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Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel isn't impressed by fellow Republican John McCain's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his running mate, calling attempts to make her seem more qualified than she is "insulting to the American people."

"I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" Hagel said in an interview with the Omaha World-Herald. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."

"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," the Nebraska Republican added. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States."

The Senate Banking Committee scrapped a highly anticipated hearing scheduled for Thursday with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

That marks the second time in a week Paulson's appearance has been cancelled.

The committee declined to say why Thursday's hearing was put off. Paulson irked Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) by cancelling a Tuesday appearance. Lawmakers are eager to press the secretary about the government's unprecedented efforts to stabilize Wall Street.

- Manu Raju

A new presidential debates website from MySpace will let users watch the three presidential debates live, track issues important to them, and share debate clips online.

MySpace partnered with the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) to launch MyDebates.org today. Voters do not have to register with MySpace to use the site, which is geared towards drawing more Internet users into the political process.

First-time visitors are given a quiz on 14 issues and, based on their answers, are told whether they agree with Barack Obama, John McCain, or neither on each. Once the first debate begins Sept. 26, users will be able to sort clips of the debates according to those 14 issues, share the clips with friends, and embed them in their own web pages.

In addition to broadcasting each debate live on the site, CPD will let MyDebates users submit questions for Obama and McCain, which CPD will consider for inclusion in the town-hall-style debate on Oct. 7.

"We believe that this landmark partnership will do for the debate series what TV did for the Kennedy Nixon debates in 1960," MySpace said upon launching the site today. "People, especially the youth voters so critical to this election, are living their lives online and getting the majority of their news and information there now."

MyDebates marks the first-ever online partnership for the presidential debates, and it is the latest of several election sites launched by online giants for the '08 race, as YouTube launched its YouChoose election channel in spring 2007, and Google launched its own election site last month.

After several news and gossip outlets reported today that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) personal Yahoo! e-mail account had been hacked, John McCain's campaign released the following statement this afternoon:

"This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment."

News and gossip site Gawker reported today that a group of hackers, dubbedn "Anonymous" and loosely affiliated with the message board 4-Chan, had obtained the password to Palin's personal e-mail account,

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today endorsed Republican Chris Lee for New York's 26th district congressional seat, jumping into a race that was thrown into turmoil last week with an unexpected candidate emerging on the Democratic side.

Lee will face Democrat Alice Kryzan, who pulled off a major upset in the district's Sept. 9 primary. Kryzan knocked off national Democratic Party-endorsed Jon Powers and self-funded candidate Jack Davis, surprising observers as she snuck by the two favorites. Lee and Kryzan will seek to replace retiring Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), who has endorsed Lee as his successor.

The Chamber says it has, as of yet, no plans to spend money on the 26th district race. Lee has nearly eight times Kryzan's cash on hand, leading her $751,000 to $95,000 in that category.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said Wednesday that John McCain does have the experience needed to become a business executive, let alone the background needed to become president.

Romney's remarks, made on CNN, come a day after McCain aide Carly Fiorina said that neither McCain nor any of the other presidential or vice presidential candidates have the necessary business background to be a CEO.

"I think she's just misinformed in that regard," said Romney, who has been CEO of consulting firm Bain & Company and of the 2002 Winter Olympics. "I'd be happy to hire John McCain and Sarah Palin to run a business that I'm an investor in. But I can also tell you that when you compare John McCain with Barack Obama, it's a pretty, pretty clear comparison that John McCain has experience that's been, a lot of developed judgment that you need in a time like this."

Romney noted McCain's experience in the Senate, where he has served as Commerce Committee chairman.

"[T]hat has given him the kind of experience that allowed him to work with President Reagan, President Ford, President Clinton and so forth and fashion economic policy that frankly has allowed America to outgrow our European competitors, to create many tens of millions of jobs when they have it," Romney said. "And it's that kind of policy that's or experience that's allowed him to say you know what? Don't raise tax now, keep taxes down. Make sure that we trade with our countries and do what we have to do to become energy independent. Don't do what Barack Obama is saying, which is not allowing drilling offshore, not building a nuclear power plant."

Romney dismissed comparisons between his own vast business background and McCain's that he had made when running against McCain for the GOP presidential nomination .

"Well, I was trying to convince people that I was the right guy for the job and that just didn't work, as you know," Romney said. "In the current setting there's no question that John McCain has by far the most economic experience of any of the people that are either in the presidential or the vice presidential contest."

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) said that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) upcoming visit to the United Nations won't do much for her foreign policy credentials.

Palin is expected to visit the UN General Assembly and attend a protest Monday against the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will also be at the United Nations next week.

Emanuel, on MSNBC Tuesday, said: "To the notion that somehow if you brought Sarah Palin up to the U.N. to introduce her to people that was going to give her foreign policy credentials or a sense of the world, I think it only understates the fact is that Sen. [John] McCain in this moment of time in history has made a judgment call about a running mate that doesn't -- that in my view doesn't have the experience to be a part of this."

Emanuel, a backer of Barack Obama, added:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) personal Yahoo! e-mail account was hacked by a vigilante group of Internet users, the news and gossip website Gawker is reporting.

Gawker has screenshots purportedly snapped from Palin's account, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and is displaying images of e-mails allegedly sent by Palin on its site.

The send/receive list includes a Palin aide, and Gawker suggests Palin could have used her personal account to conduct state business, which could complicate public records requests. Read more...

Lilly Ledbetter, who took her gender pay discrimination case to the Supreme Court, endorsed Barack Obama for president Wednesday.

Ledbetter sued her former company, Goodyear, for discrimination, charging it with denying her raises because she was a woman. The Supreme Court decided against Ledbetter in a 5-to-4 decision, finding that she had waited too long to make her claim.

Obama's campaign used the endorsement, made during a forum with Michelle Obama in Richmond, Va., to highlight the Democrat's appeal to women voters.

"There is only one candidate who has stood up for women like me. Who has consistently fought to help women who are working hard every day for our families and aren't being paid fairly," Ledbetter said in a statement.

Ledbetter has been supportive of Democrats this election, speaking at the party's convention in Denver. Her case prompted Democrats to push for a law that would have changed the deadlines for filing a discrimination claim. The House passed the bill but it stalled due to Republican opposition in the Senate.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) presidential campaign, endorsed John McCain for president on Wednesday, suggesting that he has the experience that Barack Obama does not.

"In an election as important at this, we must choose the candidate who has a proven record of bipartisanship and reforming government, and that's John McCain," Rothschild said in a statement. "We can't afford a president who lacks experience and judgment and has never crossed party lines to work for meaningful reform. Amid tough economic times and foreign policy concerns, we need someone who is ready to lead. Although I am a Democrat, I recognize that it's more important to put country ahead of party and that's why I support John McCain."

Rothschild was also a member of the Democratic National Committee's platform committee. She had harsh words for Obama during a CNN interview in July.

"This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don't like him," she said. "I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him."

Rothschild, also known as Lady de Rothschild, is a former corporate lawyer, CEO of her own international holding company and the wife of British banking magnate Sir Evelyn Rothschild.