2008

The six-month election recount that turned former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities.

That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman.

The final recount vote in the race, determined six months after Election Day, showed Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes -- fewer votes than the number of felons whose illegal ballots were counted, according to Minnesota Majority's newly released study, which matched publicly available conviction lists with voting records...

Washington – Remember Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky?

Anyone over a certain age who follows politics does. She was the first-term Democratic congresswoman from Pennsylvania who cast the decisive 218th House vote for President Clinton’s budget reconciliation bill in 1993 – and then went on to lose reelection in 1994.

Today, as the Democrats work to lock down just enough votes to pass an unpopular healthcare reform bill, “MMM” isn’t far from thought. No one wants to be the MMM of 2010. But there are several who could suffer that fate.

One obvious place to look is the 49 Democrats elected in 2008 from districts that voted for Republican John McCain for president...

MINNEAPOLIS – With the state Canvassing Board ready to award the last pile of votes in Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount, Democrat Al Franken clung to a narrow lead over Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. The final count, however, showed no sign of being settled soon.

On Tuesday, the board was scheduled to award votes from a remaining group of about 5,000 challenges that had been withdrawn by both campaigns. Based on a draft report released late Monday by the secretary of state's office, Franken will have earned 48 more votes than Coleman once those votes are allotted...

As they enter their final day of campaigning before Election Day, Sen. John
McCain is trying to swing undecided voters in key battleground states, while
Sen. Barack Obama is staying on the offensive by campaigning in territory that
is usually safely Republican.

In addition, both campaigns are ratcheting up their
get-out-the-vote efforts, as election officials predict record turnouts -- and
long lines -- on Tuesday.

McCain on Monday hopes he can shift enough voters in a
handful of critical states to give him enough votes to pull a come-from-behind
victory...

The director of an organization that "trains up the next generation of leaders by helping to elect godly men and women" says he's seeing tremendous numbers of youth coming out in support of the Republican presidential ticket.  read more »

The tight U.S. senate race in North Carolina between incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole and Democrat Kay Hagan has intensified with a new ad that Dole is airing statewide, accusing her challenger of accepting campaign contributions from an atheist group.

Dole's campaign is hammering North Carolina State Senator Kay Hagan for attending a fundraiser on September 15, in Boston, Massachusetts, at the home of Woody Kaplan, an advisor to the Godless Americans Political Action Committee, a liberal Washington-based group whose goal is "mobilizing America's nonbelievers for political activism." Massachusetts Senator John Kerry also attended the event...

To keep America free from terrorist attacks in the post 9/11 world, it is imperative that the next president have an acute understanding of radical Islam and the need for a forceful response that extends beyond mere criminal prosecution, said former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum.

He made the comments at a debate focusing on the 2008 election.

The Pennsylvania Republican also credited the Bush administration for pursuing effective counter-terrorism measures, re-affirmed his vote in favor of the Iraq war and suggested that Iran could be on verge of inciting a major conflict...

Presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain target religious voters on Saturday when as guests of one of America's foremost evangelists they discuss faith in public life, AIDS, the environment and other issues...

The head of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission has joined the chorus of evangelical leaders who are questioning Barack Obama's Christian credentials.

Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission has joined Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, and others who have questioned Barack Obama's recent attempts to woo Evangelicals away from their traditional support of Republican presidential candidates.

A Christian activist says Barack Obama has done nothing to reconcile his actions and words with his professed Christianity.

Senator Obama (D-Illinois), the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, recently held meetings with prominent Christians, including Franklin Graham and Bishop T.D. Jakes. But Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America Action, says evangelical leaders send a confusing message when they meet with Obama.