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The Morning Grind / Political Hot Topics |
High stakes for Bush, Kerry tonight
 |  Bush arrives at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, Thursday. |
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 VIDEO |
 CNN's Frank Buckley on the context of Friday's debate.
 CNN's Jeanne Meserve runs a campaign fact-check.
 CNN's Suzanne Malveaux on Bush and the WMD report.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Check out the links below to hot political stories around the country this morning.
MEETING STYLE: With the stakes so high for their town meeting-style debate tonight, the campaigns of President Bush and John Kerry employed teams of specialists to negotiate terms designed to prevent partisans from being among Missourians who will ask the questions at Washington University in St. Louis.
The Boston Globe: Uncommitted to fill second debate audience
LOFTY THOUGHTS: From the beginning, John Kerry has formed his presidential campaign around his service in the Vietnam War. But it is another war, World War II, that shaped his belief that the United States is more effective on the global stage when it works closely with other countries.
The Washington Post: For Kerry, thinking globally began at a young age
TROOP SUPPORT: It is a measure of President Bush's unassailable popularity among the US Marines on one base that the only one who admitted that he supported John F. Kerry would say so only on condition of anonymity.
The Boston Globe: Support for Bush overwhelming at Marine Corps base
WISCONSIN VOTES: A Kerry loss in a state that's backed Democrats for 20 years would really hurt. Bush advisors say they like his chances at the 10 electoral votes. Although Wisconsin hasn't voted to put a Republican in the White House for the last 20 years, the Badger State could be perilous territory for Kerry. While the polls have seesawed back and forth for much of the year, Bush pulled ahead here in early September, and has remained in front in most surveys since.
The Los Angeles Times: Bush sees a rare chance to win Wisconsin
CALL TO VOTE: In previous years, voting on American military bases was a low priority, but this year the Pentagon wants 100 percent voter participation at American bases around the world. In the United States and overseas, there are 1.4 million men and women in the military and 1.3 million family members of voting age, Charles Abell, deputy under secretary of defense for personnel, said in a Washington briefing in September.
The New York Times: Pentagon leaders tell ranks to get ballots and use them
PAYING THE PRICE: Several Bush advisers said the president may well pay a price for his decision to remain isolated from tough or unexpected questions when he faces Sen. John F. Kerry, whose events are notably less scripted, in a town-hall-style debate tonight at Washington University in St. Louis.
The Washington Post: Bush's isolation from reporters could be a hindrance
DIFFERING VIEWS: The presidential candidates' sharp exchange over North Korea during the debate last week offered a window on the differences in how they approach diplomacy and deal with rogue nations.
The Boston Globe: Candidates have two views on North Korea
TOWN HALL SETTING: President Bush and John Kerry will face off tonight in a high-stakes debate featuring a format -- questions from voters -- that each has used to different advantage over the course of the campaign.
The Los Angeles Times: Bush, Kerry at ease in town hall setting
PREWAR INTELLIGENCE: President Bush yesterday acknowledged that prewar intelligence claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was "wrong," although he emphasized the war itself was just.
The Washington Times: Bush defends the war as 'just'
EDWARDS COMMENTS: Arab-Americans, who make up a significant minority in three closely contested states, are sending a flurry of angry letters and e-mails complaining that John Edwards did not mention Palestinians in his answer to a question about the Middle East in the vice presidential debate Tuesday.
The Boston Globe: Edwards comments on Mideast draw fire
NADER BALLOT: Ralph Nader's access to the ballot has been a hard-fought battle in state after state, but no effort has been as complicated and fraud-ridden as the one in swing state Pennsylvania.
The New York Times: Nader ballot petitions present a phone book full of problems
TIPPING POINT: The costs and benefits of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq loom ever larger as a potential tipping point in the 2004 presidential election after the release of a definitive CIA study this week concluding that Saddam Hussein possessed neither weapons of mass destruction nor active programs to produce them.
The Los Angeles Times: Election may turn on report
REBUKING DELAY: House Democrats yesterday called for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to step down from his leadership role, in light of his second rebuke from the ethics committee in a week.
The Washington Times: Democrats urge delay to quit leadership
Compiled by Heather Riley
