Sens. McCain and Obama appeared briefly on stage together last month during a forum moderated by Pastor Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church in California.

(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama’s lead in national polls has shrunk to one point, according to CNN’s latest “poll of polls.â€

Sunday’s poll of polls shows Obama leading John McCain 44 to 43 percent.

Obama held a three-point lead in Saturday’s poll of polls. The senator from Illinois was leading McCain 45-42 percent.

"All of the surveys included in our national polling average were conducted at least in part during the Republican Convention," noted CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib. "It's still too early to know exactly how much of a bounce McCain has received. That said, the daily tracking numbers indicate that the [Sarah] Palin pick has clearly energized the GOP's base. We have an extremely tight race for the White House on our hands."

CNN’s most recent poll of polls consists of three surveys: CBS (September 1-3), Gallup (September 4-6), and Diageo/Hotline (September 2-4). The poll of polls does not have a sampling error.

The Republican convention took place last week in St. Paul, Minnesota. Democrats held their convention during the last week of August in Denver, Colorado.

CNN has confirmed that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will sit down for her first television interview with a national media outlet. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

(CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s surprise pick for the VP spot on the Republican ticket, has agreed to her first television interview with a national media outlet since being named as McCain’s running mate.

CNN confirms that Palin will sit down with Charles Gibson of ABC News later this week; the exact date has yet to be announced.

According to the McCain campaign, Palin will stay on the campaign trail through this Wednesday and then return home to Alaska where she will speak at a ceremony marking the deployment of her eldest son’s Army unit to Iraq on September 11. Palin’s interview with Gibson will be conducted near the end of the week.

Since the McCain campaign picked Palin as the Arizona senator’s running mate, the media has delved into her background and criticized Palin and the McCain camp for not making her more available to the media. Before Palin’s selection, she was a virtual unknown on the national political scene while one of McCain’s trademarks since mounting his first run for the White House eight years ago has been accessibility to the press.

UPDATE, 3:15 p.m.: CNN Correspondent Dana Bash has confirmed additional details about the upcoming interview: According to a McCain aide, the plan is for Gibson to have time with Palin over two days — Thursday and Friday of this coming week. The interview will be part sit-down, part walk-and-talk at various locations in Alaska.

Reporters traveling wtih Sen. Biden brought this cut-out of Sen. McCain onto the Biden campaign plane Saturday morning.

WILMINGTON, Delaware (CNN) – So far, Sen. Joe Biden has declined to question opponent Sarah Palin's record, but a gag by the press corps traveling in Biden's plane gave the senator's staff an opportunity to take aim at Palin for ducking the media and being "more of the same."

A group of reporters covering the vice presidential nominee brought a cardboard cut-out of Sen. John McCain aboard Biden's plane–an irreverent reference to the Democrat's tendency to cite John McCain as "my friend" and tell voters a variation of this story he told in West Palm Beach, Fla. last week: "If John McCain picked up the phone today and said, Joe, I need you to get in a plane and fly out to Missoula, I can't tell you why, I'd get in a plane and I'd go. And I believe he'd do it for me."

Before Biden's campaign plane taxied to the runway, headed for Montana, Biden spokesman David Wade responded to the joke with a jab at Palin. "You realize you could've made history," Wade said. "If you'd found a cardboard cut-out of Governor Palin, that's the closest she would've been to taking tough questions from the national media since she was selected…Yet another way that McCain-Palin is more of the same."

The McCain camp has fired back. “This is probably a great day for Joe Biden,†Ben Porritt, a spokesman for McCain-Palin 2008, told CNN. “He’s never been shy about wanting to campaign on the same ticket as John McCain.â€

Palin was the only of the four nominees not to make an appearance on a news talk show Sunday. The Alaska governor has been making a western swing with John McCain this week, and drawing crowds in the tens of thousands.

Despite his illness, Sen. Kennedy recently traveled to Denver and addressed the Democratic National Convention.

(CNN) — Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, who underwent surgery in June for a brain tumor, will not return to Capitol Hill this week when Congress returns from its August recess.

The senator, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in the spring, plans to return to the Senate in January, said spokesman Anthony Coley.

"As Sen. Kennedy said two weeks ago in Denver, he intends to be on the floor of the United States Senate next January when we begin to write the next great chapter of American progress," Coley said. "Senator Kennedy's doctors are pleased with his progress so far and have recommended that he continue to work from home through the fall."

Congress is only returning for a short session. The Senate will spend three weeks in session before breaking for the campaign season.

Kennedy, 76, made his first appearance in the Senate in July, returning to cast a vote to help break a deadlock on an important Medicare bill. He is currently undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House and Senate reconvene Monday after back-to-back political conventions, both parties eager to use the three-week session to show voters why their candidates are the ones to fix the economy and lower energy prices.

The only matter of business that must be accomplished is passing a bill to keep the government running from October 1 through the November 4 election and until Congress returns.

Even that might not be easy. Republicans are threatening to block the spending bill if Democrats do not give them a vote on ending a quarter-century freeze on new offshore drilling.

Full story

Sen. Obama campaigned in Indiana Saturday.

(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama — locked in a tight presidential race against Sen. John McCain, widely considered a war hero — said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he once considered joining the military himself.

Speaking to ABC's "This Week," Obama said, "You know, I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii, and I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there. And I actually always thought of the military as an enobling and, you know, honorable option.

"But keep in mind — I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue."

On the stump, Obama has praised McCain for his service in the Vietnam war.

The two candidates' stark differences over the Iraq war mark one of the central issues of the campaign.

The McCain camp argues that McCain's experience has prepared him to serve as commander in chief and lead the United States through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said in her speech at last week's Republican National Convention that while Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, "have been going on lately about how they're always, quote, 'fighting for you,' let us face the matter squarely: There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you… in places where winning means survival and defeat means death."

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Sen. McCain campaigned in New Mexico Saturday.

(CNN) — Promising a "very bipartisan approach" to how he'll run his administration, Sen. John McCain said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would appoint Democrats to his Cabinet.

Speaking to CBS' "Face the Nation," the Republican presidential nominee vowed that he won't just have a single token Democrat in his Cabinet.

"It's going to be the best people in America, the smartest people in America," McCain said. "So many of these problems we face — for example, energy independence — what's partisan about that?"

He said he'll also ask some members of his Cabinet "to work for a dollar a year. They've made enough money. But I'll also ask people who have struggled out there in the trenches to help people, to volunteer in their communities, who understand these problems at that level, which obviously is lost on a lot of — a lot — a big segment of Washington."

Full story

Ona Sunday political talk show, Sen. Biden discussed his upcoming debate against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden says he's debated "an awful lot of tough, smart women" throughout his career and next month's vice presidential debate with Republican Sarah Palin will be no exception.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," the Democratic vice presidential nominee called Palin "a smart, tough politician" who'll be a "very formidable" opponent.

The Delaware senator and the Alaska governor are scheduled to debate October 2nd at Washington University in St. Louis.

Asked about debating Palin versus one of the male politicians considered possible running mates for John McCain, such as Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge, Biden said the only difference is that he knows their positions on issues. Biden says he assumes Palin's policies are the same as McCain's, but adds "I just don't know."

CHICAGO (AP) — Since being diagnosed with brain cancer, Robert Novak has lost partial vision and undergone surgery to remove a tumor, the conservative political commentator wrote in a column published Saturday.

In a piece entitled "My brain tumor brings out the best in people" posted on the Chicago Sun-Times' Web site, Novak details his life since his diagnosis, including losing his way to his longtime office and having seizures.

"I have lost not only left peripheral vision but nearly all my left vision, probably permanently," Novak wrote.

Novak, editor of the Evans-Novak Political Report, has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. He is perhaps best known as the co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" from 1980 to 2005.

He announced his retirement August 4, telling the newspaper his prognosis was "dire." It was less than a week after he struck a pedestrian with his car in downtown Washington. He has since written columns sporadically for the newspaper.

Full story

Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain campaigned together in New Mexico Saturday.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A Democratic lawmaker in Alaska denies he's attempting to damage Republican vice-presidential nominee Sara Palin.

State Senator Hollis French is overseeing an investigation into the Alaska governor's dismissal of her public safety commissioner. Critics say Palin ousted him because he didn't fire a state trooper
involved in a messy divorce with her sister.

Republican State Senator John Coghill accuses French of "steering the direction of the investigation" to have a "partisan political impact."

French concedes he probably shouldn't have made some comments that the outcome could hurt Palin, but he says lawmakers hired an independent prosecutor to make sure the probe is non-partisan.

French says it's the prosecutor who's gathering the facts and will write a final report.

Sen. Obama's campaign plane experienced problems again Saturday evening. (Photo Credit: AP Photo)

TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (CNN) – For the second time this summer, Barack Obama’s plane had technical issues forcing the senator, his staff, secret service and traveling press corps onto another plane to complete the day’s trip.

In a far less dramatic incident than the first in early July, the press was notified after a press conference Saturday afternoon that the Boeing 757’s public announcement system had broken. Federal Aviation Administration rules forbid planes from flying with passengers onboard if the PA system is down because the crew can’t speak to them.

The campaign scrambled a much smaller ExpressJet Embraer 145 that had to be diverted to Terre Haute to pick up the stranded travelers heading to Chicago. The 757 with Obama’s trademark ‘O’ on its tail followed close behind, passenger-less but carrying everyone’s bags.

On July 7 - with the 757 in the shop for a paint job - the campaign’s loaner MD-80 was forced to land in St. Louis on its way from Chicago to Charlotte because an emergency slide had deployed in the tail cone on takeoff. The plane dipped as if hitting turbulence and the pilots decided to divert because of pitch problems.

It was later revealed that the pilots had told the St. Louis control tower it was an emergency, but minutes later updated their initial report saying the problems had disappeared. The plane landed without incident.

Oprah Winfrey campaigned for Obama in February.

(CNN)-The Florida Federation of Republican Women made the decision to boycott the Oprah Winfrey Show Saturday, after the media mogul refused to have Gov. Sarah Palin as a guest on her show until after the election wraps up.

"Women in Florida helped build Oprah into the icon she is today," Linda Ivell, President of the FFRW said in a statement. "We are deeply disappointed in Ms. Winfrey's decision to sit out the greatest political moment in the history of women since suffrage."

The talk show host denied accusations Friday, that she was even considering the vice presidential nominee as a guest.

"At the beginning of this presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a plat for any of the candidates," Winfrey wrote in a statement, responding to a story from The Drudge report claiming her staff was "sharply divided" on whether they should book the Alaska Governor.

Winfrey agreed Palin would be a "fantastic interview," but wouldn't invite her on until after the November elections.

The Florida Federation of Republican Women, the "largest political organization in Florida," celebrating the groups 58 year anniversary is also encouraging members to cancel subscriptions to O Magazine, Ivell said.

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Sen. Obama mocked the McCain-Palin ticket for casting themselves as mavericks.

TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (CNN) – Since leaving their convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, John McCain and Sarah Palin have tried to cast themselves as mavericks, Washington outsiders, the real agents of change.

Barack Obama isn’t buying it and wants the label for himself.

“Everywhere I go we’ve been talking about change, that’s been the theme of this campaign,†Obama told supporters in a show barn in Indiana. “And we must be on to something, because I notice now everyone’s talking about change now.â€

Watch: Obama jokes he's never been to Alaska

“Suddenly [McCain’s] the change agent!†Obama laughed. “He says, “I’m going to tell those lobbyists that their days of running Washington are over.†Who’s he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman who’s one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell his campaign manager who was one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell all the folks who are running his campaign who are the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington?â€

“Who is it that he’s going to tell that change is coming?†he added, “I mean come on, they must think you’re stupid!â€

Obama said Thursday that he’ll focus on McCain because he’s running against McCain and not his running mate Sarah Palin. But Saturday Obama singled out Palin for the first time for flip-flopping on earmarks while governor of Alaska.

“She is a skillful politician,†said Obama, “but when you’ve been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you’re the champion anti-earmark person, that is not change, come on. I mean, words mean something. You can’t just make stuff up. You can’t just make stuff up.â€

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Gov. Palin said Sen. Biden isn't capable of transforming Washington.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CNN) – Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin attacked her Democratic counterpart for the first time on Saturday, accusing Sen. Joe Biden of being a creature of Capitol Hill incapable of transforming Washington.

“You know, the choices that presidential nominees make for running mate they say a lot about them,†Palin told an audience of 12,000 flag-waving Republicans who had gathered in a jet hangar here.

Watch: Palin says Biden isn't an agent of change

“When our opponent made his choice, he went for a fine man,†she said. “A decent man. Sen. Biden can claim many chairmanships across many, many years in Washington, and certainly many friends in the Washington establishment. But even those admirers would not be able to call him an agent of change.â€

Meanwhile, she said, “Sen. McCain has called the two of us a team of mavericks. John McCain knows that we’ve done some shaking up in Alaska.â€

Palin ventured briefly into the world of economic policy during her remarks, calling for reform at mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are now facing the prospect of a government bailout. Palin has largely avoided policy discussions on the campaign trail thus far, instead focusing on her own biography and emphasizing her reformer credentials.

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A sign posted in front of a bank owned home that is for sale in Richmond, California.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) – Barack Obama laid out benchmarks Saturday for a government takeover of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but said he'll withhold judgment until
he sees the Bush administration plan.

The Democratic presidential nominee said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson briefed him Friday night by phone on the mortgage crisis and the administration's steps toward a government takeover of the two financial companies.

Watch: Obama addresses mortgage crisis

Speaking to reporters during a campaign stop, Obama said any plan must put taxpayers first and not reward investors and speculators "who relied on the government to reap massive profits."

Obama also urged President Bush and Republican presidential nominee John McCain to reconsider their opposition to a second government spending bill to reinvigorate the economy.

McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, addressed the crisis briefly at a rally in Colorado Springs, Colo.

McCain cited the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as another example of the nation's economic woes. "Today, we're looking at a federal bailout of our home loan agencies," he said.

Palin, at the same rally, said of the two companies that together hold or back half of the nation's mortgage debt: "They've gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers. The McCain-Palin
administration will make them smaller and smarter and more effective for homeowners who need help."

A spokesman for the Democratic National Convention says these flags were not intended to be thrown out.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (CNN)–Republicans kicked off a McCain/Palin rally in Colorado Springs with veterans handing out American flags they say were discarded after the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Tom Kise –a spokesman for the McCain campaign in Colorado said a worker at Invesco field who wants to remain anonymous dropped off the flags to the McCain campaign this past week. He says there were 84 bags that amounted to roughly 12 thousand flags.

As thousands in the crowd waved flags, Senator McCain noticed them – saying “those flags look great†— but did not make direct mention of the flap.

Damon Jones, a spokesman for the Democratic Convention tells CNN “the story is false.â€

He says the flags were bundled together, placed in bags and intended to be distrubited at Invesco. Jones says they “were removed without authorizationâ€.

Updated with DNC response

In response to the accusations, DNC spokeswoman Karren Finney released the following statement:

"American flags were proudly waved by the 75,000 people who joined Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention. John McCain should applaud that, but instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism. On the same day he agrees to join Barack Obama at Ground Zero on September 11, John McCain attacks the patriotism of Obama supporters who so proudly waved the American flag at our historic event in Denver just days ago."

McCain is keeping Palin on the campaign trail with him longer than expected.

(CNN)– What does a campaign do when its new vice presidential candidate brings unprecedented energy to their candidate's crowds? They keep her with him longer.

A McCain campaign aide tells CNN the Alaska Governor will stay on the trail with McCain through early next week, instead of campaigning solo.

The McCain-Palin ticket is expected in Missouri Monday, and likely Ohio and Pennsylvania through Tuesday and maybe early Wednesday.

Campaign aides made it clear, the decision to keep Palin on the trail with the Republican nominee longer, also gives the campaign additional time hammer out details as to where and how to best deploy Palin when she does campaign on her own.

Plans were originally underway to send Palin to Florida solo early next week. Then that was scrapped and aides started working on a meet and greet event in the Philadelphia area Monday, with potential for a fundraising component. But those plans for Palins have now been abandoned as well.

Palin is expected to travel back to Alaska mid week through at least Friday, before her son, Track, who is enlisted in the Army is deployed to Iraq. In her convention address, Palin announced he's going on September 11.

Hillary Clinton spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

NEW YORK (AP) – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton marched for labor and stumped with Democrats on Saturday, but sidestepped questions about the woman who has taken her place as the nation's most-talked-about female leader.

Clinton brushed aside questions about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin during appearances at New York City's annual Labor Day parade and later during a stop on Staten Island.

"This election is about issues, and that's what's going to matter to people at the end of the day," she told reporters who asked her about the Alaska governor at a rally for a Democratic congressional candidate at Wagner College.

Clinton joined other New York politicians for a Saturday morning breakfast with union leaders in Manhattan, then marched up Fifth Avenue in the city's annual labor parade.

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The first beam for the 9/11 memorial was raised into place at Ground Zero last week.

(CNN)—The party attacks will be set aside Thursday, as Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain plan to make a joint visit to Ground Zero in honor of the seventh anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

“All of us came together on 9/11 - not as Democrats or Republicans – but as Americans. In smoke-filled corridors and on the steps of the Capitol; at blood banks and at vigils - we were united as one American family," Obama and McCain said in a joint statement Saturday. "On Thursday, we will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity, to honor the memory of each and every American who died, and to grieve with the families and friends who lost loved ones. We will also give thanks for the firefighters, police, and emergency responders who set a heroic example of selfless service, and for the men and women who serve today in defense of the freedom and security that came under attack in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania."

The campaigns said Saturday, more details will be announced soon

Since being named as Sen. McCain's running mate, Gov. Palin has mentioned several times that she put a government plane up for sale on EBay — including during her speech before the GOP convention.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin bolstered her fiscal-conservative credentials early in her term by putting her predecessor's state jet up for auction online.

"That luxury jet was over the top," she told Republican National Convention delegates when she accepted the party's vice presidential nomination Wednesday night. "I put it on eBay."

Since Palin was chosen as Arizona Sen. John McCain's running mate last week, the story has become a cornerstone of the Republican effort to paint Palin as a reformer who took on her own party establishment.

"How many saw her speech a couple of nights ago? Wasn't it fabulous?" McCain said Friday during a campaign stop in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. "You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was purchased by her predecessor and sold it on eBay — and made a profit."

But it turns out the twin-engine Westwind II was a tough sell on the Web — and the state eventually pulled it offline and sold it through an ordinary brick-and-mortar brokerage, for a loss, a spokeswoman said Friday.

"Governor Palin has been correct in saying that she put the plane on eBay," McCain campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella told CNN. "They did end up selling it for $2.1 million. But not on eBay."

Palin's predecessor, Frank Murkowski, bought the jet for $2.7 million in 2005. The following year, Palin unseated Murkowski in the state's Republican primary and became governor: Upon taking office, she wanted to unload what former aide Meg Stapleton called "a symbol of corruption."

Stapleton told CNN that Murkowski paid too much for the jet, and that it was costing taxpayers money just sitting in the hangar.

"Eventually you had to concede and say, 'How often are we going to pay these bills and waste more state dollars?' " she said.

When putting it on eBay failed, aircraft broker Rob Heckmann was called in to sell the jet. Businessman Larry Reynolds bought the five-passenger jet for sold for $2.1 million. And Reynolds is now seeking another $50,000 from the state for unexpected maintenance issues with the aircraft.

–CNN's Sara Lane contributed to this report