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Opinion: In today’s pages: Limbaugh, the election, truth and the bailout

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The Op-Ed page focuses on the presidential election today, starting with Rush Limbaugh biographer (and admirer) Zev Chafets’ piece about the role the ‘Excellence in Broadcasting’ kingpin is playing on behalf of John McCain -- a candidate Limbaugh ridiculed during the GOP primary season:

A satisfied Limbaugh means an enthusiastic Limbaugh, and an enthusiastic Limbaugh could be the difference in a close race. Between 14 million and 20 million people listen to him every week, by far the largest audience in talk radio. His show energizes the Republican base, but, even more important, it appeals to a great many conservative Democrats and independents of the kind McCain needs to win swing states.

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Pollster and author Douglas E. Schoen talks about the very real potential of third-party candidates Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney to tip the outcome in either McCain’s or Barack Obama’s favor. And columnist Gregory Rodriguez, noting the McCain camp’s attacks on the New York Times, wonders if conservatives no longer value truth over relativism:

Conservatives may have a point that the traditional media are slanted to the left, but it is also clear that they aren’t content with simple ideological balance. What they want, as we have seen, is their own biased media, in the form of Fox News and the Washington Times. The upshot, ironically, is that conservatives -- those who generally embrace the idea of absolutes -- have put the final nail in the coffin of truth.

Over on the other side of the seam, the Times’ editorial board urges Congress to let troubled homeowners reorganize mortgage debts in bankruptcy court. It argues that customs agents shouldn’t have the power to rummage through the contents of laptops at the border. And it calls on the federal government to renew subsidies for border-state hospitals that care for disproportionate numbers of illegal immigrants:

[I]t should be noted that citizens, not illegal immigrants, make up the bulk of poor patients whom hospitals could turn away if not for the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. But poor Americans who meet income guidelines are eligible for Medi-Cal, and hospitals are reimbursed for their care. Illegal immigrants are not, so hospitals that care for them fulfill their ethical and legal obligations at the expense of their financial health.

The bailout cartoon is by Matt Davies of The Journal News (New York).

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