"Sarah Palin is so dumb, she doesn't know Africa is a continent!" This remark slipped out of the mouth of McCain policy adviser Martin Eisenstadt, said MSNBC anchor David Shuster on Nov 10. Today we know there's no such person as Martin Eisenstadt. He was nothing but a hoax...

This week U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R) of Alabama told Meet The Press and CNN that the U.S. auto industry is a dinosaur whose demise would only be postponed by a bailout. In response, automotive journalist Peter M. DeLorenzo told Huffington Post today that Shelby is 100 percent wrong.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- How did it feel to be a Black American voting for Barack Obama on Election Day 2008? Outside the polling station at the corner of 15th and R Streets in D.C.'s Logan Circle neighborhood, one woman scotch-taped a photograph of her parents to a life-size cardboard cutout...

NILES, Ohio -- On Election Eve in Niles, a small town in the northeastern part of the state, a privately funded digital billboard was flashing "Say NO to Socialist Barack Hussein Obama" all night long. To the right of the flashing words, a photograph of the Democratic candidate was crossed...

With just hours to go before the presidential election, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver appears in a YouTube video in which he calls Barack Obama the "most pro-abortion politician to run for the presidency in 35 years, since Roe v. Wade. He has committed himself to do things the Catholic...

John McCain and Sarah Palin crisscrossed Ohio over the weekend, appearing at multiple rallies that drew surprisingly small crowds -- especially taking into account the GOP candidates brought with them the star power of 9/11 hero Rudy Giuliani, movie idol Arnold Schwarzenegger, and country music headliner Gretchen Wilson.

On...

As the polls grow tighter, more people wonder what the electorate will be thinking on Nov 4. OffTheBus posed that question to political scientist William G. Jacoby, a Michigan State University professor, and a research scientist with ICPSR at the University of Michigan. Jacoby, who recently served as editor...

"On the news yesterday, they revealed a potential neo-Nazi plot against Barack Obama, and then they gave more details on the racially-motivated Ashley Todd hoax. It made my heart pound. My blood pressure rose precipitously," said anthropologist Wende Marshall, professor of public health sciences, University of Virginia.

Barack Obama's candidacy...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- "I was sure I voted for president, but then a friend told me that a straight-party vote in North Carolina includes every office except president. That made me really mad," Linda Chavis told OffTheBus.

Politically speaking, Chavis didn't just fall off the turnip truck. She is...

Republicans intend to place GOP recruits inside Ohio polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of certain voters. The Obama campaign told OffTheBus it intends to counter with the most massive voter protection effort Ohio has ever seen. "Democrats learned their lesson in 2004," said the high-level spokesman.

"Will Mississippi election officials accept a Czech-language notarization?" Brian Reagan, an American citizen living in Prague, asked OffTheBus. Reagan was illustrating just one of many ways the vaguely written ballot requirements in at least a dozen states threaten thousands of expatriate votes.

Expats voting in Mississippi must notarize their...

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Saturday afternoon John McCain dropped into the McCain-Palin field office here and gave what will surely go down in history as the briefest pep talk ever delivered to troops on edge. (Earlier in the day a McCain aide let slip that "We're not doing well.")

Before McCain...

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- "Remember, there's early voting in Ohio so don't wait," said Barack Obama, at a rally in Toledo. There was a tinge of urgency in his voice. The candidate was in the Buckeye State this week because the race here is almost a dead heat. A CNN/Time...

At a rally in Bethlehem, Pa. last week, Cindy McCain spoke about having two sons serving on active duty: "I'm proud of my sons, but let me tell you, the day that Senator Obama cast a vote not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill...

WASHINGTON D.C. -- During the District of Columbia's September primary, one little electronic voting machine produced over 1,500 "phantom" write-in votes, a total so "completely out of whack, so anomalous it should not have been released," said Ward 3 member Mary Cheh.

Naturally, because we live in a media-driven...

QUANTICO, Va. -- One of the largest U.S. marine bases in the world is located in Quantico, a tidy town with scant election fanfare. Everyone who lives here just assumes Republicans have a lock on the military vote. And so when Obama signs began to appear, tongues began to...

McLEAN, Va. -- Virginia increased its voter rolls by a whopping 6.2 percent during the 2008 New Voter Registration period ending today, a figure that is more than double the Obama campaign goal. All these new voters could have a huge impact in a tossup state with fewer than...

DETROIT -- First it was the subprime mortgage crisis, followed by the gasoline price spike. Now it's the collapse of Wall Street and the unavailability of auto loans for consumers. What does it mean for Detroit automakers? "A Doomsday scenario that no one in Detroit -- or the rest of...

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Less than 24 hours after the first presidential debate, Barack Obama was already campaigning in the battleground state of Virginia and telling the crowd, "We just might turn Virginia blue this time!"

It is evidence of Obama's ambition and high hopes for Virginia. He believes he can...

Over nine million children lack health insurance, a trend that shows no sign of slowing down. The consequences can be grievous. Twelve-year-old Deamonte Diver died when an infection from his abscessed tooth spread to his brain; he had no insurance and his mother could not afford $80 to have...