Fayetteville (North Carolina, US), Oct. 20 : Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has rubbished the McCain campaign''s oft-repeated charge that he is promoting a brand of socialism and welfare that could have dangerous implications for the future of the United States.

Taking McCain head on at a rally here on Sunday, Obama forcefully, called McCain''s tactics "the oldest trick in the book," a scare tactic, and nothing more than name calling.

Washington, Oct. 20 : Both Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his republican rival John McCain are reportedly banking on every early vote they can secure in key battleground states to win their respective bids for the White House a fortnight from now.

According to Fox News, McCain is, however, more selectively working to lock in the early votes of his most iffy supporters, figuring the rest will make it to the polls sooner or later.

Washington, Oct.20: In a major setback to Republican aspirations for the White House this year, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who served under President George W Bush during his first administration (2000-04), endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president on Sunday.
 
Criticizing his own Republican Party for what he called its narrow focus on irrelevant personal attacks over a serious approach to challenges that he called unprecedented, Powell, who was considered for many years the most likely candidate to become the first African-American president, told NBC''s "Meet the Press" that he was not supporting Obama because of his race.
 

Los Angeles (dpa) - Eight years ago, the votes of Cuban exiles in Florida launched a Republican presidential era in the United States. On November 4, a similarly-decisive role could be played by young voters, and they are most likely to favour Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Largely won over by Obama's "change" discourse, millions of first- time voters are tilting the balance toward the senator for Illinois, according to opinion polls. If, as expected, they do vote for change, it will be difficult to stop the first African American from getting to the White House in the upcoming election.

New York, Oct. 18 : Data on polling trends suggest that the 2008 US presidential elections will be a tight race, and continue to be open to interpretation.

According to Fox News, one group of voters in the latest Gallup daily tracking poll put John McCain within two points of rival Barack Obama, while an AP-Yahoo poll out Friday shows McCain''s negatives on the rise.