Watch and wait
Election night could provide a quick White House winner, or a flood of mail-in ballots and social division could delay results for weeks
Mining for votes
With polls showing a Democratic lead, Republicans are using technology to target prospective supporters ever more precisely
Majority report
Nancy Pelosi promises big changes if she's elected speaker-but no impeachment hearings
Ready for a sequel?
Despite predictions of his political demise, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger looks like a shoo-in for a second term
Green days
Democrats hope a final-hour focus on global warming will attract evangelical voters
Voices
Andrée Seu Peterson
Drastic in love
Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf tear it up in the Warner Brothers meadow from dawn to dusk, Ralph doing what wolves like to do, and Sam doing his ablest to stop him. Then the 5 o'clock whistle blows a...
Marvin Olasky
What we owe to others
Iraqis have endured oppression for decades. They now face the prospect of more tyranny unless the United States stays the course (and even if we do, success is likely to be fleeting). Many America...
Mailbag
Permission granted I've "packed the pews," knocked on strangers' doors, dragged people kicking and screaming through the Four Spiritual Laws, and watched most of them walk the aisle and out...
Joel Belz
Common-sense solution
I finally talked last weekend to someone who made sense on the immigration issue. He's not an INS specialist, a think tank expert, or a know-it-all editorial writer. Instead, he's a San Diego busi...
Janie B. Cheaney
Absolute atheist
Readers of conservative blogs such as "Betsy's Page" and "Right Wing News" may have been surprised to see ads touting Sam Harris' anti-Christian manifesto, Letter To a Christian Nation. Its appear...
Notebook
Sports
Having a ball
It wasn't broke, but the NBA fixed it anyway. And few players are happy about it. On the advent of the new NBA season, players are up in arms about a new microfiber composite basketball to replace...
Religion
Broken and healed
It starts with something small, a favor," says former Connecticut governor John Rowland. "Then it becomes a job for somebody else, a relative. It starts with this small entitlement mentality and t...
Culture
Movies & TV
Photo fight
Most moviegoers who catch the television previews of Flags of Our Fathers will falsely assume that Clint Eastwood created the Iwo Jima film as a Pacific theater version of Saving Private Ryan. For...
Movies & TV
Royal battle
One danger with a film that tracks Elizabeth II's response to Lady Diana's 1997 death is that the British queen might appear icy and indifferent-a well-worn idea. What The Queen (rated PG-1...
Culture
Bible basics
Former Oregon Teacher of the Year Barbara Lynn Murray, an English teacher at West Linn High School, likes to tell the story of how her literature students were discussing in class one day a modern...
Movies & TV
Age limits
The NBC sitcom Twenty Good Years (Wednesdays, 8:30 p.m. ET) focuses on two 60-year-olds who seem to have suddenly awoken from a success-oriented "coma." The show appears aimed at baby boomers who ...
Notable Books
Bestselling books
Content: Familiar O'Reilly Factor rants against anti-Christmas grinches and other "secular progressives" who clearly deserve criticism. Gist: O'Reilly does not want "to sit in the church pe...
Dispatches
The Buzz Sidebar
System check
Of all the pre-election polls, punditry, analysis and forecasts, one stands out. It is a new CNN poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation that found an overwhelming number of Americans (78 p...
Quick Takes
Quick Takes
New Coke Concessionaire Abel Gonzales Jr. has done what few thought was possible: He's made Coca-Cola even more unhealthy. Gonzales' fried Coke won the "most creative" title at the Texas st...
Quotables
Quotables
"You clearly have no understanding of certain people's need for private transport." Stan Rosenfield, publicist for actor George Clooney, after a reporter asked why Clooney drives a fuel-eff...
The Buzz
The Buzz
Marriage Under orders from the New Jersey Supreme Court, the New Jersey Legislature has about six months to decide how-not whether-to extend the "rights and benefits" of marriage to same-se...