Bloomberg - Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain held a lead over Democrat Barack Obama in two of five national poll surveys taken after the four-day Republican convention and the candidates were tied in the other three.

AP - Obama embraces charter schools, ouster of bad teachers in bipartisan approach to education ... At Chicago fundraiser, McCain talks up new running mate, who helps raise $4 million for GOP ... Obama says Palin as mother, governor, moose hunter may be cool, but she's just another politician

AP - Listening to Barack Obama, it can seem like Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is the main person standing between him and the White House instead of John McCain.

Reuters - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are dead even in two public opinion polls released on Monday as they head into the final eight weeks of the race for the White House.

Reuters - Republican John McCain heads into the final stretch of the U.S. presidential campaign with a 4-point lead over Democrat Barack Obama, a USA Today/Gallup poll released on Sunday showed.

CQPolitics.com - The back-to-back Democratic and Republican convention extragavanzas gave both parties a chance to put their best foot forward as the general election campaign gets under way. If their competing efforts are a wash -- and the earliest post-convention polling suggests that -- the advantage remains with the Democrats as far as their push to expand their congressional majorities.

AP - Barack Obama isn't John McCain's only opponent. Sometimes McCain sounds like he's running almost as hard against President Bush and the Republican Party as he is against Obama, his Democratic rival for the White House.

Reuters - Republican nominee John McCain said in an interview aired on Sunday he would bring Democrats into his Cabinet and administration as part of his attempt to change the political atmosphere in Washington.

AP - Barack Obama isn't John McCain's only opponent. Sometimes McCain sounds like he's running almost as hard against President Bush and the Republican Party as he is against Obama, his Democratic rival for the White House.

AP - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Saturday that any government takeover of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must put the interests of taxpayers and homeowners first. His opponent, GOP nominee John McCain, said it was essential to restructure the mortgage giants.