Many young Americans will be casting their first-ever votes in the upcoming presidential election. They are most concerned about the economy and the situation in Iraq. They believe Kerry is the more qualified Commander-in-Chief but think that Bush takes clearer stands on the issues.
Almost 3 million American students will have volunteered on a presidential campaign [...]

Among the news that made headlines this past week:
1) George W. Bush and John Kerry make their final appeals as the Presidential campaign dwindles down to its final days.
2) In a new videotape released on Al-Jazeera, Osama bin Laden says American security does not depend on who wins the election, but on U.S. foreign policy.
3) [...]

It’s just three more days before Election Day 2004, and lawyers in swing states across the country have already begun their legal wrangling.
In Ohio, there is a court battle over whether tens of thousands of voters will be allowed to cast their ballots next week. In Florida, the state’s new chief elections officer, Glenda Hood, [...]

In every war there are prisoners, and in the terrible confines they are subjected to, they often have to choose between humiliation and humanity, between buckling-under and fighting back, and between surrender and survival. Making the right choice requires deep moral belief, and it requires a writer of the stature of Ha Jin to give [...]

While all eyes will be focused on the tight Presidential race, a fierce battle over control of Congress will also be waged on Election Day. In the House, Republicans appear to have a lock on majority status. But in the closely divided Senate, nine races are considered toss-ups. With Republicans now holding [...]

In addition to Kentucky, eight other Senate races are still too close to call within a week of the vote. On the House side, a handful of races are also suddenly more volatile. A closer look at key Senate races.
Guests:
Gail Chaddock, covers Congress for the Christian Science Monitor
Chuck Todd, editor of The Hotline

Voters may know where Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry stands on the issues but many of them feel they still do not know the man behind the candidate.
New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai had the unique opportunity to sit down with John Kerry. Bai describes a man that is guarded, and has become [...]

Ailing Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat will go to Paris for treatment of an undisclosed medical condition. This will be the first time he has left his Ramallah compound since 2001 when the Israelis confined him to his West Bank quarters.
Hear from John Ward, foreign correspondent for The Washington Post, about the latest developments in Arafat’s [...]

The Red Sox finally did it. In sweeping fashion, they beat the Cardinals and won the World Series. Sox fans woke up this morning as winners for the first time since 1918.
Hear from life-long fan and On Point news analyst Jack Beatty as he looks back on this magical moment.
Guests:
Jack Beatty, On Point news [...]

Less than a week before the U.S. presidential election, the candidates are making their last minute appeals to the all-important battleground states of New Mexico, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado.
Of the 270 electoral votes a candidate needs to win, 7 of them could come from Iowa, 20 from Ohio, 9 from Colorado, 5 from [...]

With all of the attention being paid to voters in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin, those in the non-battleground states are left to wonder if their votes really matter. While the nation holds its breath to see if Iowa turns red or blue, there will be little drama in Wyoming, where George Bush holds a [...]

Historian Carl Sferezza Anthony has looked at American Presidents from a number of different angles. But when his friends started buying him gag gifts like George Washington soap and a Richard Nixon-shaped candle, he realized that there was an entirely unexplored realm of Presidential history: the ways in which American executives have been portrayed [...]

With the 2004 U.S. presidential election just 6 days away, the candidates appear to be in a dead heat, but their constituencies are further apart now than at any time in recent history.
Austin American Statesmen’s journalist Bill Bishop has documented the dramatic and growing gap between Republicans and Democrats in his series entitled “The Great [...]

Newspaper editorial boards are casting their ballots, and in many cases they are switching party allegiances. So far, 149 newspapers have endorsed Senator Kerry whereas only 126 have endorsed President Bush.
Hear journalist Greg Mitchell, editor of the journal Editor & Publishers, talk about wich newspapers are backing Bush, which are backing Kerry, and why.
Guests:
Greg Mitchell, [...]

Many historians believe the United States has been governed traditionally by politicians who find their voice and their mandate somewhere in the broad center of opinion, rather than on the frontline of a winner-take-all political extreme.
But some political observers say this year’s election may provide the clearest contrast between two political philosophies in the modern [...]

Over this year’s long campaign season, the presidential candidates have staked out their positions on the issues. Most voters have made up their minds. The final days before the election often serve as a “gut” check on the candidates and what they would bring to the presidency.
In the first of a series of discussions about [...]

Today, Israel’s parliament wrapped up two days of debate and approved an agreement to uproot settlers in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West bank. The vote comes after months of confrontation between Ariel Sharon and his own Likud Party.
Harvey Morris, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, discusses the latest.
Guests:
Harvey Morris, [...]

Last weekend was another bloody one in Iraq after an ambush took the lives of 50 newly trained Iraqi security forces. Fresh reporting also indicates that up to 380 tons of highly explosive material has been looted from an arms dump that was believed to have been guarded by the American military.
The war in Iraq [...]

Eight days left until the presidential election.
Guests:
Matt Bai is covering the presidential campaign for the New York Times Magazine. His most recent article was “Kerry’s Undeclared War.”

Today, the Supreme Court announced that Chief Justice William Rehnquist has thyroid cancer and had a tracheotomy last Saturday. Although expected to be back on the bench next week, at 80 years old, many wonder how long Rehnquist’s tenure will last. Rehnquist is not even the oldest member of the court. Justice John Paul [...]