Brewers avoid elimination, top Phils 4-1 in Game 3

Brewers avoid elimination, top Phils 4-1 in Game 3

Milwaukee Brewers' J.J. Hardy is congratulated by Ray Durham (5) after scoring from third on a hit by Jason Kendall during seventh inning baseball action in Game 3 of the National League division series against the Philadelphia Phillies Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008, in Milwaukee.

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- J.J. Hardy and the Milwaukee Brewers did just enough to keep their postseason alive for another day. Back home at Miller Park, the Brewers got three hits from Hardy and a sharp outing from Dave Bush to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 Saturday night and stave off elimination in the NL division series.

Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun each had a sacrifice fly for Milwaukee, making its first trip to the postseason since 1982. Hardy and Jason Kendall added RBI singles.

After CC Sabathia and Yovani Gallardo flopped in Philly, Bush allowed one run in 5 1-3 innings to help send the best-of-five series to a fourth game on Sunday.

Three relievers stymied the Phillies before Salomon Torres worked a rocky ninth inning for the save. Philadelphia loaded the bases with no outs and Pedro Feliz hit a double-play grounder to third that appeared to drive in Ryan Howard.

But Shane Victorino, who hit a grand slam off Sabathia in Game 2, was called for interference when he didn't slide into second. The runners were sent back to second and third, and Carlos Ruiz tapped back to Torres for the final out.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel continued to discuss the play with umpires after the game.

Only seven teams in baseball history have come back from an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five playoff series - but the '82 Brewers were one of them.

Jeff Suppan will start for Milwaukee on Sunday. The Phillies did not announce a Game 4 starter before Saturday's game but are expected to send Joe Blanton to the mound.

The Brewers managed just three runs and seven hits as the Phillies won the first two games convincingly. But Milwaukee showed some patience at the plate in Game 3 that was noticeably lacking in Philadelphia.

Mike Cameron and Bill Hall, two free-swinging Brewers, walked with no outs in the first against Jamie Moyer, known for his control. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch before Fielder hit a sacrifice fly to right with one out.

Hardy followed with a run-scoring single to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead.

Bush (1-0) allowed the leadoff hitter to reach in four of the first six innings but managed to wiggle out of trouble. He departed with one out and a runner on third in the sixth, and Howard's groundout off Mitch Stetter cut Milwaukee's lead to 3-1.

Moyer (0-1) was lifted in favor of pinch-hitter Matt Stairs in the fifth. The 45-year-old left-hander allowed four hits and two runs in four innings.

Clay Condrey replaced Moyer and hit Cameron with a pitch to lead off the fifth. Cameron went to third on Hall's single and scored on Braun's sacrifice fly to left.

Milwaukee loaded the bases with two outs but Craig Counsell, who replaced Rickie Weeks at second base after Weeks sprained his left knee, took a called third strike to end the inning. The Brewers also left the bases loaded in the sixth.

Bush allowed a leadoff single to Chase Utley in the fourth but got out of a potential big inning by mowing down the heart of the Phillies' lineup.

Utley advanced to second on Howard's groundout. But Pat Burrell flew out to right, and Victorino lined out sharply to shortstop Hardy to end the inning.

Victorino slammed his helmet to the ground as he ran down the first-base line.

Notes:@ Jayson Werth and Howard both finished with two hits. ... Kendall's RBI single came in the seventh.

Obama Rally, Springsteen Concert in Center City

Obama Rally, Springsteen Concert in Center City

Philadelphia police say they're ready for large crowds expected for the Barack Obama rally and Bruce Springsteen concert on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway later on Saturday.

Deputy police commissioner Stephen Johnson says large crowds are expected for the rally and concert. The program starts around 330pm. Bruce Springsteen performs around 5pm. Johnson says police will be there in force too:

"This was spontaneous we were notified of this just this week so we did a lot of scrambling to get this done, and as you will see, the department works very well under pressure and we are going to do a good job."

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Emotions connect old OJ acquittal, new conviction

Emotions connect old OJ acquittal, new conviction

O.J. Simpson arrives in court before being found guilty on all 12 charges, including felony kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy at the Clark County Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Friday, Oct. 3, 2008. The verdict comes thirteen years to the day after he was acquitted of double murder charges.

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Jurors had been told to ignore what they knew about O.J. Simpson's past, but for many observers, the line connecting the former NFL star's murder acquittal last decade and his new conviction for robbing memorabilia peddlers couldn't have been clearer.

The attorney for the family of Ronald Goldman - who was killed along with Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson in Los Angeles in 1995 - said he thought his hounding of Simpson for years to collect a $33.5 million wrongful death judgment pushed him to a desperate gambit to recover personal items he had lost.

"We drove him into that room to grab the sports memorabilia before we could seize the stuff," said David Cook, who represents Goldman's father, Fred. "Going to jail for beating Fred Goldman out of footballs and family mementos. Is this closure for Fred Goldman? No. Is this closure for America? Yes."

Simpson lawyer Yale Galanter said Saturday, the day after Simpson and Clarence "C.J." Stewart were convicted of all 12 charges against them in the hotel room confrontation, that the Las Vegas jury was "on an agenda" to make up for Simpson's murder acquittal. The two face up to life in prison.

"This was just payback," Galanter said.

"A lynching from the first second to the end," agreed Thomas Scotto, a close Simpson friend who testified and was overcome by emotion in the courtroom after the verdicts were read. "It's a total injustice."

Scotto later told reporters he would remain in Las Vegas to seek out witnesses and show they were forced into their testimony.

"I need these witnesses to come forward and start telling the truth," he said.

The case against Simpson was won the moment the jury was chosen, according to the consultant who helped prosecutors pick the panel.

"That was the best possible jury prosecutors could ever have," said Howard Varinsky, who drafted a questionnaire for the prosecution that formed the basis of a survey used to cull 12 jurors and six alternates from a pool of 500 prospects.

"I was surprised that we got all the counts," he said Saturday. "But it wasn't an accident that the jury wound up looking like that."

Whatever the jury was thinking, Fred Goldman praised the verdict.

"We're absolutely thrilled to see the potential that he could serve the rest of his life in jail where the scumbag belongs," he told CNN.

Brown Simpson's relatives said in a statement that they want to be left alone as they "work through many mixed emotions." They said they are primarily concerned about the children from the marriage, Sydney and Justin.

The jury that convicted Simpson consisted of three men and nine women, including one woman who identified herself as Hispanic, a court spokesman said. The jury contained no blacks, the race of both defendants.

Jurors declined interviews and avoided the media after the verdicts were read, and Judge Jackie Glass has not released the questionnaires despite a court challenge by The Associated Press and Stephens Media LLC, the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Prosecutors have declined to comment throughout the trial.

Lawyers and jury analysts recalled that prosecutors succeeded in removing two black jurors from the final panel.

Varinsky insisted that Simpson and Stewart got fair trials, saying jurors answered several questions attesting to their ability to set aside their feelings about the Los Angeles case.

But he acknowledged the questions also reminded jurors about that case.

Obama assails McCain over health care proposal

Obama assails McCain over health care proposal

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at a rally at Victory Landing Park in Newport News, Va., Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) -- Democrat Barack Obama sharply criticized Republican John McCain's health care proposals Saturday, saying they could force millions of Americans to struggle to buy medical insurance.

Turning to an issue that has faded somewhat during the economic crisis, Obama gave an unusually detailed outline of his own plans in a 40-minute speech to thousands of sun-soaked Virginians at a waterside park in Newport News. He would make coverage more affordable to most Americans, he said, paying for the subsidies largely by canceling the Bush administration's tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 a year.

In a sign that the presidential campaign's final month may have a nastier tone, Obama called McCain's health plan "radical," and Republican officials accused Obama of lying.

Wearing a dark suit and speaking from a TelePrompTer, Obama told the Virginia crowd he would reduce premiums for most people by "as much as $2,500 per family."

He would save money in the health care system, he said, by holding drug and insurance companies "accountable for the prices they charge and the harm they cause." He also said he would outlaw "insurance company discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions."

Medicare would be allowed to negotiate with drug makers for cheaper prices, and his administration would place greater emphasis on preventing illnesses, he said.

"The time has come to solve this problem, to cut health care costs for families and businesses, and provide affordable, accessible health insurance for every American," Obama said.

He devoted at least half his speech to criticizing McCain. The Republican nominee has proposed to tax the health benefits that 156 million people get through the workplace as income. In exchange, McCain would give tax credits to help pay for insurance - $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families, paid directly to the insurer they choose.

The criticisms that Obama made here are echoed by his campaign in four new television ads, four separate mailers targeted to swing state voters, radio commercials and events in every battleground state.

"On health care, John McCain promises a tax credit," an announcer says in one of Obama's new ads, over images of families examining their bills. "But here's what he won't tell you: McCain would make you pay taxes on your health benefits, taxing your health care for the first time ever, raising costs for employers who offer health care so your coverage could be reduced or dropped completely. You won't find one word about it on his Web site."

It's true that McCain doesn't mention that he would tax health benefits on the section of his Web site where he describes his plan. But the Obama ad omits some important context - the tax credit McCain plans to offer would be more generous than the current tax break, at least for most families for the first several years, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group.

However, the center also concluded that McCain's plan would increase the deficit by $1.3 trillion over 10 years. McCain disputes the center's analysis on that point.

Obama said Saturday that under McCain's plan, younger, healthier workers would buy cheaper insurance outside the workplace, leaving an older, sicker pool to drive up the cost of the employer-based system.

"As a result, many employers will drop their health care plans altogether," Obama said. "And study after study has shown, that under the McCain plan, at least 20 million Americans will lose the insurance they rely on from their workplace."

He called McCain's plan "so radical, so out of touch with what you're facing, and so out of line with our basic values."

Doug Holtz-Eakin, McCain's senior policy adviser, said the Republican's plan to offer a tax credit in exchange for taxing employer-paid health benefits would be a net plus for all but the most wealthy Americans.

An assessment by health care economists published last month in the journal Health Affairs projected that McCain's plan would lead 20 million people to lose their employer-sponsored insurance. But it also found that 21 million people would gain coverage through the individual market.

Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant responded: "Barack Obama is lying about John McCain's plan to provide more Americans with more health care choices. Obama's plan only offers more government, while McCain's plan offers more choices."

Obama's speech was more loaded with policy than most, and he seemed to realize that many in the crowd wanted a pep rally more than a detailed examination of health care practices.

"You still with me?" he said halfway through.

Lyndon Johnson was the last Democratic nominee to carry Virginia. But Obama is making an all-out push here, encouraged by growing numbers of Democratic voters in the Washington suburbs and the near-certainty that former Gov. Mark Warner will win the Senate seat being vacated by Republican John Warner.

Newport News, near Norfolk, is home to many military families, and McCain hopes to do well in the area.

Polls show Obama has taken a lead in the national race, fueled by voters' increasing confidence that he would be better equipped to handle the struggling economy. Campaign aides said they long planned to focus on economic issues in these final weeks of the race, but the debate over the government's $700 billion financial bailout focused voters on such concerns more than they could have imagined.

The push on health care is an opportunity to raise the debate on a pocketbook issue that voters rank near the top of their concerns. According to an AP-Yahoo News poll taken last month, 78 percent of voters rate health care as at least a very important issue, which puts it behind the economy in a group of second-tier issues along with Iraq and terrorism.

Bailout signed, now it's wait and see its effects

Bailout signed, now it's wait and see its effects

President Bush shakes hands with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at the Treasury Department in Washington after the House passed the $700 billion financial bailout bill, Friday, Oct. 3, 2008. With the economy on the brink of meltdown and elections looming, a reluctant Congress abruptly reversed course and approved a historic $700 billion government bailout of the battered financial industry on Friday. President Bush swiftly signed it.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Getting the financial rescue through Congress may have been the easy part. Getting it to work may prove the tougher task.

After two weeks of anguishing debate, Congress passed and President Bush signed the enormous plan to save the financial industry and prop up the economy in hopes of avoiding an unthinkable free fall with Election Day just a month away.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, at a meeting last month, had shocked congressional leaders into action by warning of pending economic collapse without immediate federal intervention. After the climatic House vote on Friday, he said aides already were working out details and lining up advisers from outside the government so the money could start flowing. The goal is to unfreeze credit markets.

The immediate response to the 263-171 vote was not promising. Wall Street, which plunged a record 778 points after the House initially rejected the bill last Monday, fell 157 points. More economic bad news - a jump in job losses - outweighed the good news from Capitol Hill.

"Congress took a big step in the direction of at least giving us the tools necessary to bring some stability into the marketplace," Bush said Saturday while visiting Midland, Texas, his boyhood hometown.

Earlier, in his weekly radio address, Bush spoke cautiously about the economy's future. "My administration will move as quickly as possible, but the benefits of this package will not all be felt immediately. The federal government will undertake this rescue plan at a careful and deliberate pace to ensure that your tax dollars are spent wisely," he said.

Bush acknowledged that people are worried about their personal finances. "I'm confident by getting our markets moving, we will help unleash the key to our continued economic success: the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people," he said.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said lawmakers knew that if they failed to act, the crisis probably would worsen and "put us in a slump the likes of which most of us have never seen." The bailout, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is intended to help address "the real pain felt by Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street."

The Bush administration gained broad authority to buy up toxic mortgage-related investments and other distressed assets from shaky financial institutions. The hope is it will restore confidence in markets and thaw a near-freeze in credit availability that has begun to affect the ability of banks to lend, businesses to obtain money for payrolls and investments, and individuals to gain credit to buy a home or a car.

In an attempt to aid smaller banks with serious liquidity problems, the measure raises the ceiling on federally insured deposits from $100,000 to $250,000. It increases federal oversight over Wall Street transactions and assures that chief executives whose companies benefit from the bailout do not leave with huge golden parachute payoffs.

Last Monday, despite pleas from Bush and his financial advisers and the support of congressional leaders, the House voted 228-205 to reject the rescue plan. Stock markets around the world plunged, then recovered somewhat as economists warned that the U.S. was facing its gravest economic threat since the Great Depression.

But the 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans who voted against the bill were responding to a deluge of calls and messages from constituents demanding defeat of the plan. Many saw it as a $700 billion giveaway to Wall Street when average people were getting no help.

Shortly before recessing for the election, senators stepped in and approved legislation Wednesday that linked the rescue to the extension of popular tax breaks for research and development, renewable energy and victims of natural disasters. The $110 billion in additions included benefits parity for people with mental health problems. The Senate also added the boost in the ceiling for bank deposits.

Those extras were enough to sway some House members who voted "no" the first time around. Others were swamped by calls from business and political leaders warning of the possible consequences of inaction.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent out a letter that said without a clear resolution to the crisis, his state and others "may be unable to obtain the necessary level of financing to maintain government operations and may be forced to turn to the federal Treasury for short-term financing."

Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama spoke to many in the Congressional Black Caucus and helped persuade 13 to switch their votes. Nine freshmen Democrats also switched to "yes" votes after a conference call with Obama in which he promised an economic stimulus bill would be a top priority if he is elected.

Republican John McCain also lobbied for the measure, according to aides who declined to release a list of lawmakers he called.

In the end, 33 Democrats and 25 Republicans switched from opposition to support. In all, 91 Republicans joined 172 Democrats to support the measure while 108 Republicans and 63 Democrats voted 'no."

Sports: Victorino's Grand Slam Powers Phils over Brewers

Sports: Victorino's Grand Slam Powers Phils over Brewers

Shane Victorino's grand slam -- paired with a steller outing from starting pitcher Brett Myers -- provided all the fuel the Phillies needed to speed past Cy Young candidate CC Sabathia and the Milwaukee Brewers in game two of the National League Division Series. The best-of-five series stands at two games to none.

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Las Vegas jury deliberating in O.J. Simpson case

Las Vegas jury deliberating in O.J. Simpson case

O.J. Simpson appears in court during closing arguments in his trial at the Clark County Regional Justice Center, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 in Las Vegas. Simpson is charged with a total of twelve counts including kidnapping, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon stemming from an alleged incident involving the theft of his sports memorabilia

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A jury began deliberating Friday whether O.J. Simpson and his co-defendant robbed two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a casino hotel room.

The 61-year-old former football star and a golfing buddy, Clarence "C.J." Stewart each face five years to life in prison if convicted of kidnapping, or mandatory prison time if convicted of armed robbery. They've pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including conspiracy, coercion and assault with a deadly weapon.

Deliberations began 13 years to the day after Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles.

The jury was expected to deliberate through the day, and decide Friday afternoon whether to return on Saturday or take the weekend off, court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said.

The Clark County jury of nine women and three men heard 12 days of testimony, capped by prosecutors' arguments Thursday that the Las Vegas case had its roots in the 1994 slayings.

Prosecutor Chris Owens said Simpson planned - and Stewart helped carry out - a plot to retrieve personal items that Simpson lost after squirreling them away to avoid turning them over to Goldman's family to satisfy part of a $33.5 million civil wrongful death judgment levied in 1997 by a California court.

Owens told the jury to convict Simpson, denouncing him for "arrogance" of thinking he could commit a crime "against the dignity and the peace of the state of Nevada."

"The kind of arrogance ... that would make them think they could come in and get away with this kind of crime and that nobody would report it and they thought they could spin it that, 'It's all OK; It was my stuff.'"

Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, told the jury the prosecution didn't prove Simpson was guilty in the criminal case that he said "has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement."

"Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money - the police, the district attorney's office, is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson," Galanter said. "He has always been the target of this investigation, and nothing else mattered."

Galanter reminded the jury of a surreptitious recording of police investigators in the hotel room after the incident. "They're making jokes. They're saying things like, 'We're gonna get him,'" he said.

Since Sept. 15, the jury heard 22 often colorful witnesses - including seven of the nine people who were in the cramped hotel room. They've listened to numerous replays of secret recordings made before, during and after the alleged robbery.

Neither Simpson nor Stewart testified, and jurors were instructed not to consider that when judging the case. Two former co-defendants who said they brought guns did testify.

Judge Jackie Glass kept a tight rein on the proceedings and rejected several mistrial motions. She read 41 legal instructions to the jurors and six alternates before lawyers began closing arguments.

Galanter told the jury that the incident got out of hand because of former co-defendant Michael McClinton, who admitted displaying a gun during the confrontation.

"For whatever reason, Michael McClinton takes over," Galanter said, "and when McClinton takes over, he starts yelling and screaming and giving people orders and telling people to bag stuff up. And O.J.'s saying, 'Don't take anything that's not mine.'"

Palin questions McCain's concession of Michigan

Palin questions McCain's concession of Michigan

Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, gets out of a SUV to board her campaign plane to leave Dallas, Friday, Oct. 3, 2008.

DALLAS (AP) -- Sarah Palin questioned Republican presidential candidate John McCain's decision to abandon efforts to win Michigan, a campaign move she only learned about Friday morning when she read it in the newspapers.

In an interview with Fox News Channel Friday, the Alaska governor said she was disappointed that the McCain campaign decided to stop competing in Michigan. In an indication that the vice presidential candidate had not been part of the decision, she said she had "read that this morning and I fired off a quick e-mail" questioning the move.

"Todd and I, we'd be happy to get to Michigan and walk through those plants of the car manufacturers," Palin said, referring to her husband. "We'd be so happy to get to speak to the people in Michigan who are hurting because the economy is hurting."

Palin acknowledged the GOP ticket's lackluster poll ratings in the state, but said: "I want to get back to Michigan and I want to try."

Word of the McCain campaign's decision to move staff out of Michigan and stop advertising in the state broke around midday Thursday - the same day as Palin's vice presidential debate against Democrat Joe Biden. The campaign had decided Wednesday night that the $1 million a week it was spending in Michigan wasn't worth it with internal polls showing Democratic nominee Barack Obama approaching a double-digit lead.

On Friday, Palin sought to re-establish herself as an asset for Republican John McCain's struggling presidential candidacy, branding their Democratic rivals as liberals not ready to lead in a time of crisis.

Fresh off an upbeat debate performance, Palin told a ballroom full of $1,000 donors that McCain advisers warned her that Biden was "a skilled debater."

"Now I know what they meant," she said. "He did his best to convince us that the two most liberal members of the Senate belong in the White House. But that was a tough sell, and especially in a time of crisis for our country."

The Alaska governor's fiesty tone came as she eased back into the campaign trail. She was attending two fundraisers Friday in Texas and was also meeting privately with Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens to discuss energy policy. Pickens, once a major Republican Party donor, is sitting out this campaign to promote a plan to expand wind power.

The campaign has planned a series of rallies for Palin in other battlegrounds. Among the stops scheduled for the days ahead are Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. She will also be in California this weekend for a fundraiser and rally.

Based on the schedule, the campaign appears to be relying on Palin to invigorate Republican voters in Colorado and North Carolina, states that have reliably voted Republican in past presidential elections. Obama leads in polls in Florida and Pennsylvania.

Palin is hitting the road after being sequestered for three days of debate preparation at McCain's Sedona, Ariz., compound and after interviews with ABC and CBS where she stumbled over foreign and domestic policy issues.

Palin told Fox News that she would spend more time speaking to reporters, a switch from the tightly managed media relations during the past month.

"I look forward to speaking to the media more and more every day and providing whatever access the media would want," Palin said.

Palin said she had been "annoyed" in her interviews with CBS News anchor Katie Couric and had been caught off guard when asked what newspapers and magazines she read and to name Supreme Court decisions she disagreed with - questions Palin appeared not to be able to answer.

Her responses, Palin said, were "an indication of being outside that Washington elite, outside of the media elite also."

But Palin held her own in the debate with Biden, displaying facility with some issues such as energy and comfort as an advocate for McCain and as a hard-hitting critic of Obama.

Palin was the featured attraction at the Dallas fundraiser; the event attracted more than 1,000 and fundraisers were encouraged to bundle up to $57,000 in donations for the Republican National Committee's victory fund.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Millions of taxpayers, thousands of businesses and groups as diverse as solar power developers and natural disaster victims will s

Tax breaks big and small sweeten financial bailout

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., center, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, right and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., left, Sen. Max Baucus, R-Mont., second from left, and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., speak at news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008. Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners before passing it by a wide margin, 74-25, a month before the presidential and congressional elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Millions of taxpayers, thousands of businesses and groups as diverse as solar power developers and natural disaster victims will see tax relief with the House vote Friday to approve and send to the president a $700 billion financial rescue plan.

The tax relief package attached to the rescue bill promotes renewable energy development and extends dozens of tax breaks from the critical research and development tax credit to breaks for such narrowly focused groups as motor sports racetrack owners, film producers and bicycle commuters.

The renewable energy part of the package alone, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, will "create and save half-a-million good-paying jobs in America immediately."

Virtually all of the tax breaks already exist. But many of them expired Jan. 1 for use in the current tax year, and the others will expire three months from now unless Congress renews them.

The largest group of beneficiaries in the tax portion of the financial rescue bill is about 20 million mainly upper-middle income taxpayers. Without congressional action, the AMT, with originally was supposed to affect only the very rich, would add some $2,000 this year to the tax bill of these people, most earning under $200,000 a year.

Thousands of businesses are waiting for renewal of the research and development tax credit, which expired at the end of last year. Without that credit, industry advocates say, high tech, biotech and aerospace companies would have trouble hiring the highly skilled workers needed to compete with foreign competitors.

The Information Technology Association of America reports an $18.5 billion drop in R&D activity since the beginning of the year, when the credit lapsed. The R&D credit extension would cost $19 billion over 10 years. The cost of the entire tax portion of the bill is close to $110 billion.

The renewable energy incentives include an eight-year extension of investment credits for solar energy, as well as breaks for wind, geothermal and other alternative sources. The solar industry says extension of the credits through 2016 would produce an extra 440,000 jobs and more than $230 billion in investments.

The measure also has $8 billion in tax breaks for disaster victims, $5 billion for higher education tuition deductions and $400 million in deductions for teachers who buy school supplies with their own money.

There are $3 billion in deductions for residents of states without income taxes that have state and local sales taxes. Extending the deduction would save Texans a projected $1.2 billion a year or an average of $520 per filer claiming the deduction, said Matt Mackowiak, spokesman for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

There are also some four dozen small provisions. Among them, with projected costs over 10 years:

-Extending an expired provision that gives Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands a rebate against excise taxes charged on imported rum. The rebate, at $13.50 per proof gallon, helps finance local infrastructure projects. The cost is $192 million.

-Establishing a new tax credit ranging from $2,500 to $7,500 for purchasers of plug-in electric-drive vehicles. Cost: $758 million.

-Extending tax credits that expired at the end of 2007 for certain domestic corporations involved in American Samoa economic development. Cost: $33 million.

-Extending a credit of up to $10,000 for the training of mine rescue team members. The credit expires at the end of this year and the one-year extension costs $4 million.

-Enacting President Bush's proposal to erase the debt of the black lung disability trust fund at a cost of $1.3 billion.

-Extending for one year a seven-year depreciation timetable that NASCAR and other motorsport racing facilities have had for some years, the same tax break that amusement parks enjoy. Without the extension, the tracks would have to depreciate the cost of their improvements over 15 years, raising their taxes by $100 million.

-Extending for five years a program that reduces import duties on some wool fabrics. The tariff relief benefits U.S. worsted wool fabric producers that use imported fibers and yarns. Cost: $148 million.

-Increasing the single-year deduction in production costs, from $15 million to $20 million, that film and TV productions may take if the costs are incurred in economically depressed areas. In an effort to keep film and TV productions in the U.S., it also allows more companies to use a domestic production deduction. Cost: $478 million.

-Allowing commercial fishermen and others hurt by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska to average out damage awards over three years rather than taking a one-year hit from the IRS. Cost: $49 million.

-Extending two programs that fund rural schools and rural communities that have been relying on declining income from logging on federal land or have low property tax bases because they are located on or next to federal lands. This is a major issue in the West. Cost: $3.3 billion.

-Exempting wooden practice arrows used by children from an excise tax of 39 cents per arrow. Oregon's two senators and two Wisconsin representatives previously introduced legislation calling for the action, saying the tax was meant for more expensive archery arrows and is untenable for makers of toy arrows that may cost only about 30 cents apiece. The bill would affect about a half-dozen manufacturers nationwide, including one in Oregon; the Oregon senators said they didn't seek its addition to the bailout, however. Cost: $2 million.

-Allowing employers to exempt from taxation what they spend on some fringe benefits for workers who commute to work by bicycle, for example reimbursing the cost of parking the bikes. Cost: $2 million.

Some House members and radio-TV commentators have called for eliminating several of the measures, including those affecting wooden arrows, Puerto Rican rum, racetracks and film producers.

"All these things are called sweeteners in order to get votes from Democrats and Republicans in the House," conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh said at the opening of his show Thursday. "To get this bailout through the Senate and House, they've added pork. Surprise, surprise."

Historic bailout bill passes Congress; Bush signs

Historic bailout bill passes Congress; Bush signs

President Bush signs the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 in the Oval Office after the House passed the $700 billion financial bailout bill at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 3, 2008.

President Bush signs the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 in the Oval Office after the House passed the $700 billion financial bailout bill at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 3, 2008.

President Bush signs the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 in the Oval Office after the House passed the $700 billion financial bailout bill at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 3, 2008.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With the economy on the brink of meltdown and elections looming, a reluctant Congress abruptly reversed course and approved a historic $700 billion government bailout of the battered financial industry on Friday. President Bush swiftly signed it.

The 263-171 vote capped two weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by urgent warnings from Bush that the country confronted the gravest economic disaster since the Great Depression if lawmakers failed to act.

"We have acted boldly to help prevent the crisis on Wall Street from becoming a crisis in communities across our country," Bush said shortly after the plan cleared Congress, although he conceded, "our economy continues to face serious challenges."

His somber warning was underscored on Wall Street, where enthusiasm over the rescue gave way to worries about obstacles still facing the economy, and the Dow Jones industrials dropped 157 points. The Labor Department said earlier in the day that employers had slashed 159,000 jobs in September, the largest cut in five years.

The historic vote was a striking turnaround from the measure's spectacular failure earlier in the week, which had triggered a massive stock sell-off and prompted jittery lawmakers - fearing a crushing economic contagion that was spreading to their constituents - to reconsider.

"Let's not kid ourselves: We're in the midst of a recession. It's going to be a rough ride, but it will be a whole lot rougher ride" without the rescue plan, said Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, the minority leader, as he prepared to cast his vote for the most sweeping federal intervention in markets in decades.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pledged quick action to get the program up and operating.

The bailout, which gives the government broad authority to buy up toxic mortgage-related investments and other distressed assets from tottering financial institutions, is designed to ease a credit crunch that began on Wall Street but is engulfing businesses around the nation.

"In these past two weeks, we've seen things we never thought we would see before in terms of the economic insecurity of our own country," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She said the measure would "begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people."

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the Financial Services Committee chairman, said the rescue bill was just the beginning of a much larger task Congress will tackle next year: overhauling housing policy and financial regulation in a legislative effort he compared to the New Deal.

"We were the EMTs rushing to the rescue of an economy that suddenly found itself choking, but now we have to perform more serious reform," Frank said.

Just four days earlier, the previous version of the bill was sent down to defeat, largely at the hands of angry conservative Republicans. On Friday, a total of 33 Democrats and 25 Republicans switched from opposition to support. In all, 91 Republicans joined 172 Democrats to support the measure while 108 Republicans and 63 Democrats voted "no."

The reversal reflected a high-stakes political environment just four weeks before Election Day. Some lawmakers were worried about their own jobs, but others - mostly Democrats - focused on the prospect that a new president could have a far more significant effect on the economy than any one piece of legislation.

Several of the Democratic switchers were members of the Congressional Black Caucus who said they changed course after securing commitments from presidential candidate Barack Obama that he would back legislation to help struggling consumers and homeowners facing foreclosures if he wins the White House.

"It's not too often you get the future president telling you that his priority matches your priority," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., one of 13 black lawmakers who switched from "no" to "yes."

Republican presidential candidate John McCain also lobbied for the measure, according to aides who declined to say whom he called.

Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the party vote-counter, said McCain phoned Rep. John Shadegg, a fellow Arizonan who switched to "yes."

The legislation's roller-coaster ride through Congress began at a somber meeting in Pelosi's office in mid-September, where Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke frightened senior Democrats and Republicans with their warnings of an impending economic collapse without quick legislative action.

As lawmakers scrambled to draft a bill, they were barraged by angry calls from constituents to reject what many saw as a huge giveaway to the very financial institutions that helped cause the subprime mortgage meltdown at the root of the economic crisis - with nothing to help its ordinary victims.

"Pray for our republic," intoned Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, a leading opponent of the measure. "She's being placed in very uncaring and greedy hands."

Supporters said the prospect of economic disaster superseded their political fears.

"I may lose this race over this vote, but that's OK with me," said Republican Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, who switched her vote to favor the measure. "This is the right vote for the country."

After the breathtaking House defeat on Monday, Senate leaders took custody of the rescue, adding on $110 billion in tax breaks designed to attract additional support. They attached the overall measure to a popular bill mandating broader mental health coverage in the insurance industry.

The rescue measure was changed to lift, from $100,000 to $250,000, the cap on government bank deposit insurance - a key priority for Republicans. Also key to winning GOP support was a decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission to ease accounting rules that require financial institutions to show the deflated value of assets on their balance sheets.

The revised measure won Senate approval Wednesday night, 74-25, setting up a furious round of lobbying in the House as the administration, congressional leaders, the presidential candidates and outside groups joined forces behind the measure.

The maneuvers worked - augmented by a shift in public opinion that occurred after the stock market took its largest-ever one-day dive on Monday.

The plan - initially a three-page request from the Bush administration for unlimited power to use $700 billion any way it saw fit to stabilize markets - swelled to more than 450 pages as negotiators added restrictions for the administration and sweeteners for anxious members of Congress.

Lawmakers added greater supervision over the $700 billion - including a process where Congress could vote to block half the money - measures to protect taxpayers, and steps to crack down on "golden parachutes" for corporate executives whose companies benefit from the bailout.

Views & Opinions at Phila. Front Page News

Views & Opinions at Phila. Front Page News

I wouldn’t be surprised if the recent overhaul of bankruptcy legislation was designed for this economic situation; it turns human debtors into indentured servants. And that is necessary for the following reason:

The ’sssssss’ we are noticing with this credit crunch is just the leak before the big burst. This credit bubble has been inflated by a logorithmic base 10 scale of dollar creation.
The practice of using 90% of ‘real’ wealth for lending that can then be invested and re-deposited for recycling again and again for more and more credit probably has the same effect of simply printing more money. The difference between those two ways of creating wealth is that creating money by credit inflation redistributes wealth for the benefit of financiers. And printed money is real; not fake.

This credit bubble burst should, then, be creating a shortage of money. And the cure may be as simple as the government printing more money. The only problem with that scheme is that there would not be another bubble to burst to correct for over-inflation. Printed dollars don’t evaporate away like the ones the financiers are trying to sell taxpayers now.

And that is why those who have engineered this bubble need those new draconian bankruptcy laws. Only wage earners can turn this fake money into real wealth. And that is why the Bush administration and other supporters of the great bailout plan are adamantly against giving bankruptcy judges the right to restructure debt according to who is most responsible for making bad loans.

Bryant Arms

Style and substance at stake for Biden, Palin

Style and substance at stake for Biden, Palin

Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and her daughter Willow, are seen at a gourmet food shop in center city Philadelphia, Sunday Sept. 28, 2008.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- One talks too much. The other hasn't talked enough.

For voters, Thursday's vice presidential debate promises a transfixing match between the loquacious veteran Sen. Joe Biden and the still-underexposed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

For the campaigns, the encounter in St. Louis represents a potential white-knuckle moment: The free-wheeling Biden vs. the tightly managed Palin in a test of knowledge, fluency and grace before millions of TV viewers.

Vice presidential candidates seldom decide elections; people vote for who's at the top of the ticket. But in a contest as close as this one between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, a misstep could set back either campaign in the final weeks before Election Day.

What's more, both Biden, the Democrat, and Palin, the Republican, have become Obama's and McCain's ambassadors to independent voters, but each with different tasks: Biden to reassure them about Obama, and Palin to reassure them about herself.

And while the stakes may not be as high as they were in Friday's presidential debate, the running mates face more land mines than Obama and McCain did.

Since Palin roused the Republican Party at its national convention this month, she has been undergoing a crash course in foreign policy. Her struggles with some answers in interviews have been lampooned on "Saturday Night Live."

"She just has to show some rational basis to policy positions, some knowledge basis," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., a former GOP presidential candidate and McCain supporter. "I don't think it is a high expectation level at all for her."

In short, Palin must aim for the kind of coherence that appeared to elude her last week when she tried to explain to CBS news anchor Katie Couric why being governor of Alaska gave her a certain understanding of Russia.

"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska," she said. "It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state."

Still, Biden, who twice has run unsuccessfully for president, perhaps faces the greater challenge. He has years of foreign policy experience and an affinity for extemporaneous speech that can cause him trouble. And he already has strayed from campaign talking points and mangled history during his own interview with Couric.

Discussing why President Bush should explain why it is necessary to help the financial industry, Biden said: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'" (Herbert Hoover was president when the market crashed in 1929 and radio, not television, was the medium of the day.)

Biden, however, can check his tongue. In an April 2007 debate, NBC news anchor Brian Williams, noting Biden's loose-tongued history, asked whether he could reassure voters "that you would have the discipline you would need on the world stage."

Biden replied simply: "Yes."

But the pressure on Biden will be less on what he says than how he says it.

"He's in a no-win situation," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., an Obama backer. "If he stretches out his knowledge and expounds on all the things he knows, he runs the risk of being patronizing. If he is circumspect and is short-winded and deferential, he runs the risk of being patronizing. If he says everything he knows and is tough, he runs the risk of being a bully."

Palin and Biden will be questioned by Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent on PBS' "The NewsHour" and moderator of "Washington Week." Under the format, each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond to a question, followed by a two-minute discussion. That is tighter than Friday's presidential encounter, when the candidates had up to five minutes to mix it up. The shorter discussion period should favor Palin.

Both are likely to face questions about policy splits with partners.

For instance, Palin opposes embryonic stem cell research; McCain has supported such federal funding. Palin supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; McCain opposes it.

Biden recently criticized an Obama campaign ad that questioned McCain's facility with computers. He also has appeared to give mixed messages on clean coal technology - an advancement in energy that Obama supports. He even described vanquished Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton as being more qualified than he is to be vice president.

And, while a presidential candidate himself earlier this year, Biden said he didn't think Obama was ready to be president yet, saying the job doesn't "lend itself to on-the-job training."

Mayor Nutter Disbands Minority Enterprise Business Council

Mayor Nutter Disbands Minority Enterprise Business Council

With the stroke of a pen, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter has eliminated the controversial city agency that monitors minority-owned businesses.

Mayor Nutter on Wednesday dissolved, once and for all, the beleaguered Minority Business Enterprise Council. MBEC (pronounced "em-beck") was responsible for certifying which small businesses are minority owned for government contracts.

But for years, critics have charged that that process was poorly handled and subject to political pressures.

For the full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Hamels, Lidge pitch Phils past Brewers in Game 1

Hamels, Lidge pitch Phils past Brewers in Game 1

Philadelphia Phillies starter Cole Hamels throws to a Milwaukee Brewers batter during first inning baseball action in Game 1 of the National League division series, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008, in Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Cole Hamels put Philadelphia in position to win, then Brad Lidge barely hung on. Behind their top two arms, the Phillies grabbed their first postseason victory in 15 years.

Hamels pitched eight brilliant innings, Lidge escaped a ninth-inning jam and Philadelphia took advantage of Mike Cameron's miscue in center field for a 3-1 win over Milwaukee in their playoff opener Wednesday.

Chase Utley's two-run double slipped out of Cameron's glove in the third, helping the Phillies take a 3-0 lead. Lidge allowed a run in the ninth but struck out Corey Hart with runners at second and third to end it.

Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Thursday, with ace CC Sabathia going to the mound for the wild-card Brewers on three days' rest for the fourth consecutive start. Brett Myers pitches for the Phillies.

It'll be tough for anyone to match Hamels' superb performance. The 24-year-old lefty retired the first 14 batters and allowed two hits, striking out nine.

Lidge, 41-for-41 in save chances during the season, pitched out of trouble in a shaky ninth. The Brewers had the tying run at the plate when Prince Fielder fanned for the second out. After J.J. Hardy walked to put two runners on, they advanced on a wild pitch. But Hart struck out swinging to end it.

Hamels baffled the fastball-hitting Brewers with his dazzling changeup, helping the Phillies earn their first postseason win since the 1993 World Series against Toronto.

The NL East champions were swept out of the first round by the surging Colorado Rockies last year. Hamels lost the opener of that series.

Making his second start since returning from surgery for a torn knee ligament, Milwaukee's Yovani Gallardo got rattled after his defense fell apart in the third.

The 22-year-old righty allowed three unearned runs and three hits in four innings, walking five. Gallardo became the second pitcher in major league history to start a postseason game without recording a win that year. He pitched in three games before he injured his right knee on May 1 and had a 1.88 ERA to go with four no-decisions.

Carlos Ruiz started Philadelphia's third inning with a single. Hamels then bunted hard to third baseman Bill Hall, who bobbled the ball, costing him a chance to get Ruiz at second. Second baseman Rickie Weeks dropped Hall's throw to first for an error.

Gallardo almost worked out of the jam, though. He retired Jimmy Rollins on a shallow fly and struck out Jayson Werth. But Utley ripped a liner through a swirling wind to center. Cameron took a poor route, raced back and reached up for a backhanded catch only to have the ball bounce out of his glove.

Both runners scored on Utley's double for a 2-0 lead. A three-time Gold Glove winner, Cameron usually makes that play look routine.

Gallardo intentionally walked Ryan Howard and then walked Pat Burrell to load the bases. Gallardo walked Shane Victorino to force in another run, before retiring Pedro Feliz on a fly to center.

Hamels, who didn't get much run support as he went 14-10 in the regular season, didn't need any more. The Phillies had just four hits.

Hart lined a single to right on an 0-2 pitch with two outs in the fifth for Milwaukee's first hit. Hamels pitched out of his only jam in the sixth. Craig Counsell singled with one out and Cameron walked. But Hamels fanned Hall on a down-and-away changeup and got Ryan Braun to pop out.

A sellout crowd of 45,929 at Citizens Bank Park withstood a steady rain for most of the game, waved their "Fightin' Phils" rally towels and savored a rare playoff victory.

This championship-starved city hasn't celebrated a title since the NBA's 76ers won it all in 1983.

The Brewers, in the postseason for the first time in 26 years, now turn to Sabathia. The burly left-hander almost single-handedly carried Milwaukee into the playoffs, going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA after he was acquired July 7 from Cleveland. But Sabathia is just 2-2 with a 7.17 ERA in four postseason starts.

The Brewers haven't fared well in Philly this year. They were swept in a four-game series here three weeks ago. Manager Ned Yost was fired with 12 games remaining after that series and third-base coach Dale Sveum took over.

Milwaukee entered September with a 5 1/2-game lead in the wild-card standings, but didn't clinch a spot until the New York Mets lost to Florida on the final day of the season.

Notes:@ Philadelphia's previous postseason win was a 2-0 victory over Toronto on Curt Schilling's five-hitter Oct. 21, 1993. The Blue Jays clinched the series on Joe Carter's homer off Mitch Williams in Game 6. ... Milwaukee's last postseason victory was against St. Louis on Oct. 17, 1982, in Game 5 of the World Series. The Brewers lost the next two games. ... Williams threw out the first pitch. Of course, "Wild Thing" tossed it way over the catcher's head. ... Burrell was in the lineup a day after he left a workout with back discomfort. He went 0-for-2 with a walk. ... Hamels had 11 starts this season in which he allowed three runs or less and didn't get a win.

VP debate moderator's impartiality questioned

VP debate moderator's impartiality questioned

In this image released by The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, PBS correspondent Gwen Ifill is shown at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, 2008.

NEW YORK (AP) -- PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, moderator of the upcoming vice presidential debate, dismissed conservative questions about her impartiality because she is writing a book that includes material on Barack Obama.

Ifill said Wednesday that she hasn't even written her chapter on Obama for the book "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama," which is to be published by Doubleday on Jan. 20, 2009, the day a new president is inaugurated.

"I've got a pretty long track record covering politics and news, so I'm not particularly worried that one-day blog chatter is going to destroy my reputation," Ifill said. "The proof is in the pudding. They can watch the debate tomorrow night and make their own decisions about whether or not I've done my job."

The day before the Joe Biden-Sarah Palin debate, columnist Michelle Malkin wrote in the New York Post about Ifill's book, saying "she's so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out."

In its online description of the book, Doubleday says that Ifill "surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama's stunning presidential campaign and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power."

The McCain campaign found out about Ifill's book in the last day or so, a spokesman said.

Ifill said Obama's story, which she has yet to write, is only a small part of the book, which discusses how politics in the black community have changed since the civil rights era. Among those subjects is Colin Powell, secretary of state in the Bush administration.

The host of PBS' "Washington Week" and senior correspondent on "The NewsHour" said she did not tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about the book. The commission had no immediate comment when contacted by The Associated Press. A spokeswoman for John McCain's campaign did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages.

Ifill's resume includes jobs at The New York Times, the Washington Post and NBC News. She moderated the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards.

She said it was the publisher, not herself, who set the Inauguration Day release date. It will be released then whether Obama wins or loses.

Although Malkin raised the topic of Ifill's impartiality the day before the debate, the PBS journalist said that Time magazine noted she was writing a book in August, and that it has been available for pre-sale on Amazon.com. The book also is mentioned in a Sept. 4 interview she gave the Washington Post.

Ifill questions why people assume that her book will be favorable toward Obama.

"Do you think they made the same assumptions about Lou Cannon (who is white) when he wrote his book about Reagan?" said Ifill, who is black. Asked if there were racial motives at play, she said, "I don't know what it is. I find it curious."

AP Poll: Obama takes a 7-point lead over McCain

AP Poll: Obama takes a 7-point lead over McCain

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shakes hands before speaking at a rally in La Crosse, Wis., Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama has surged to a seven-point lead over John McCain one month before the presidential election, lifted by voters who think the Democrat is better suited to lead the nation through its sudden financial crisis, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that underscores the mounting concerns of some McCain backers.

Likely voters now back Obama 48-41 percent over McCain, a dramatic shift from an AP-GfK survey that gave the Republican a slight edge nearly three weeks ago, before Wall Street collapsed and sent ripples across worldwide markets. On top of that, unrelated surveys show Obama beating McCain in several battlegrounds, including Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania - three states critical in the state-by-state fight for the presidency.

Several GOP strategists close to McCain's campaign privately fret that his chances for victory are starting to slip away.

These Republicans, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering the campaign, point to several factors: Obama's gains nationally and in traditionally GOP states, no McCain gain from the first debate, McCain's struggles with economic issues as the financial crisis has unfolded and deepening public skepticism about his running mate, Sarah Palin.

They said McCain's options for shaking up the race are essentially limited to game-changing performances in the final presidential debates or in Palin's vice presidential debate with Joe Biden Thursday night. Short of that, they said, McCain can do little but hope Obama stumbles or an outside event breaks the GOP nominee's way.

Democrats hope Obama is starting to build a lasting lead.

"We have a light optimism," said David Redlawsk, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention who teaches political science at the University of Iowa. "We've already learned in the last several weeks that we can be whipsawed back very, very quickly."

Not all Republican insiders are pessimistic.

Obama's failure to achieve a double-digit lead and maintain it "has given a lot of hope to Republicans," GOP pollster Whit Ayres said. Yet he also allowed, "You can't have a playing field that leans this heavily toward the Democrats and not be nervous."

Added Neil Newhouse, also a Republican pollster: "If anybody thinks we're in for a straightforward next month of this campaign all they have to do is look back at the last 30 days" of topsy turvy developments.

To be sure, the election is still a month away, plenty of time for anything to happen in politics.

Yet the AP-GfK poll shows McCain faces substantial hurdles.

With the perilous financial situation at the forefront of voters' minds, 60 percent in the survey say it's more important to them to choose a president who would make the right economic decisions than a commander in chief who would make the right decisions on national security. Obama leads among economic voters, with 63 percent support, while McCain is ahead among security voters, with 73 percent.

As the two senators prepared to vote late Wednesday on the administration's $700 billion bailout plan, 16 percent of likely voters said they thought McCain hurt negotiations over the proposal when he bolted back to Washington last week to get involved. Just 5 percent thought Obama did damage when he returned after a summons by President Bush to attend a White House meeting on the crisis.

McCain also lost ground among likely voters on experience, though he still leads on the issue, while Obama's marks ticked up slightly. And McCain slid a bit as voters measured which candidate "cares about people like me," while Obama gained.

Adding to McCain's woes, just 25 percent of likely voters say Palin has the right experience to be president if needed, a huge drop from 41 percent in the previous poll last month. She posted an enormous loss in confidence among Republicans; three in four had called her experienced enough before, but not even half say that now.

"If she was running the helm, she wouldn't know what she's doing," said Caitlyn Pardue, a Republican from Rohnert Park, Calif., who decided last week that she probably would vote for Obama after determining that Palin "doesn't have the breadth of knowledge." Pardue, 60, called McCain's selection of Palin "pretty ill-advised" and added: "It shows irresponsibility to me."

In Port Orange, Fla., Jaimye Strickland just decided this week that she'll probably support McCain - even though she's "hoping and praying" he doesn't end up following Bush's path. "I'm afraid of Obama," the Republican, age 56, said. "He doesn't have the experience that McCain does." She also said she worries that "he has some Muslim ties," even though she knows he's a Christian.

Outwardly, McCain's campaign expresses optimism, and advisers say they expect the race to reset itself several more times.

But privately some advisers acknowledge the difficult seas he is trying to navigate as the economy dominates the race. The Republican has previously agreed that the subject is not his forte, and historically the party in power loses elections during economic recessions.

Seeking traction, McCain sought to change the story line as the week began by questioning Obama's character, particularly during a crisis.

"A vote for Senator Obama will leave this country at risk," McCain said in a scathing speech. "We need a president who will always tell the American people the truth. ... Country first or Obama first?"

Efforts also were under way Wednesday that suggested McCain and the Republican National Committee would start ramping up TV advertising - and going on the air in more media markets - to close the spending gap in Florida, Missouri and other key states. Industry officials say Obama is shelling out $13 million this week compared with $11 million by McCain and the RNC combined.

Meanwhile, it appears Obama may be padding his edge in the Electoral College vote count in battleground states.

Polls show he has started pulling away from McCain in pivotal vote-rich states that Democrat John Kerry won four years ago and that McCain has made targets this year, including Michigan and Pennsylvania. Surveys also show that Obama is a few percentage points or more ahead in Ohio and Florida, two critical states that Bush won four years ago and that McCain must retain to have any hope of winning the White House.

Quinnipiac University surveys released Wednesday found that Obama's support jumped to 50 percent or more in three of those states: Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. Combined, they offer 68 of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory on Nov. 4. New CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corp. polls also showed Obama ahead in Nevada, Virginia, Minnesota and Florida, and tied in Missouri.

At the same time, McCain and his Republicans find themselves in the undesirable position of having to defend traditionally GOP states they hadn't anticipated would be competitive. Obama successfully put Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina into play by pouring money and manpower into the states at levels until recently unmatched by Republicans.

The AP-GfK poll involved telephone interviews of a nationwide sample of 1,160 adults, including 808 likely voters, from Saturday through Tuesday. Interviews were conducted on both landline and cell phones. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, 3.4 percentage points for likely voters.

Bailout with 'sweeteners' heads toward Senate win

Bailout with 'sweeteners' heads toward Senate win

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., left, Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., take part in a press conference on the financial crisis in the Capitol building on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 in Washington. The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on the financial rescue plan late Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After one spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, speeding toward passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House where conservative opposition seemed to soften.

Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners for the right and left, hoping to secure approval in the House by Friday, just days after lawmakers there stunningly rejected an earlier version and sent markets plunging around the globe.

The measure has not caused the same uproar in the Senate, where both parties' presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, were making rare appearances to vote their support. That would send the package back to the House, where passage would require a turnaround of 12 votes from Monday's 228-205 defeat.

Leaders in both parties, as well as private economic chiefs everywhere, said Congress must quickly approve some version of the measure to start loans flowing and stave off a potential national economic catastrophe.

"Inaction is not an option," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said a few hours before the Senate was to vote. "This is not a bailout for Wall Street. It's a bailout for our country."

President Bush said, "It's very important for members to take this bill very seriously."

Even as the Senate neared its vote, congressional leaders targeted the 133 House Republicans who voted against the bill Monday.

House GOP opposition appeared to be easing after the Senate added $100 billion in tax breaks for businesses and the middle class, plus a provision Republicans advocated to raise, from $100,000 to $250,000, the cap on federal deposit insurance. They were also cheering a decision Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission to ease rules that force companies to devalue assets on their balance sheets to reflect the price they can get on the market.

The heart of the bill, and the opposition to it, remained the same. It would enable the government to spend billions of dollars to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other devalued assets held by troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates say, that would allow frozen credit to begin flowing again and keep the economy from a deep recession.

Proponents say the government eventually could sell the devalued assets at a better price, reducing the program's final cost.

As for House passage, there were worries that the tax breaks would cause some conservative-leaning Democrats who voted for the rescue Monday to abandon it because it would swell the federal deficit.

"I'm concerned about that," said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader.

As revised by the Senate, the package would extend several tax breaks popular with businesses. It would keep the alternative minimum tax from hitting 20 million middle-income Americans, and provide $8 billion in tax relief for those hit by natural disasters in the Midwest, Texas and Louisiana.

The bill would not point to offsetting spending cuts to pay for the AMT and disaster provisions, but it would have revenue offsets for part of the energy and extension measures. The failure to offset many of the tax cuts angered the House's band of "Blue Dog" Democrats.

The increase in the deposit insurance cap was a bid to reassure individuals and businesses with accounts in banks and similar institutions.

The Senate specializes in high-stakes legislating-by-enticement, and the long list of sweeteners it added was designed to attract votes from various constituencies.

Tax cuts new and old are favorites for most House Republicans, the main target of intense lobbying to gain support for the measure. Help for rural schools was aimed mainly at lawmakers in the West, while disaster aid was a top priority for lawmakers from across the Midwest and South.

Another addition, to extend the deductibility of state and local taxes for people in states without income taxes, helps Florida and Texas, among others.

And there were plenty of obscure tax breaks to go around, like one for certain wooden arrows used by children, and another benefiting litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Senate leaders were expected to try adding another goodie before the final vote: extending a tax break for homeowners who do not itemize their tax returns.

Raising the federal deposit insurance limit - along with the SEC's decision to ease accounting rules on valuing assets - helped House Republicans claim credit for some substantive changes.

And with constituent feedback changing dramatically since Monday's spectacular House defeat and the corresponding market plunge, lawmakers' comfort level with the package increased markedly.

Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona, a leading conservative who voted no on Monday, told CNN Wednesday he's "strongly leaning" toward voting for the plan.

Asked if was ready to switch from no to yes, Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, said: "Not yet, but it's getting there."

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Republicans "can argue now that there have been some steps taken that they recommended."

Monday's stock market drop and other economic developments that followed the House vote, he said, have "changed the complexion, too, of what people's constituents are now saying. ... There's more of a recognition that we have to do something."

Besides Obama and McCain, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden was voting on the Senate bill.

Other provisions added by the Senate include a measure to require large companies' health plans to give equal treatment to mental health or addiction if they cover such illnesses. The House and Senate have passed similar "mental health parity" measures, but none has gone to Bush for his signature.