This is the opening weekend of the National Hockey League season and the fourth-to-last weekend of this endless presidential season.

So naturally the two phenomena come together with the world's most famous hockey mom, Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, dropping the official puck in Philadelphia before the Flyers take on the New York Rangers tonight.

So what if most of the players in the game aren't American and can't vote? It's great TV and showbiz.

And Palin's proud public profession at the Republican National Convention of being a doting mom in a rough sport that so often feels otherwise overlooked has endeared her to many of its followers. Now, all she needs to do is turn some of that into votes.

A hockey mom is much like a soccer mom or mothers in any other sport, always there cheering and finding something good to say after every game, even the 8-0 blowouts.

But hockey moms are more often found making breakfast at 4 a.m. Saturdays before the 5:30 practice. And ensuring the smelly gear is airing out in the garage. And nursing the bumps and bruises that come from falling onto 1.5 inches of ice atop a foot of frozen concrete.

And in some states like Montana, Minnesota and Alaska, they're found standing at outdoor rink sides, stomping their feet and cheering before rushing back to a warm car between periods.

According to Nielsen, hockey moms (or at least those moms who watch hockey on TV) were 39% more likely to watch the vice presidential debate with Palin than were regular moms.

According to USA Hockey, the 70-year-old umbrella organization in Colorado Springs, Colo., that oversees amateur U.S. hockey, nearly 400,000 youth players were registered to play last year, including some 57,000 girls, a 5% annual jump. Including junior players and adults, total membership is around 600,000.

Palin will no doubt make an effort to shake the hand of Scott Gomez, one of the Ranger co-captains and a native of Anchorage, that suburb of Wasilla.

Palin will actually have help dropping the puck at tonight's game in Philadelphia. Not that the 7-ounce chunk of frozen rubber is so heavy. But the Flyers have been running a contest to find the ultimate local hockey mom.

So they'll share the duties and spotlight at center ice. Then, they both better get out of the way.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Robyn Beck / AFP-Getty Images

We weren't feeling very well at The Ticket this evening, probably because -- like most Americans -- we know how important healthcare is to each of us, but it's like algebra used to be when we had to think about it, both times we took it:

It's just so hard to understand and winds in so many directions, we'd rather change the channel.

Thank goodness for Susan Brink over on the Health page here. She has actually studied the plans of both the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket and the Barack Obama-Joe Biden team.

And she can even explain the details in plain English. It's right here.

We feel better already.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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An investigator for an Alaskan legislative panel issued a report Friday night saying that as governor, Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president, violated ethics laws and abused her authority in seeking to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.

The panel found that inaction on her dismissal request was at least one factor in Palin firing her state public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan.

The governor's husband, Todd Palin, was also involved in seeking the trooper's dismissal after a contentious divorce for allegedly threatening the governor's family members, illegally shooting a moose, driving under the influence of alcohol and Tasering his young son.

The report is not a legal indictment; the panel has no power to prosecute. Members said they'd await a state Personnel Board report before considering some action, probably not before January.

The embarrassing report, which Palin charged had become a partisan tool since her GOP VP nomination, is certain to create undesirable distractions for the McCain-Palin ticket as it struggles to ....

Harsh words, false allegations and downright bile increasingly marked a series of John McCain/Sarah Palin rallies in recent days.

Tonight, in Lakeville, Minn., McCain sought to put a stop to it.

In doing so, he found himself in the unusual position of defending the decency of the man he is running against for president and disabusing supporters of some of their notions about Barack Obama.

The Times' Peter Nicholas was at the town hall event and reports that shortly after it started, an audience member urged McCain to engage in a "real fight" with Obama as the campaign winds to its conclusion.

Such remarks had been typical at gatherings Wednesday and Thursday in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin, as McCain campaigned in tandem with Palin. The pair responded by pledging to do so and making their case against Obama -- while ignoring occasional audience shouts of "traitor," "terrorist" and, in one case, "off with his head" in reference to the Democrat.

But in Minnesota, where McCain appeared solo, he took a different tack. “If you want a fight, we will fight,” he said. “But we will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments.”

That comment prompted some boos, which spurred McCain to emphasize his point, “I want everyone to be respectful," he said. "And let’s make sure we are, because that’s the way politics is done in America.”

The give-and-take with his audience over Obama had just begun, though.

A few minutes later, a man who said his wife was pregnant said he was "scared" as he contemplated an Obama presidency during the first years of his child's life.

McCain, after letting the fellow finish his thoughts, took the microphone from him and replied: “I have to tell you, he is a decent person, a person that you do not have to be scared [of] as president of the United States.”

A woman in the crowd (pictured above) remained unconvinced. Saying she didn't trust Obama, she added: “I have read about him. He’s an Arab.”

McCain, shaking his head, this time quickly ...

As everyone knows, history is really all about the hats.

Pope hats. Cardinal hats. Soldier hats. President hats. Our personal favorite is the 19th century Prussian helmet with the pointless pointed spike on the top. (See below.)

As always, The Ticket is gonna be honest with you. The main reason for us to publish this item is the photo here, the best hat of this 21-month-old presidential campaign.

It's being worn for some reason by Roger Stone, a longtime Republican political operative who once reportedly got a GOP spy hired as Hubert Humphrey's campaign driver when he was running against Richard Nixon.

These days Stone is offering himself up as a talking political strategist for journalists to consult.

But Stone's chapeau -- he appears to have just returned from oppo research in Kenya -- got us thinking about the demise of the presidential hat.

Time was, pretty much everyone wore hats. Presidents. Their wives too. Can you imagine Abraham Lincoln, at 6-4 the tallest president, also wearing a top hat? Any 19th century NBA team would sign him immediately.

Now, it's rare to spot presidents or candidates in hats. John McCain wears his favorite Navy baseball cap often, but that's to keep the sun off his pale Celtic skin.

Barack Obama, the famed Hawaiian ranch hand, tried to wear a cowboy hat during the primaries but wisely gave it up. And now pretty much sticks to White Sox and Bears caps.

We've collected a few presidential hat photos on the jump here; just click on the Read more line. Pass your cursor over each photo to see the caption.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Speculation has been rampant that "Saturday Night Live" -- already a "must-see" in the political world because of Tina Fey's spot-on caricature of Sarah Palin -- soon will avail itself of the real thing.

According to one of the doyennes of the nation's corps of gossip columnists, Cindy Adams of the New York Post, it's a "done deal."

Adams writes that Palin -- who in her public comments has reacted good-naturedly to Fey's takeoff of her -- is "booked" and "confirmed" for an appearance on SNL's Oct. 25 show (a mere 10 days before the nation's big vote).

No word on whether the candidate and the comedienne will share the stage together. But one can imagine an inspired minuet between the two.

By the way, that's Palin at left, Fey at right.

-- Don Frederick

Photo credits: Associated Press 

Here we have, what, 26 days left until the election? The Republican ticket of Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is trying to figure out how to make up six, nine or maybe even 11 points in the polls.

And over at Libertarian Bob Barr's Atlanta offices, they are almost ecstatic to report they are at 3% in Virginia. That's 3% total, not points behind.

In Florida his campaign says they're just under 4% total, in Colorado just over and in Ohio all the way up to 5.2%.

"Those states are vital for us," a brave fundraising letter proclaims, "as it is in those battleground states where the election will be decided."

If the little-known former Republican congressman from Georgia can multiply his support ten times in less than four weeks (and overcome the unwritten national aversion to male candidates with facial hair), he just might pull out a victory.

Otherwise, he will suffer the usual sad fate of third party bids, struggling with the two V's: Valiantly but in Vain.

Like Rep. Ron Paul's electorally unsuccessful though financially robust bid for the Republican nomination, Barr's campaign is often built around adversity -- the media conspiracy that keeps it from getting free publicity, the difficulty of being obscure and raising money in hard times, being excluded from the debates by the two major parties and their debate commission and the local efforts by state parties to get or keep them off the ballots.

On Barr's website, which not surprisingly also asks for money first thing, Barr has posted a 3 minute 25  second video (see it below) for the faithful and the curious, calmly analyzing the recent financial crisis bailout and how wrong, once again, the big government folks were in Washington.

And charging, in fact, that they all knew precisely what was coming.

In her recent fundraising plea, Ashley Petty (see photo) said a financial crisis has also hit the Barr campaign. She'd just come back from the mailbox and last week's armload of donation checks had dwindled to a mere handful. "I'm asking you to really dig deep," she wrote.

She suggested supporters devote $5 a day for the rest of the campaign.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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At the least, a John McCain television ad unveiled today will be the likely frontrunner for the year's most-jampacked-30-second-spot award.

The ad starts with zinging Barack Obama over his connection to notorious Vietnam-era radical Bill Ayers, then segues (jarringly) to blaming congressional Democrats for the collapsed housing market.

It happens all in less than 50 words (not counting the required McCain approval line for the spot):

The different moods emanating from the two campaigns, meanwhile, were on stark display in morning appearances by the two presidential contenders.

Obama, riding front-runner status in recent national and state polls, focused on the nation's economic turmoil in remarks made in Ohio. "Now is not the time for fear. Now is not the time for panic. Now is the time for resolve and steady leadership," he said, clearly hoping voters would see him as offering those attributes.

McCain, speaking in Wisconsin, began by stressing his new plan for aiding beleaguered homeowners. But he quickly launched a series of direct attacks at Obama, clearly hoping voters will judge his character superior to his rival's.

He reprised a barb from earlier this week, sarcastically telling his crowd that were he ever to need guidance in being truthful to the American people, he would not seek it from a "Chicago politician" (i.e., Obama).

-- Don Frederick 

California’s fight over marriage is attracting large sums of small donations, particularly on the side that seeks to ban same-sex marriage.

In terms of campaign spending, Proposition 8, the initiative that would create a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman, has become the most costly ballot measure on a social issue, and is drawing big money from national sources. By the time votes are cast on Nov. 4, both sides will have spent upward of $50 million.

Backers of Prop. 8 raised $24.3 million as of the end of September. Foes raised $15.4 million.

California law permits donors to give unlimited sums to support or oppose ballot measures. Both sides have received large donations.

The "yes" side has received big money from conservative Christian and Catholic groups including $450,000 from Focus on the Family, based in Colorado, and $1 million from the Knights of....

This historic presidential election -- which will produce America's first African American president or first female vice president and only the third sitting senator to win the White House -- is drawing significantly more citizen interest than other recent elections.

A new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press finds that about four weeks before the presidential balloting, 61% of registered voters say they are following the races very closely.

That compares with 52% just before the end of the 2004 campaigns and only 39% before the end of the 2000 presidential race.

As another measure of interest, especially surrounding Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, 76 of every 100 registered voters said they watched at least some of the recent vice presidential debate. Far more than watched the main presidential chats. 

Perhaps not coincidentally, this is also the longest presidential competition in history, with candidates mostly announcing their candidacy during the first few weeks of 2007.

By comparison, Sen. John F. Kennedy formally announced his presidential bid on Jan. 2 of the actual election year in 1960.

The same poll also found strong majorities judging the media's coverage of the candidates as generally fair -- except when it comes to Palin. According to the poll, the media are consistently tougher on the Republican candidates, Palin and Sen. John McCain, than on the Democrats -- Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Only 7% of voters thought the media have been too tough on Obama and barely 5% on Biden. But 23% of poll respondents said the media have been too tough on the veteran McCain and 37% thought the same about Palin.

Views of Palin are highly partisan, but even 41% of independents thought the media were too harsh on Palin.

Thirty-one percent of voters thought the media had treated Obama too easy (Biden's number was 21%). Twenty-one percent thought Palin got too easy coverage, and only 15% thought that way about the Republican presidential candidate.

Complete poll results are available here. But first, a quick quiz: We mentioned at the top that Obama or McCain would be only the third sitting senator to win the White House. Who are the other two?

Get the answer by clicking on the Read more line below here.

--Andrew Malcolm

Another poll finds that 100% of people who register here at Twitter get instant alerts of each new Ticket item flashed to their cell. And it's free. 

The general election campaign is all about Barack Obama, at least judging from the money being tossed around independent of his and John McCain’s campaigns.

Both candidates decry independent efforts. But both benefit from them, though Obama is most affected.

Since the traditional Labor Day start of the general election campaign, political groups have spent $25.5 million for and against the presidential candidates. The bulk is being spent to help or hurt Obama.

Moneyed interests have spent nearly $12 million in support of Obama’s election, to $901,000 in support of McCain.

Far more has been spent to block Obama's election, too -- $9.5 million since Sept. 1, to $3.2 million to defeat McCain. The money is used for all manner of campaigning, including television ads and mailings. The figures are gleaned from Federal Election Commission filings of independent expenditure reports by various interest groups.

A closer look suggests trouble for McCain. The largest chunk has....

We're a little late with this one, but whenever Gov. Arnold speaks, The Ticket listens. Eventually.

The other day California's top official -- well, not counting Ron Burkle -- did an onstage interview for an audience of magazine executives gathered in San Francisco.

Turns out, the gov is a huge fan of fellow Republican Gov. Sarah Palin. "I think that she would be a great vice president," said Schwarzenegger, shown here during recent budget negotiations with legislators.

When he saw Palin after her VP nomination in St. Paul, Schwarzenegger said he said, "That's what's wrong with the Constitution," which forbids him, being foreign-born, from becoming president. "Miss Alaska is beating Mr. Universe."

The California chief executive reported that the Alaska chief executive didn't think the joke was that funny.

But Schwarzenegger did warn his audience of out-of-towners against accepting in advance a loss on Nov. 4 by Sen. John McCain. "People," the gov said, "always count him out at the wrong time."

AdAge has more on the interview here.

--Andrew Malcolm

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