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By all rights, there should be a revolt at this week's Republican convention against John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate--for the very same reasons so many Republicans opposed President Bush's selection of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. Palin is, if anything, less qualified for the vice presidency (and the presidency) than Miers was for the court. But there is one big difference: Palin passes all the right-wing litmus tests, which means she is unlikely to suffer Miers' fate. It's amusing to watch Republicans play gender politics. At the time Bush chose Miers, he was under pressure to pick a woman to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But most of the plausible women jurists were either too moderate to satisfy conservatives or so right wing that they faced serious confirmation problems.

The GOP opens its convention here Monday as a party in peril. Hobbled by an unpopular president, a disillusioned and divided base, and low poll ratings on almost every domestic issue, the party of Nixon and Reagan and Bush may well be at the end of a historic 40-year grasp on power, say conservative thinkers and political historians. Republicans lost the House of Representatives in 2006, and are now at risk of losing the Senate. They were defeated in special elections this year in congressional districts that in some cases hadn't elected a Democrat since the days of Lyndon Johnson.

Barack Obama is gaining support in the rural, conservative town of McArthur, Ohio, reflecting nationwide trends in which the Illinois senator has been consolidating support among independents and in some traditional Republican strongholds.With just three weeks until the election, political analysts say absent an October surprise it will be difficult for Republican John McCain to turn things around. That's a challenge his campaign, which has been written off before, says it is delighted to take up.

Latest 2008 election news & information from MSN; presidential election opinion & analysis; compare Republican & Democratic presidential candidates on issues; political video & blogs; current polls; election map; more.

By running an attack campaign that is almost a parody of George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 exertions, McCain is chucking away his greatest opportunity, which is to show that he could reform Republicanism and offer voters an alternative way of breaking with a past they have come to loathe.

In a new Wisconsin poll by CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain by 51% to 46%. The survey of 859 likely voters was taken Friday through Monday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The results are similar to the last poll by the same sponsors, a mid-September survey in which Obama led 50% to 47%. Four other states were polled at the same time. In the latest survey, Obama led McCain 50% to 47% in Ohio and 53% to 45% in New Hampshire. The two were tied at 49% in North Carolina, and McCain led 51% to 46% in Indiana.

Will Rural Voters Make It Three in a Row for Republicans? Rural and exurban voters made George Bush president -- twice.

The time frame for the unit is 8 weeks, although it may not take you as long, depending on how many class hours you devote to it. I suggest that you divide the project into a Democrat and Republican team using two classes, but it could be done within one class. Classroom teachers will need access to computers for the project.

This should be a very informative debate. The video will be archived if you can't view it live. Looking forward to hearing an education focus for the Presidential election!

Join us for "Education and the Next President," a live debate from Teachers College, Columbia University, with Linda Darling-Hammond, education adviser to Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama, and Lisa Graham Keegan, education adviser to Presidential Republican nominee John McCain. The event is being exclusively Webcast by edweek.org with generous support from NASSP. A video archive of the event will be available Wed., Oct 22, at noon.

Barack Obama attracted 100,000 people at a Saturday rally here, his biggest crowd ever at a U.S. event. The crowd assembled under the Gateway Arch on a sunny Saturday afternoon to hear Obama speak about taxes and slam the Republicans on economic issues. Lt. Samuel Dotson of the St. Louis Police Department confirmed the number of attendees piled into the grassy lawn by the Mississippi River. To be sure, big crowds don't always signal a big turnout on Election Day. But Obama's ability to draw his largest audience yet in a typically red state that just weeks ago looked out of reach, could signal a changing electoral map.

The Democratic Party's outreach to young people and to people of faith seems to be paying off. A new survey on faith and American politics shows Democratic nominee Barack Obama making inroads among some believers and moving ahead of Republican John McCain among Roman Catholics, largely because of young Catholics' support. In the biggest shift over the past four years, Senator Obama now wins the backing of 60 percent of voters who attend religious services once or twice a month, a jump from the 49 percent the Democratic nominee won in 2004.

With national, state, and county maps, CNN.com's Campaign Fundraising Interactive Map provides an in-depth view into the campaign fundraising of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.

The plans of presidential candidates are never set in stone, if only because circumstances and the makeup of Congress change after the election. The uncertainty is even deeper in this election because Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain laid out most of their agenda before the government committed up to $700 billion to address the financial crisis. Obama acknowledges what is true for both: "The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals." Yet neither candidate has spelled out what promises might have to be postponed or changed. With that caution, here's a look at where McCain and Obama stand on a selection of issues.

Green issues are shaping up to be a key ingredient in the Democrats' strategy to turn disaffection with President George W. Bush's GOP into expansive down-ticket victories this November.