Wednesday's must-reads

Published October 13, 2004 1:26PM (EDT)

New York Times: Going into final presidential debate, stakes are high, and Bush and Kerry are falling back into familiar territory -- Kerry will portray Bush as a tool of special interests and Bush will paint Kerry as a liberal who can't be trusted on taxes and terrorism.

Bloomberg: Debate tonight focuses on domestic issues, which is strong ground for Kerry -- he leads Bush in the polls on nine domestic issues including education and the economy. Bush bests Kerry on taxes and terrorism.

CBS News: Revised estimate of electoral votes shows a tight race with neither candidate hitting the 270 mark. Eight states and 99 electoral votes are in CBS' tossup category.

New York Times: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights draft report, available on its Web site, says Bush "has neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues nor taken actions that matched his words."

The Nation: Former Secretary of State James Baker, the Special Presidential Envoy in charge of reducing Iraq's debt, is also Senior Counselor at the Carlyle Group, which is involved in a multibillion-dollar deal to purchase Iraq's debt to Kuwait. This constitutes "a classic conflict of interest," according to a leading expert on government ethics and regulations.

Independent: Great Britain's foreign secretary formally admits that Tony Blair's pre-war claim that Iraq was within "45 minutes" of launching weapons of mass destruction was bogus -- reveals that MI6 had abandoned its source for the intelligence.


By Geraldine Sealey

Geraldine Sealey is senior news editor at Salon.com.

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