"A few days ago Joe Wurzelbacher was just another guy from Ohio who worked in the plumbing business. Then Barack Obama approached him while walking in a Toledo neighborhood, and it became the encounter heard 'round the world. McCain quickly realized that Joe's message was resonating and he referenced his story several times in the final presidential debate. This is when the Obama campaign and their boosters in the media sprang into action. Joe, a working class American, had to be taken down. It wasn't just the left-wing bloggers who rifled through tax records and made calls to the plumbers union. NBC chief Jeff Zucker unleashed the full force of his network to stop this 'Joe-mentum.' While NBC had a satellite truck parked outside Joe's house, I have a question: Did it ever send a truck and a reporter to the still-defiant terrorist Bill Ayers' house? Has NBC ever really dug into the nature of Obama's relationship with ACORN? Today's media are doing the heavy lifting for team Obama with its slash-and-smear campaign against people like Joe. Is this type of bullying and intimidation what Americans can expect from an Obama administration? God help us."

Laura was joined by former presidential candidate and FNC anchor Mike Huckabee, who assailed the attacks on Wurzelbacher. "This is an ordinary citizen," Huckabee began, "whose only crime was asking a simple question. He has become the object of scorn and ridicule." Huckabee summed up the issue raised by Joe the Plumber: "Do we reward work or do we penalize it. When you give money to people who haven't earned it, it's welfare." Laura worried that the assault on Joe Wurzelbacher may be an ominous harbinger. "I find it very disturbing that the Obama campaign and its friends in the media are targeting an individual American. To me it is a sign of things to come in an Obama administration."

Professor Marc Lamont Hill entered the No Spin Zone with a distinctively different view of Joe Wurzelbacher. "I think Joe the Plumber's question was perfectly appropriate," Hill asserted, "and Barack Obama's answer was perfectly appropriate. But it was John McCain who turned him into a national mascot, and then Joe opened himself up for national scrutiny. He wasn't 'smeared' because everything said abut him was true. He's 'Joe the exaggerator'."

News Link: Joe the Plumber strikes back at media

Laura invited two prominent pollsters to assess the presidential race. "At this point," said Frank Newport of Gallup, "our best estimate is that Obama would win if the election were held today. But by how much will depend on turnout, and we're still trying to assess what that's going to look like." Scott Rasmussen reported Obama's lead at around four points. "Barack Obama's support has been stable. The challenge the McCain campaign faces is the economic meltdown on Wall Street. And part of the problem is that George Bush is back in the news on a regular basis, which is causing problems for McCain and Republicans on all levels."

News Link: McCain within striking distance

After another volatile week on Wall Street, Laura asked Fox News business maven Jonathan Hoenig to analyze the market's dramatic moves. "The market is still tumultuous," Hoenig declared, "and the government is trying to do everything it can to calm investors. But the market is becoming more erratic and more dysfunctional. You don't know what the government is going to come up with next, and that is going to prolong the crisis." Financial planner Patricia Powell advised investors to play it safe. "People should take a look at the real basics. Do they have a cash reserve? The last thing you want to do is lose your job and find out you don't have next month's mortgage payment in the bank. If you're contributing to a 401k, you should absolutely keep contributing. Keep your eye on the prize, and the prize is retirement."

News Link: Stock market experiences wild week

Laura welcomed constitutional lawyer John Flannery, who denied the existence of widespread voter fraud in Ohio and elsewhere. "The level of fraud is very small," Flannery claimed. "I am always suspicious of a voter fraud investigation that happens three weeks before an election that the Republican Party is losing. The McCain campaign is doing everything it can to suppress voting." Laura complained about the apparent double standard. "If the Republicans were benefiting from voter fraud perpetrated by a conservative group, the New York Times and NBC would be all over it. There is fraud going on here."

News Link: Workers say ACORN instilled fear

Laura was next joined by writer and author Christopher Hitchens, a staunch supporter of the war on terror who has proclaimed his support for Barack Obama. "Everything Obama has said," Hitchens explained, "has been getting better. He praised the surge and praised the military for driving Al Qaeda out of Baghdad. He now says he'll go straight across the border into Pakistan to root out terrorists. Obama is evolving toward my positions, while I think McCain has been erratic and untrustworthy." Laura accused Hitchens of falling for Obama's rhetoric. "Your world view was that we have to defeat the Islamists and win the war on terror. And the one person who is celebrated by the anti-war left as their savior is your man, Christopher?"

Laura introduced Bill's recent interview with Kerry Kennedy, who has written a book about Catholicism. Kennedy explained how she and other Catholics can support Barack Obama despite his pledge to end all restrictions on abortion. "The real issues," Kennedy said, "are who is going to increase jobs, who is going to guarantee that people can send their children to college, and who is going to provide universal health care. Those are the issues Catholics really care about. And Democrats want to increase funding for provisions that would decrease the number of abortions." Bill reminded Kennedy that her views are opposed by most church leaders. "Bishops and cardinals have said to Joe Biden and John Kerry that you can't receive communion if you are for abortion. Abortion is a fundamental issue in the Catholic Church."

Finally, Laura showed clips from the Al Smith Dinner in New York City, at which both presidential candidates took some good-natured shots at themselves and one another. Here are a few of Obama's greatest hits: "From everything that Senator McCain has told me, he and Al Smith had a great time together prior to Prohibition ... I got my middle name from someone who obviously didn't ever think I'd run for president." A sampling of McCain's quips: "I have dismissed my entire team of senior advisers, all of their positions will now be held by a man named Joe the Plumber ... ACORN is helping to register groups previously excluded, overlooked and underserved - second graders, the deceased, and Disney characters."

News Link: Video: McCain roasts

News Link: Video: Obama roasts