy."

The Palin Reader now has 93 links to stories involving Palin, from a story on earmarks in which Alaska's Washington delegation criticize her, to the latest developments in 'troopergate.' If you're interested in Palin, this is a good way to stay caught up.

Tom Jensen, pollster at Raleigh's Public Policy Polling, tells the Raleign News & Observers' The Ballot blog that Barack Obama is doing unusually well with white Democrats in Mecklenburg and surrounding counties. The observation is at the end of the interview.

Some 37.2 million viewers tuned in for Palin's speech, only a million fewer than watched Barack Obama's acceptance speech, and journalists and analysts were saying she's turned the debate with Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden on Oct. 2 into one of the most highly anticipated events of the fall. But whatever extra interest Palin creates is unlikely to make a difference in the outcome, analysts agreed.

Dave Barry predicts that the end of the Republican convention would come in a hail of red, white and blue golf balls.

Since McCain announced last week that Sarah Palin would be vice presidential running mate, his campaign has worked to paint her as a crusader who took on two of the most successful appropriators in the history of Congress: her fellow Republicans and titans of Alaska politics, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. But Palin also sought earmarks, both as a governor and a small-town mayor — a position that is at odds with McCain's zero tolerance.

The Republicans emerge from their national convention with a new star — and it isn't their presidential nominee. It's vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Even with John McCain's speech Thursday evening, it was clear that he will share the spotlight through the fall with his charismatic No. 2 rather than watch her slip back into the shadows, as running mates normally do.

Throw the flag against: Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. Call: Illegal shift.

New York resident Elana Shneyer said she watched with anger and anguish as her former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, and Sarah Palin mocked Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer, reducing the job to little more than a punch line in their convention speeches.

John McCain, declaring that "change is coming," will accept the Republican Party's presidential nomination Thursday night by describing how his life as a military veteran, political maverick and consensus-builder prepared him to lead the country. He will draw sharp contrasts with Barack Obama but concentrate largely on his own record and background.

The full text of Sen. John McCain's acceptance speech, as prepared for delivery.

A Republican lawmaker is facing criticism over using the racially charged term "uppity" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, on Thursday.

During Alaska's varsity basketball state championship, Sarah Palin, suffering from a sprained ankle, nailed a free throw that sealed her team's unlikely victory. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., hopes she can still work the same magic.

Christian activists continue to support the abstinence method, saying that high-profile cases such as the Palins' don't mean the approach should be changed. Others, including a state public-health task force, have pushed to add more detailed information about contraceptives. A bill that would permit that is likely re-emerge when state legislators return in January.

The state Department of Law hired Thomas Van Flein, an Anchorage attorney with expertise in employment law and professional liability, to represent Palin. He immediately said any investigation should be handled not by the legislature but by the state Personnel Board, which Palin appoints.

When news about Alaska Gov. and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's pregnant teenage daughter hit the airwaves, Sen. Barack Obama wisely stayed on the high road, urging the press to back off. A teen pregnancy, he said, is a personal issue. I beg to differ.

Palin suspended Frank Bailey after a recording surfaced of Bailey's conversation with a Department of Public Saftey supervisor about the fitness of Palin's ex brother-in-law for his job as a state trooper. Bailey had agreed to be interviewed under oath on Wednesday in the legislature's investigation of the matter, but his lawyer canceled, claiming Palin's office was contesting the legislature's jurisdiction.

Republican convention delegates say they don't think voters will have any trouble differentiating John McCain from George Bush, even after the president's 6-minute satellite address to the convention.

Win or lose, John McCain threw the long ball Friday when he stunned the nation by picking Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. His choice of a young, largely unknown woman from as far outside Washington as possible shakes up the presidential campaign and has the potential to either help him win the White House or doom his chances.

Sen. John McCain's choice of a running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, questioned the science behind predictions of sea ice loss linked to global warming and opposed a state initiative that would have banned metal mines from discharging pollution into salmon streams.

Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, has been the Joan of Arc of Alaska politics, charging into battle against long odds on such big local issues as oil taxes and construction of a natural gas pipeline. Her outsider status has helped her maintain consistently sky-high approval ratings, despite wide-ranging corruption investigations. Her favorite meal: moosemeat stew after a day of snowmachining.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, picked Friday to be Sen. John McCain's running mate in his pursuit of the presidency, has reputation as a reformer in a state where the Republican party is under siege by prosecutors in a long-running corruption probe. But Palin's own actions are under investigation in her firing of the state's top police official.

If you are a member of the news media, one of your most important constitutionally protected duties at a national political convention is to try to get into parties to which you have not been invited. I would estimate that this occupies 85 percent of my time at conventions. Usually I fail, but it's better than listening to speeches.

It was apparently right there, under the surface for only a few days, simmering, waiting to somehow find a way to express itself. But when the presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin revealed her 17-year-old unmarried daughter's unplanned pregnancy Monday, the quasi-sexist question of whether Palin could be a good mother and the vice president of the United States could be discussed among us openly and at will.

The move may be an effort to shift the investigation from the legislature to the state's Personnel Board, which Palin appoints. Under Alaska law, the board must hire an independent counsel for complaints against the governor. Legislators say it won't stop their inquiry into whether Palin fired Alaksa's top cop because he wouldn't fire Palin's ex brother-in-law.

It wasn't immediately clear who hired and is paying for Thomas Van Flein, a member of a large Alaska law firm to represent Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in the legislature's investigation of her firing of Walt Monegan as head of the state Department of Public Safety. Monegan says he was fired because he wouldn't dismiss Palin's ex brother-in-law.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's speech before the Republican National Convention Wednesday night — or on Thursday, if the schedule changes again — will be a critical moment for a newcomer to national politics who is unknown to most of the country. "Palin's speech may be the most important moment at the entire convention," said independent pollster Scott Rasmussen.

Although they were reluctant to say it out loud, many Republicans were relieved Monday that President Bush didn't attend the Republican National Convention. Inside and outside the convention hall, they mostly agreed that Bush is a political problem for John McCain, and that it was better that TV screens Monday evening didn't feature delegates cheering him on.

The 17-year-old daughter of Gov. Sarah Palin is pregnant. Palin and her husband, Todd, sent out a joint statement as rumors grew on the Internet that the governor's new baby, Trig, was actually Bristol's and that Palin was covering up her daughter's pregnancy. Palin will accept the Republican vice-presidential nomination this week.

John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin said Monday that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant, an announcement aimed at rebutting Internet rumors that Palin's youngest son, born in April, was actually her daughter's. The news spread quickly through the convention in Minneapolis, where delegates were stunned.

Republican convention delegates rallied Monday around presumptive vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin as they made the first day of their gathering a subdued show of sympathy for Hurricane Gustav's victims. First lady Laura Bush and Cindy McCain, the wife of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, addressed the convention, staying away from partisan politics.

If you watched TV news or went online on Monday, there was a lot of speculation about how having unmarried pregnant daugther would play into Sarah Palin's appeal as a devoted mother and proponent of conservative values. But in Palin's hometown, supporters and critics alike rated it of minor importance and said they thought the revelation would do little to hurt the popular politician politically.

A charmed political career launched Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin from small-town mayor to the Republican National Convention, where she's set to accept the nomination for vice president Wednesday night. Call it luck, the hand of providence or perfect timing, but it has blessed Palin throughout her public life.

The announcement by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant raised new questions about how thoroughly John McCain investigated the background of his vice-presidential pick. McCain advisers said the presumptive vice presidential candidate was thoroughly vetted, but in Alaska there's little evidence of that.

Throughout her term as governor, the Anchorage Daily News has offered editorial commentary on the decisions she's made. Here's a selection of what the paper had to say about key moments in her administration.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin formally introduced herself to America on Wednesday night by telling the Republican National Convention about her small-town roots and her disdain for the Washington political establishment. And she defined herself as someone irritated with the news media and Washington.

I don't know about Palin. But I do know this: women in general are WAY better at work/home multi-tasking than men. I base this statement on my wife, who recently was in Beijing, reporting on the Olympics, while I was at home, theoretically getting our 8-year-old daughter ready for third grade

Although the public opinion polls find Barack Obama leading John McCain by 2-1 among young voters, the 72-year-old Arizona Republican senator has youthful supporters who are looking to him for change.

Sen. John McCain on Thursday gets what one political scientist calls a Hubert H. Humphrey moment. He gets his chance to show the country how he'd break with an unpopular president from his party, George W. Bush. It's a tricky opportunity.

McCain supporters cite Sarah Palin's role as commander of the Alaska National Guard as evidence of her experience, but since she became governor, the Guard has provided security for a marathon, rescued a woman from an island, and sent troops to assist in mudslides. Palin wasn't involved in those decisions. She has no authority over the Guard when it's deployed overseas.

Throw the flag against: Carly Fiorina and the McCain campaign. Call: Pass interference.

From President Bush's televised remarks at the GOP convention to the plastic ID tags the delegates hang around their necks, offshore energy exploration has become a top priority.With polls suggesting that voters may be increasingly receptive to lifting the ban on offshore drilling, the GOP believes it has a winning strategy.

The full text of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's remarks, as prepared for delivery.

She's graced the cover of warm-and-fuzzy family magazines, been caricatured as an angry black nationalist, dished the dirt with the women on "The View" and been labeled one of the world's best-dressed women. So who is Michelle Obama?

The wife of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was the closing act on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, a moment designed to show the couple's softer side and to take control of a personal narrative that Obama’s Republican rival is trying to frame.

An ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy took to the podium on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, recalling his brother John's inaugural address. "The torch will be passed again" to Barack Obama and a new generation, he said. "We are told that Barack Obama believes too much in an America of high principle and bold endeavor," he said. "But when John Kennedy thought of going to the moon, he didn't say it's too far to get there."

Hillary Clinton's disappointed delegates arrived in this Democratic National Convention city Sunday upset that their candidate wasn't even considered for the presidential ticket, but also insisting that they would fully support presumptive nominee Barack OBama.