Once campaign rivals, President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain are ready to talk about how they can collaborate on issues facing the country.

A private meeting, slated for Monday at Obama’s transition office in Chicago, will be the first since Obama beat McCain, the Republican candidate, in the Nov. 4 election.

The meeting comes as Obama, who resigned his Senate seat on Sunday, has been interviewing some of his one-time political opponents to help him run the country.

Advisers to the former candidates have said they don’t expect Obama to consider McCain for an administration job.

The two will be joined by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a McCain confidant, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat Obama has chosen as his White House chief of staff.

Emanuel and Graham have worked together before on issues on Capitol Hill, and Graham jumped to Emanuel’s defense when Republicans criticized his appointment as Obama’s chief of staff.

In announcing the meeting on Friday, Obama’s transition office said the president-elect and McCain “share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality.”

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The “Old Man” comes to the defense of the “Barracuda”:

Former U.S. presidential candidate John McCain shrugged off criticism aimed at his running mate, Sarah Palin, saying he expects her “to play a big role in the future of this country.”

The Republican senator from Arizona rallied to the defense of his vice presidential pick in an appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” his first television interview since losing his White House bid to Democrat Barack Obama a week earlier.

Asked by Leno about commentary from pundits across the political spectrum who judged the Alaska governor to be a drag on the Republican ticket, McCain, 72, denied she had hurt his campaign.

“I’m so proud of her and very grateful that she agreed to run with me. She inspired people. She still does,” McCain said. “I couldn’t be happier with Sarah Palin, and she’s gone back to be a great governor, and I think she will play a big role in the future of this country.”

Palin, virtually unknown outside her home state before McCain tapped her as his running mate in late August, in recent interviews has left open the possibility she may seek higher office.

Palin has drawn a strong following among the Republican Party’s conservative base, but also substantial fire from critics who charged that her record as Alaska governor was at odds with her image as a political reformer.

As the 2008 presidential race drew to a close last Tuesday, the media was filled with stories attributed to McCain campaign aides questioning Palin’s judgment, her readiness to serve and her intellect.

FALSE SMEARS

In addition to mounting criticism about pricey wardrobe purchases for her during the race, a recent Fox News Channel report cited unnamed campaign sources saying Palin did not know Africa was a continent and could not name the three countries that had signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Palin has dismissed such criticism as false smears planted by “jerks” too cowardly to speak publicly. William McGurn, a former speech writer for President George W. Bush and editorialist for the Wall Street Journal, urged McCain in a newspaper column on Tuesday to condemn the attacks on Palin.

Asked about them by Leno, McCain suggested such criticism amounted to sour grapes from people claiming to be campaign insiders.

“I think I have at least a thousand, quote, ‘Top advisers,’” he said. “These things go on in campaigns, and you just have to move on.”

Choosing the relaxed setting of America’s top-rated late-night talk show for his first post-election TV interview, McCain joked that since the election he has been “sleeping like a baby.”

“I sleep two hours, wake up and cry,” he said to laughter, but when pressed he declined to second-guess his own campaign.

He also ruled out another run for president, saying: “I wouldn’t think so, my friend … we’re going to have another generation of leaders coming along.”

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Barack Obama and John McCain uncorked massive get-out-the-vote operations in more than a dozen battleground states Sunday, millions of telephone calls, mailings and door-knockings in a frenzied, fitting climax to a record-shattering $1 billion campaign. Together, they’ll spend about $8 per presidential vote.

With just two days to go, most national polls show Obama ahead of McCain. State surveys suggest the Democrat’s path to the requisite 270 electoral votes _ and perhaps far beyond _ is much easier to navigate than McCain’s.

Obama exuded confidence. “The last couple of days, I’ve been just feeling good,” he told 80,000 gathered to hear him _ and singer Bruce Springsteen _ in Cleveland. “The crowds seem to grow and everybody’s got a smile on their face. You start thinking that maybe we might be able to win an election on November 4th.”

In Peterborough, N.H., McCain held his final town hall-style event in the state that put him on the national map in 2000 and launched his GOP primary comeback eight years later. “I come to the people of New Hampshire to ask them to let me go on one more mission,” said McCain, who is looking for an upset victory against Obama.

Polls show the six closest states are Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada and Ohio. All were won by Bush and made competitive by Obama’s record-shattering fundraising. The campaigns also are running aggressive ground games elsewhere, including Iowa, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia.

All that’s left now for the candidates is make sure people vote Tuesday _ if they haven’t already.

Indeed, Election Day is becoming a misnomer. About 27 million absentee and early votes were cast in 30 states as of Saturday night, more than ever. Democrats outnumbered Republicans in pre-Election Day voting in key states.

That has Democrats _ and even some Republicans _ privately questioning whether McCain can overtake Obama, even if GOP loyalists turn out in droves on Tuesday. Obama may already have too big of a head start in critical states like Nevada and Iowa, which Bush won four years ago.

As the campaign closes, voters were being inundated with a crush of television ads and automated phone calls.

In a new TV ad, Obama highlighted Vice President Dick Cheney’s support for McCain. The ad features Cheney, an extremely unpopular figure among the general public, at an event Saturday in Wyoming, saying: “I’m delighted to support John McCain.”

Not to be outdone, the Republican National Committee rolled out battleground phone calls that include Hillary Rodham Clinton’s criticism of Obama during the Democratic primary. She is heard saying: “In the White House, there is no time for speeches and on-the-job training. Sen. McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign, and Sen. Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002.” A Clinton spokeswoman said she disapproves of the ad.

Another phone call to Pennsylvania and Ohio voters takes Obama’s words about coal-burning technology out of context and claims he will “bankrupt the coal industry.”

The Pennsylvania GOP also unveiled a TV ad featuring Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, declaring “God damn America!” in a sermon.

Obama and McCain campaigned on each other’s turf Sunday. Obama was in Ohio, a bellwether state Bush won four years ago and where polls show Obama tied or winning. McCain visited Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, states won by Democrat John Kerry in 2004. He trails in both.

McCain and the RNC dramatically ramped up their spending in the campaign’s final days and now are matching Obama ad for ad, if not exceeding him, in key battleground markets in states such as Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

After months of planning, the Republican Party launched the last stage of its vaunted “72-hour program,” when volunteers descend on competitive states for the final stretch. Democrats unleashed their “persuasion army” of backers scouring their own backyards to encourage people to back Obama in the campaign’s waning hours.

Obama’s campaign reported that Saturday was its largest volunteer day, with more volunteers showing up to work the phones and walk neighborhood precincts than ever before in the campaign. Said Obama spokesman Bill Burton, “Our volunteers are completely engaged.”

McCain’s crew says theirs are, too.

“There’s no doubt that we’ve got an uphill battle,” said Rich Beeson, the RNC’s political director. But, “We still have a lot of voters that we can and will turn out.”

The RNC reported making 5.4 million voter contacts last week, compared with 1.9 million in the same week in 2004, and it says its volume has steadily increased since October began. Overall, it says 26 million voters have been contacted by volunteers over four months. On Saturday alone, the RNC said, an estimated 3 million voters were contacted by phone or in person.

McCain planned visits to media markets that hit battlegrounds Florida, Virginia, Indiana, New Mexico, and Nevada on Monday. A repeat trip to Pennsylvania also was slated before McCain returns home to Arizona.

Obama planned visits to Florida, North Carolina and Virginia on Monday and a quick stop in Indiana Tuesday morning. He told reporters he would hold a news conference on Wednesday. Later, Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass walked back Obama’s plans, saying he’ll meet the press before the end of the week, but “don’t count on Wednesday.”

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Senator John McCain supporters who believe they haven’t gotten a fair shake from the media during the Republican’s candidacy against Barack Obama have a new study to point to.

Comments made by sources, voters, reporters and anchors that aired on ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts over the past two months reflected positively on Obama in 65 percent of cases, compared to 31 percent of cases with regards to McCain, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

ABC’s “World News” had more balance than NBC’s “Nightly News” or the “CBS Evening News,” the group said.

Meanwhile, the first half of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” with Brit Hume showed more balance than any of the network broadcasters, although it was dominated by negative evaluations of both campaigns. The center didn’t evaluate programs on CNN or MSNBC.

“For whatever reason, the media are portraying Barack Obama as a better choice for president than John McCain,” said Robert Lichter, a George Mason University professor and head of the center. “If you watch the evening news, you’d think you should vote for Obama.”

The center analyzed 979 separate news stories shown between Aug. 23 and Oct. 24, and excluded evaluations based on the campaign horse race, including mention of how the candidates were doing in polls. For instance, when a voter was interviewed on CBS Oct. 14 saying he thought Obama brought a freshness to Washington, that was chalked up as a pro-Obama comment.

When NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported Oct. 1 that some conservatives say that Sarah Palin is not ready for prime-time, that’s marked in the negative column for McCain.

ABC recorded 57 percent favorable comments toward the Democrats, and 42 percent positive for the Republicans. NBC had 56 percent positive for the Democrats, 16 percent for the Republicans. CBS had 73 percent positive (Obama), versus 31 percent (McCain).

Hume’s telecast had 39 percent favorable comments for McCain and 28 percent positive for the Democratic ticket.

It was the second study in two weeks to remark upon negative coverage for the McCain-Palin ticket. The Project for Excellence in Journalism concluded last week that McCain’s coverage has been overwhelmingly negative since the conventions ended, while Obama’s has been more mixed.

Meanwhile, another survey issued Friday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press showed that television continues to be Americans’ main source for campaign news, particularly the cable news networks.

But there were clear partisan differences in where people turned.

For instance, of the people who said they got most of their campaign news from Fox News Channel, 52 percent identified themselves as Republican, 17 percent as Democrats and 30 percent as independents, the Pew center said.

MSNBC viewers interested in campaign news identified themselves at 11 percent Republican, 50 percent Democratic and 36 percent independent. The breakdown for CNN: 13 percent Republican, 45 percent Democrat, 38 percent independent.

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Lawrence Eagleburger

A former Republican Secretary of State and one of John McCain’s most prominent supporters offered a stunningly frank and remarkably bleak assessment of Sarah Palin’s capacity to handle the presidency should such a scenario arise.

Lawrence Eagleburger, who served as Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush and whose endorsement is often trumpeted by McCain, said on Thursday that the Alaska governor is not only unprepared to take over the job on a moment’s notice but, even after some time in office, would only amount to an “adequate” commander in chief.

“And I devoutly hope that [she] would never be tested,” he added for good measure — referring both to Palin’s policy dexterity and the idea of McCain not making it through his time in office. (Listen to audio below.)

The remarks took place during an interview on National Public Radio that was, ironically, billed as “making the case” for a McCain presidency. Asked by the host whether Palin could step in during a time of crisis, Eagleburger reverted to sarcasm before leveling the harsh blow.

“It is a very good question,” he said, pausing a few seconds, then adding with a chuckle: “I’m being facetious here. Look, of course not.”

Eagleburger explained: “I don’t think at the moment she is prepared to take over the reins of the presidency. I can name for you any number of other vice presidents who were not particularly up to it either. So the question, I think, is can she learn and would she be tough enough under the circumstances if she were asked to become president, heaven forbid that that ever takes place?

“Give her some time in the office and I think the answer would be, she will be [pause] adequate. I can’t say that she would be a genius in the job. But I think she would be enough to get us through a four year… well I hope not… get us through whatever period of time was necessary. And I devoutly hope that it would never be tested.”

The indictment of Palin was all the more biting because both she and McCain have held Eagleburger up repeatedly during the past several weeks as evidence that the Republican ticket has firm standing and support within foreign policy circles. (In fact, McCain conferred with Eagleburger by phone just this week, on matters pertaining to national security.)
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In a recent co-interview on NBC, Brian Williams asked McCain and Palin “about what must have been a hurtful Sunday for you,” referring to Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama and specifically to the “heart of his quote” — Powell’s claim that Palin is not “ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of vice president.”

“Obviously General Powell does not know Governor Palin’s record,” McCain responded. “All I can say is, I see all these attacks on Governor Palin. I don’t live in a bubble. But those people obviously are either not paying attention to, or don’t care about the record of the most popular governor in the United States of America.”

Palin interjected, citing the “five former secretaries of states” that have endorsed their campaign and see in their candidacy “the ability to win the wars and to keep our nation safe and on course.”

Days later, the Arizona Senator again touted the Eagleburger endorsement during a spot on CNN. During that interview, McCain tried to downplay the significance of Colin Powell’s criticisms of Palin by noting that Powell had never taken the time to understand her political gravitas.

“I especially disagreed when he said the comments that he made about Governor Palin,” McCain said. “And I hope that sometime General Powell will take time out of his busy schedule to meet with her. I know she’d be pleased to meet with him.”

Perhaps Eagleburger, too, should sit in on that meeting.

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This is one of the most disgusting things that I’ve ever seen. It’s still so hard to believe that in this day and age we still have so many people that hate others because of the color of their skin. Blacks in the U.S. have been batered in bellitled in this coutry for decades and their seems to be no end in site. Some of McCain’s most vocal supporters are very scary people. One man stated that if Obama becomes President he should and will be killed. They should find his a$4 and arrest him. I was in total disbelief watching this. Please leave your thoughts because we need to get a discussion going. You can also join the site and post in the forum.

The McCain campaign is definitely demoralized right now. The blame game has begun.

There is no question that there is a rift between Sarah Palin’s camp and that of John McCain inside the Republican campaign, sources tell ABC News.

Watch George Stephanopoulos on “Nightline” tonight at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC

And you are seeing people within the McCain campaign starting to look to the future.

Not only Palin, but many of the McCain staffers, as well, are circulating their resumes and pointing the finger.

Whenever people in the campaign are starting to worry more about their own reputations rather than whether they’re going to win in seven days, there is a significant problem.
GOP Rift Between McCain and Palin Camps

Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign’s post-mortem.

McCain argued Monday that he “couldn’t be more proud” of his running mate.

However, there is a significant rift inside the McCain campaign.

Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.

They point to the bounce in the polls McCain got when he announced Palin as his running mate, her Republican convention speech, and her first interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson.

What didn’t work were the limited, subsequent media interviews, most notably between Palin and CBS anchor Katie Couric.

But some McCain camp insiders tell ABC News they simply couldn’t put Palin out in front of the media any more than they did because she wasn’t ready.

The Palin camp is fighting back, arguing that if the McCain campaign had just let Sarah Palin be Sarah Palin, she would have done just fine on her own.

The Alaska governor herself has been pushing out on her own against McCain’s handlers.

In recent days she has been speaking her own mind about what she thought of McCain’s strategy in Michigan, and what she thought of his decision not to go after Rev. Jeremiah Wright. And we’re seeing more and more of that in the closing days of the campaign.

Obama Tries to Boost Turnout, Momentum

Officials from both the Obama and McCain campaigns tell ABC News they believe there is very little that either candidate can do to change the trajectory of the race.

Unless one of them makes a major mistake, nothing they can say or do will affect them one way or the other.

Now, it’s all about turnout and momentum.

Barack Obama is leading McCain 52-45 in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

The only thing the Obama campaign is worried about right now is voter complacency, over-confidence, or that the idea that Obama is winning somehow energizes and mobilizes Republican voters.

McCain Looks to Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is the only big Democratic-leaning state than McCain has a chance of turning around now, although he trails Obama 53-40 in the latest Pennsylvania poll by Morning Call/Muhlenberg College.

If McCain doesn’t win Pennsylvania’s 21 electoral votes, he would have to run the table and win all eight of the competitive states that were held by President Bush in 2004, including Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, and Nevada.

That’s very, very tough for McCain to do.

The only way he has more paths to 270 electoral votes is if he can flip Pennsylvania and turn it around — that would give him more leeway.

If you take all four of these states that will be decided relatively early on Election Night next Tuesday — Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida — McCain has to win three out of four of those states to even have a chance of getting to 270 electoral votes.

Even that is a necessary but not sufficient condition for him. That shows what he’s up against because he’s behind in all four of these key battleground states right now.

Even more dire for McCain, the Republicans even started to advertise this week in Montana, which should be a solid Republican state.

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After running a campaign built on subtle misstatements that are breeding misunderstanding, McCain sure has some explaining to do. John has his supporters believing that Obama is a socialist-Muslim who “pals around with terrorists.” That’s funny, given that McCain has undeniable ties to one of the worst violators of our democracy in American history.

G. Gordon Liddy

Would you believe that John McCain is friends with G. Gordon Liddy? Yes, this is the mastermind behind the Watergate break-in, a scandal which eventually led to the impeachment of President Nixon. Of course you know what it is. This is huge. G. Gordon Liddy was convicted of a felony, and served four and one half years for his crimes. And unlike Barack, who was a child when Ayers was on the loose, Liddy and McCain are only a few years apart in age. They are contemporaries. And still “pals.”

According to the Chicago Tribune, “In 1998, Liddy’s home was the site of a McCain fundraiser.” That sounds a lot like McCain’s claim that Obama’s campaign was launched in Ayers’ living room — except that McCain’s claim is not true. Obama denied this assertion on camera during the final presidential debate. As recently as last November, McCain was a guest on Liddy’s radio show and said: “It’s always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.” This in support for Liddy, a man who has praised Hitler as a source of inspiration.

Liddy has never repented for his crimes, unlike Ayers, who Barack met as a totally reformed man and respected member of the Chicago intelligentsia. Far from ever coming clean on his dirty deeds, Liddy has claimed that the Watergate scandal was engineered to cover up a prostitution ring being run out of the DNC headquarters. Right. That’s normal.

Liddy has contributed $5,000 to McCain’s campaigns over the years, including $1,000 this year. Compare this to the $200 Ayers contributed Barack’s 2001 Illinois State Senate campaign. I wonder which “radical” will feel more entitled to have the potential president’s ear, should his “pal” get elected.

So far, David Letterman is the only mainstream media personality who has had the audacity to confront John McCain with his double-standard on “terrorists.” It’s okay for John to associate with radicals — as long as they are radicals on the right. It’s not okay for Obama to socially or professionally cross paths with anyone who has ever done anything wrong — regardless of how many years have passed, the repentance of the “radical,” or the extent of the relationship one has with him. Nice thinking, John.

Will McCain be able to explain this charade? If the mainstream press keeps up its business as usual, will he ever have to?

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Is this chick running for office or trying to win another beauty pageant ???

Since her selection as John McCain’s running mate, the Republican National Committee spent more than $150,000 on clothing and make-up for Gov. Sarah Palin, her husband, and even her infant son, it was reported on Tuesday evening.

That entertaining scoop — which came by way of Politico — sent almost immediate reverberations through the presidential race. A statement from McCain headquarters released hours after the article bemoaned the triviality of the whole affair.

“With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses,” said spokesperson Tracey Schmitt. “It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.”

But even the most timid of Democrats are unlikely to heed this call for civility. For starters, the story has the potential to dampen enthusiasm among GOP activists and donors at a critical point in the presidential race. It also creates a huge PR headache for the McCain ticket as it seeks to make inroads among voters worried about the current economic crisis.

Mainly, however, Democrats (in this scenario) are not prone to forgiveness. After all, it was during this same campaign cycle that Republicans belittled the $400 haircut that former Sen. John Edwards had paid for with his own campaign money (the funds were later reimbursed). And yet, the comparison to that once-dominant news story is hardly close: if Edwards had gotten one of his legendary haircuts every singe week, it would still take him 7.2 years to spend what Palin has spent. Palin has received the equivalent of $2,500 in clothes per day from places such as Saks Fifth Avenue (where RNC expenditures totaled nearly $50,000) and Neiman Marcus (where the governor had a $75,000 spree).

Beyond the political tit-for-tat, however, the revelation of the clothing expenditures offers what some Democrats see as a chance not just to win several news cycles during the campaign’s waning days but to severely damage Palin’s image as a small-town, ‘Joe Six-Pack’ American.

“It shows that Palin ain’t like the rest of us,” Tom Matzzie, a Democratic strategist told the Huffington Post, when asked how the party would or could use the issue. “It can help deflate her cultural populism with the Republican base. The plumber’s wife doesn’t go to Nieman’s or Saks.”

Indeed, the story could not come at a more inopportune time for the McCain campaign. During a week in which the Republican ticket is trying to highlight its connection to the working class — and, by extension, promoting its newest campaign tool, Joe the Plumber — it was revealed that Palin’s fashion budget for several weeks was more than four times the median salary of an American plumber ($37,514). To put it another way: Palin received more valuable clothes in one month than the average American household spends on clothes in 80 years. A Democrat put it in even blunter terms: her clothes were the cost of health care for 15 or so people.

There are, in these cases, legal questions surrounding campaign expenditures. Though, on this front, Palin and the RNC seem to be in the clear.

“I don’t think it’s taxed,” said David Donnelly of Campaign Money Watch. “I don’t think she can keep it. It’s owned by the RNC. They had to use coordinated funds to pay for the clothes.”

And certainly the possibility exists that this issue can be effectively swept under the rug. Palin is not known for taking impromptu questions from the press. Moreover, the media, at this juncture, has other major story lines (see: upcoming election) to grapple with, thus denying the piece the relative vacuum that accompanied the Edwards story. Finally, there is little desire among conservative writers or pundits to litigate the matter, even if they were more than happy to jump on board when a Democrat was in the spotlight.

Several hours after Politico posted its findings, the topic remained nearly untouched by the major right-wing outlets. Though as Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic opined:

“Republicans, RNC donors and at least one RNC staff member have e-mailed me tonight to share their utter (and not-for-attribution) disgust at the expenditures. … The heat for this story will come from Republicans who cannot understand how their party would do something this stupid … particularly (and, it must be said, viewed retroactively) during the collapse of the financial system and the probable beginning of a recession.”

Spending that kind of money on Palin’s wardrobe, whether or not she is keeping the clothing, is just more proof that McCain and the Republican party are out of touch and unconcerned with the problems of average Americans. SMH.

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The New York Times piece is now online. Reporter Lawrence Altman, a medical doctor himself, finds that “serious gaps remain in the public’s knowledge about the health of the presidential and vice-presidential nominees,” which is “a striking departure from recent campaigns, in which many candidates and their doctors were more forthcoming.”

Of McCain, the Times reports:

If elected, Senator John McCain of Arizona, 72, the Republican nominee, would be the oldest man to be sworn in to a first term as president and the first cancer survivor to win the office. The scars on his puffy left cheek are cosmetic reminders of the extensive surgery he underwent in 2000 to remove a malignant melanoma.

Last May, his campaign and his doctors released nearly 1,200 pages of medical information, far more than the three other nominees. But the documents were released in a restricted way that leaves questions, even confusion, about his cancer.

A critical question concerns inconsistencies in medical opinions about the severity of his melanoma; if the classification of his melanoma is more severe, it would increase the statistical likelihood of death from a recurrence of the cancer. [...]

By not allowing reporters to interview him or his doctors extensively about his entire medical history, he has made it impossible to get a complete picture of his diagnoses and treatment.

Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden released recent medical records to the Times showing that they were healthy, though Altman notes that Biden’s documents “did not indicate whether he had had a test in recent years to detect any new aneurysm,” and Obama’s most recent check-up was in January 2007.

Meanwhile, “Nothing is known publicly about Ms. Palin’s medical history,” Altman reports, “aside from the much-discussed circumstances surrounding the birth of her fifth child last April. Ms. Palin has said that her water broke while she was at a conference in Dallas and that she flew to Anchorage, where she gave birth to her son Trig hours after landing.

“Last week Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Ms. Palin, said the governor declined to be interviewed or provide any health records.”

ORIGINAL STORY:

The New York Times will break new ground on the health of the presidential candidates and their running mates in a major expose set to be published in Monday’s print edition.

Lawrence Altman — the veteran Times reporter, George Polk Award winner, and one of the few medical doctors working as a full-time journalist — has spent weeks working with the campaigns and medical professionals on the piece, sources say.

Much of the speculation centers on new questions about the status of John McCain’s cancer raised by the story. The Washington Post reported last week that a growing number of doctors believe that McCain’s melanoma is “more advanced than his physicians concluded and that the chance of recurrence is consequently higher.”

But another peculiar facet of the Times story involves the McCain campaign’s refusal, as of this weekend, to turn over Sarah Palin’s medical information.

Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden reportedly provided documentation to the Times.

The issues of John McCain’s age and health have repeatedly been pushed, with much resistance, into the heart of the political discussion. Prompted in part by the selection of Palin as the Republican vice presidential nominee, the topic crested with the release of a political advertisement by Brave New Films PAC calling attention to McCain’s history of skin cancer and the need for more information about his medical records.

McCain’s campaign says it has released all of the information needed to make a thorough assessment of his health, and then some. In late May, the Senator allowed the vetting of over 1,000 pages of his records that showed him in generally good condition despite having skin cancer eight years ago. But the process was far from transparent.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s medical correspondent who was one of only a handful of reporters allowed into the review, summarized the problems recently to the Huffington Post:

“We were given three hours to go over 1,200 pages of records. That is a lot to go through. It was very sort of cloak and dagger and I’m sure they had their reasons. Given that I had my medical training, I was able to hone in on what it thought was important more quickly. But the pages weren’t numbered, so I had no way of knowing what was missing… As a reporter I can only comment on what I saw but I can’t say by any means that this was complete… As far as the secretiveness of it, what they said to us is that you can’t take anything out of the room, but you could make notes. So it was a lot to go through in a short period of time.”

The Washington Post reported last week that McCain’s campaign refused to turn over additional documents for its story.

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