Biden links tax on wealthy to patriotism

Sarah Palin signed an autograph for a voter yesterday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Palin also apologized to community organizers who felt slighted by her comments at the GOP convention. (Stephen Mally/Reuters)

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden acknowledged yesterday the wealthy would pay more taxes if he and Barack Obama are in the White House, but he put an interesting spin on it.

"It's time to be patriotic . . . time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut," Biden said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Republican John McCain pounced on the remark. "Raising taxes in a tough economy isn't patriotic," he said in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "It's not a badge of honor. It's just dumb policy."

Trying to find the right tone on the Wall Street crisis, McCain also went for the tried and true in a new TV ad yesterday: Warn voters that his Democratic opponent is a tax-and-spend liberal. The ad warns of huge spending increases, pork-barrel projects, and "painful taxes." "Can your family afford that?" the announcer concludes.

Obama's proposals, however, would lower the tax bill for the vast majority of taxpayers, and by letting President Bush's tax cuts lapse would raise income taxes on those earning $250,000 or more a year.

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Palin apologizes for rebuke on community organizers
Sarah Palin apologized, sort of, to Barack Obama and community organizers who felt slighted by her slap during the Republican National Convention.

Palin, the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, said in her speech that being mayor was sort of like being a "community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

"I certainly didn't mean to hurt his feelings. Didn't mean to offend any community organizers either," the Republican vice presidential nominee said last night in her second national interview, aired on Fox New Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." "What I was doing certainly, should be obvious, was direct a comment to him as he had taken a shot at small mayors across the nation," Palin added. "They're on the front lines, they're held accountable every single day that they're in office, with real responsibilities that do demand that accountability."

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Prominent GOP senator expresses doubt on Palin
Lots of Democrats have questioned Sarah Palin's readiness to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Now, a prominent Republican is joining the skeptical chorus.

Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who broke with most of his fellow Republicans over the Iraq war, said in an interview published yesterday in the Omaha World-Herald that it would be a "stretch" to say Palin is qualified to be president.

"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say."

"I do think in a world that is so complicated, so interconnected, and so combustible, you really got to have some people in charge that have some sense of the bigger scope of the world," he added.

In her first major overseas trip, Palin visited soldiers in Kuwait and Germany last year.

Hagel accompanied Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to Afghanistan and Iraq in July and said he would have considered serving as Obama's running mate.

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Nader to be on the ballot, write-in option in 49 states
Independent Ralph Nader's presidential campaign announced yesterday that he will be on the November ballot in 45 states, plus the District of Columbia.

Voters will also be able to write in Nader in four states: Texas, Georgia, Indiana, and North Carolina, his campaign said. The only state where he will be absent is Oklahoma, where write-ins are banned.

Nader was on 34 state ballots, plus D.C., in 2004, and 44 plus D.C. in 2000, when he won nearly 3 percent of the national vote as the Green Party candidate and helped swing a handful of key states to President Bush.

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Wall Street 'bundlers' rank high on rivals' money list
Barack Obama and John McCain, in vowing to deal with the Wall Street crisis, stress that they want to protect American families from the carnage and punish rapacious speculators and chief executives. But a new report released yesterday suggests their loyalties might be more divided.

The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics said Wall Street movers and shakers are among the candidates' top "bundlers," fund-raisers who collect contributions from others.

The securities and investment industry is the top source of McCain's bundlers, including at least 69 people who have raised a total of at least $11.4 million, the center said. The industry is Obama's second-biggest source of bundlers, with at least 56 people who have raised at least $8.9 million, the center says.

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Elizabeth Edwards says affair shifted her focus
Elizabeth Edwards has given her first interview about her husband's infidelity, saying that the affair pushed her to focus on her children and on overhauling healthcare.

"There's a lot of adjustment to make," she told the Detroit Free Press in an interview published yesterday. "When you mention trust, that's probably the most difficult hurdle."

Asked whether she has forgiven her husband, Edwards replied, "I don't want to feed the monster, if you don't mind."

John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004 and a presidential candidate this year, acknowledged last month that he had an affair with a woman who made videos for his campaign and repeatedly lied about it.

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