The Vice President-elect will be replaced in the Senate by one of his key aides.

(CNN) – Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s former chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, will fill his seat in the Senate, Delaware Gov. Ruth Minner announced Monday.

“His political views are close to Senator Biden’s, and he doesn’t need any on-the-job training,” Minner said in a statement. “He’ll be an effective Senator for Delaware from day one.”

The announcement was made amid rumors that Biden’s son, Beau, would take his father’s place in the Senate. But the Delaware attorney general, who has deployed to Iraq as a captain in the National Guard, said last week that he wouldn’t take the appointment if offered.

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(CNN) – President-elect Barack Obama formally announced the additions of key White House staff members on Wednesday, including the previously expected choice of David Axelrod as Senior Advisor to the President

"I am pleased to announce these new additions to our team, and I'll be relying on their broad and diverse experience in the months ahead as we work to strengthen our economy, reform Washington, and meet the great challenges of our time,"  Obama said.

Axelrod has been a fixture by Obama’s side for years, serving as the chief strategist for Obama’s campaign and as a top adviser during his run for the Senate in 2004.

Obama also announced Greg Craig as White House Counsel, Lisa Brown as Staff Secretary and Chris Lu as Cabinet Secretary.

Obama is not holding a grudge against Sen. Lieberman.

(CNN) – Barack Obama won’t publicly weigh in on whether or not Sen. Joe Lieberman should keep his position as chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, the president-elect's transition office said.

According to Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter, the president-elect doesn't “hold any grudges” against Lieberman and thinks the Connecticut lawmaker should remain a part of the Democratic caucus.

"We aren't going to referee decisions about who should or should not be a committee chair,” Cutter said. “President-elect Obama looks forward to working with anyone to move the country forward. We'd be happy to have Sen. Lieberman caucus with the Democrats. We don't hold any grudges."

Sources told CNN Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Lieberman last week that he's considering revoking Lieberman's chairmanship on the powerful Homeland Security committee and instead giving him a chairmanship on another, less important, committee. Lieberman reportedly called that proposal "not acceptable."

The full Democratic caucus will likely vote on this issue when it reconvenes next Tuesday, a senior Democratic aide told CNN’s Dana Bash.

Lieberman, an independent, typically votes with the Democrats on a majority of issues, but was a fixture on the campaign trail for John McCain. Lieberman angered Democrats by attacking Obama throughout the campaign, most visibly in a primetime speech during the Republican National Convention when he called Obama inexperienced and said “eloquence is no substitute for a record.”

President-elect Obama told reporters Friday that his eldest daughter, Malia, has allergies which might preclude the family from adopting a shelter dog which would likely be a 'mutt' like Obama.

(CNN) – In his first press conference since winning the race to the White House, President-elect Barack Obama addressed a pressing question: who is going to be the first dog?

Obama told a group of reporters in Chicago on Friday that since his 10-year-old daughter, Malia, is allergic, the Obama family is looking for a hypoallergenic breed. But Obama also said the family wants to adopt one from a shelter.

Watch: Obama talks about the first dog

“There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic, but on the other hand our preference is to get a shelter dog, but obviously, a lot of the shelter dogs are mutts like me,” Obama said. “So, whether we are going to be able to balance those two things I think is a pressing issue on the Obama household.”

Obama is of mixed racial heritage: His mother was Caucasian and his father was African.

Obama announced in his victory speech on Election Day that his daughters had “earned” a puppy. Obama joked that this is a “major issue” and said that since Election Day, the family’s dog choice has created more interest than any other topic.

Obama’s Monday campaign swing starts in Florida.

(CNN) – Barack Obama will start the final full day of the 22-month presidential campaign in the state that cost Democrats the White House eight years ago.

The Democratic nominee's day begins with a rally in Jacksonville, Florida, followed by an event in Charlotte, North Carolina. He holds his final rally of the day before a much-anticipated election night event in Manassas, Virginia.

Florida and North Carolina are up for grabs, according to CNN’s electoral map. Virginia, which has historically voted Republican, is leaning Obama.

Joe Biden and Michelle Obama will hit other crucial states on Monday. Biden will campaign across Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania, while Obama’s wife meets with voters in Nevada and Colorado.

Could Wurzelbacher turn his recent political attention into a legitimate Congressional campaign?

(CNN) – He went from being an average plumber in small town Ohio to a talking point in a presidential debate. Now, a new group is asking “Joe the Plumber” to run for Congress.

With the slogan, “plunge the crap out of Washington,” Trevor Lair, chairman of the Massachusetts College Republicans, launched a website on Friday to try to get Joe Wurzelbacher to run for Congress. The Web site calls on visitors to sign a petition to show support for what Lair hopes will Wurzelbacher’s congressional bid.

"Washington, DC is broken and it needs to be fixed. Joe Wurzelbacher has a real-world perspective and the right attitude to clean up the mess on Capitol Hill,” Lair said.

Lair is aiming to get thousands of signatures to put Wurzelbacher on the ballot against Rep. Marcia Kaptur of Ohio, whom he called a “tax and spend liberal.” Lair praised Wurzelbacher for standing up to “big-government socialism” and said he would be the right candidate to fight for working class Americans.

Wurzelbacher received intense media attention after John McCain pointed to his encounter with Barack Obama in his home town of Holland, Ohio last weekend. His name was mentioned dozens of times during a presidential debate on Wednesday night.

(CNN) – During Wednesday night’s presidential debate, Barack Obama ducked a question on whether or not he thought Sarah Palin is qualified to be president.

“That's going to be up to the American people,” Obama said. “I think that obviously she's capable politician. She has, I think, excited the base in the Republican Party and I think it's very commendable, the work she's done on behalf of special needs.”

Watch: McCain, Obama critique VPs

John McCain said he thinks Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate, is qualified to lead the country, but that he has been “wrong” on a variety of foreign policy issues. McCain said Biden voted against the first Gulf War and that he wanted to divide Iraq into three separate countries.

“There are several issues in which frankly Joe Biden and I openly and honestly disagree on national security policy,” McCain said. “And he's been wrong on the major ones.”

Obama campaigns in Holland Ohio

(CNN) – Joe the Plumber was the star of the final presidential debate on Wednesday night. But who is he?

Watch: Obama meets 'Joe the plumber'

Last weekend, while Barack Obama was canvassing for support in the small town of Holland, Ohio, the Democratic nominee ran into a tall, bald man, since dubbed Joe the plumber. He asked Obama if he believed in the American Dream — he said he was about to buy a company that makes more than $250,000 a year and was concerned that the Democratic nominee would tax him more because of it.

Obama explained his tax plan in depth, saying it’s better to lower taxes for Americans who make less money, so that they could afford to buy from his business. John McCain attacked Obama for this exchange, saying the Illinois senator is trying to “spread the wealth around.”

“We're going to take Joe's money, give it to Senator Obama, and let him spread the wealth around. I want Joe the plumber to spread the wealth around,” McCain said. He added, “Why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now? Why would you want to do that to anyone, anyone in America, when we have such a tough time?”

Joe the plumber was mentioned 11 times at the beginning of the debate, nine times by McCain and twice by Obama.

Watch: Voters sour on 'Joe the plumber' story

(CNN) – Does John McCain recommend a spending freeze to help stabilize the economy, or want the government to purchase bad mortgages from struggling homeowners? Well, according to his answers during Tuesday night’s debate, both.

Early in the debate, McCain recommended that the federal government buy up bad mortgages from landowners and replace them with lower cost, fixed-rate mortgages, which he said would help keep Americans in their homes.

“I would order the Secretary of the Treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of the homes at the diminished value of the homes and let people make those, make the payments and stay in their homes,” McCain said. “Is it expensive? Yes.”

But later in the debate, when asked what sacrifices the American people would need to make to help revive the economy, McCain recommended a “spending freeze.” The Republican nominee said the government should cut wasteful programs and eliminate earmarks.

“We're going to have to tell the American people that spending is going to have to be cut in America,” McCain said. “And I recommend a spending freeze that except for defense, veterans affairs and some other vital programs, we'll just have to have an across the board freeze.”

(CNN) – John McCain said at the top of Tuesday’s debate that he would consider eBay’s former chief executive, Meg Whitman, to be his Treasury Secretary, saying she “inspires trust and confidence” in the American people.

“She knows what it is like to be out there in the marketplace,” said McCain. “She knows how to create jobs. Meg Whitman was CEO of a company that started with 12 people and is, now 1.3 million in America make their living off eBay.”

But in these troubled economic times, there are few corporate poster children: this week, eBay announced that it will cut 1,600 jobs across the country — roughly 10 percent of its work force. Whitman stepped down as president and CEO of the company in March, but she had been in charge since 1998.

Barack Obama and John McCain also praised billionaire Warren Buffet, who McCain credited with trying to stabilize the economy by giving advice and investing in Wall Street firms.

McCain ‘undisputed champion’ of the town hall.

(CNN) – Following the hallowed pre-debate tradition, Democrats spent the hours before Tuesday night’s presidential debate praising GOP nominee John McCain.

The Democratic National Committee released a Web video Tuesday afternoon featuring footage of analysts, and McCain himself, highlighting his prowess in and ease with the night’s town hall format.

“Since McCain is the undisputed champion of the town hall, anything less than a game-changing performance tonight would be major disappointment,” said DNC spokesman Damien LaVera.

Earlier in the day, Barack Obama’s campaign looked to set similar high expectations for his opponent. “When it comes to sheer format, we enter today’s debate the decided underdog,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton in a memo sent to reporters. “John McCain does extremely well in town hall settings. It’s been his favorite format throughout his career and we think that he will of course do very well.”

He also used less-complimentary language the campaign has used to describe McCain, describing the Republican as “erratic” and desperate: “John McCain is running out of time for a game-changing event,” he said.

McCain and Obama are slated to face off in Nashville this evening.

Obama says McCain is avoiding discussing the economy.

(CNN) – Barack Obama said Monday that John McCain is intentionally trying to avoid talking about the economic crisis because it would hurt the Republican nominee’s presidential campaign.

As the stock market dropped even more on Monday afternoon and affected markets around the world, Obama criticized McCain for playing politics over talking about his plan to fix the economy.

“I have got news for the McCain campaign, the American people are losing right now,” Obama told reporters in Asheville, North Carolina. “They are losing their jobs, they are losing their healthcare, they are losing their homes, they are losing their savings, I cannot image anything more important to talk about than the economic crisis.”

Obama encouraged Congress to work on a second economic stimulus package that would provide direct relief from high gas and food prices and said Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke need to move quickly to restore confidence in the economy.

Obama said the next steps are to work to improve the housing market and to extend unemployment insurance.

The Democratic nominee said both candidates need to address their plans for the economy during the debate in Nashville on Tuesday night.

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(CNN) – While answering a question on benefits for same sex couples during the vice presidential debate, Sarah Palin said she would be tolerant about Americans “choosing their partners, choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves.”

Palin used similar wording when talking about a lesbian friend in an interview with CBS’s Katie Couric earlier this week, in comments that seemed to suggest she believes homosexuality is a choice.

“She is one of my best friends who happens to have made a choice that isn't a choice I would have made,” Palin said.

Biden and Palin shake hands before the debate begins.

(CNN) – Sarah Palin crossed the stage, waving and blowing a kiss to the audience, on her way to meet her rival face-to-face for the first time at the vice presidential debate on Thursday night.

Palin and Joe Biden shook hands and smiled at each other.

“Nice to meet you,” Palin said. “Hey, can I call you Joe?”

“You can call me Joe,” Biden responded.

Veterans for Freedom released a new ad called 'Skipped'.

(CNN) –- A veterans group that has run ads against Democrat Barack Obama in several battleground states is the Democratic nominee in a new multi-million dollar ad campaign that accuses him of caring more about his campaign than about troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Barack Obama skipped 45 percent of Senate votes, but did manage to show up to vote against emergency funding for our troops,” the narrator says in the new 30-second spot from Veterans for Freedom. “Obama was chairman of the committee overseeing the fight against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan but never held a single hearing. “…Obama found time to make 45 trips to Iowa but only two trips to Iraq."

The new ad was set to debut in California Wednesday, and the group plans to spend $2.2 million to keep it on the air for the next nine days.

Obama’s campaign has objected to the charge that he voted against funding the troops, saying the Illinois senator voted against an Iraq supplemental spending bill that did not include a withdrawal timeline, but supported one that did. McCain voted against that Iraq funding bill, instead supporting one that did not include a timeline.

The Democrat’s campaign has also objected to the charge that the subcommittee he chairs failed to conduct proper oversight of the situation in Afghanistan, and that those hearings were handled through the full Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That committee is chaired by Obama’s running mate, Delaware Senator Joe Biden.

Veterans for Freedom’s 527 arm, which directed much of its 2006 ad spending, lists just a handful of donors this year — the bulk of the group’s budget is now handled out of its non-profit 501 (c) arm, which does not have to disclose its donors under current federal campaign finance regulations. The group has aired several anti-Obama ads this year.

The Obama campaign released a new ad calling McCain a 'big spender'.

(CNN) –- As the Senate prepared for an expected Wednesday evening vote on the financial bailout package, Barack Obama’s campaign released a new ad Wednesday that portrayed John McCain as a “big spender” who would add $3 trillion to the national debt.

Citing statistics from TaxPolicyCenter.org, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the McCain campaign Web site, “Spending Spree” charges that McCain’s tax and spending proposals would drive up America’s debt by trillions of dollars.

Watch: The Obama campaign's latest ad calls McCain a 'big spender'

“So as we borrow from China to fund his spending spree, ask yourself. Can we afford John McCain?” a narrator asks in the ad, which start running in “key states” Wednesday, according to the Obama campaign.

The ad comes one day after the Republican National Committee’s independent expenditure unit released a new spot, set to run in battleground states, that looks to tie Obama to the bailout plan before Congress, and holds him responsible for the $1 trillion in new spending that may result.

"Who pays? You do. New taxes. New spending. New debt. Barack Obama’s plan: It will make the problem worse," says the announcer in the 30-second spot.

Reaction to McCain’s statement fell along party lines.

(CNN) – Democratic leadership reacted to John McCain’s Wednesday announcement that he wants to return to Capitol Hill to work on the economic bailout plan and postpone the first debate by saying “presidential politics” should stay out of the negotiations.

Democrats on the Hill told CNN’s Jessica Yellin that after days of negotiations, they are close to coming to a consensus. If McCain comes back to Washington in the final stretch, they said they fear the Republican nominee may take credit for the deal.

Related: Democrats call McCain move a "stunt"

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said with the economy in turmoil, now is the perfect time for the candidates to discuss the issues on the national stage.

“It would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy,” Reid said in a statement. “If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership, not a campaign photo op.”

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The Obama campaign released a new ad Tuesday taking aim at McCain's foreign cars.

(CNN) – Barack Obama’s campaign released an ad Tuesday attacking John McCain for saying he has bought American cars his entire life, following reports the Republican nominee currently owns three foreign-made vehicles.

“I've bought American literally all my life, and I'm proud,” McCain told Detroit TV station WXYZ in an interview.

But Newsweek reported last week that McCain and wife Cindy own 13 cars, including three foreign automobiles: a Lexus, a Volkswagen and a Honda. McCain also told the New York Times last year that he bought his daughter, Meghan, a Toyota Prius. He later denied the purchase and said Meghan bought the car herself.

This is the latest in a campaign by the Obama team to portray McCain as wealthy and out of touch with ordinary Americans. Last month, Democrats jumped when McCain said he wasn’t sure how many homes he owns.

The ad will start running in Michigan, the auto-manufacturing capital of the United States, on Wednesday.

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(CNN) – Sitting on a couch shmoozing the ladies of The View on Monday, Bill Clinton said Hillary didn’t want to be Barack Obama’s running mate, but that she would have taken the job if she was asked.

“She would have been the best politically, at least in the short run, because of her enormous support [in] the country,“ Clinton said. “She said 'If he asks, I’ll do it because it’s my duty.'”

Clinton praised Biden and said he was a “good choice.” He said he had “no real opinion” on whether or not she should have been his running mate, but that the decision is personal and that he chose to stay out of it completely.

Clinton praised John McCain for his time spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and said the Arizona senator had been the only Republican candidate this year who could win the election, but predicted that Obama will win in November because of the state of the economy.

“I've made everyone in the world mad in this election,” Clinton said. “But I genuinely like both of them. I genuinely admire both of them. I think we make a terrible mistake believing we have to find something wrong with the people we can't vote for.”

When asked about Obama’s experience, Clinton said he was the same age as the Democratic nominee when he stepped into the Oval Office. He said he thinks both candidates are experienced enough to be president.

“Having been there, you could argue that no one is ever fully qualified to be president until you take it, because it’s such a unique job, you have to learn things as you go,” Clinton said. “But I think he is ready to be president, and I think McCain is ready to be president, I think you gotta decide which president you want.”

(CNN) – Hillary Clinton is stepping up her efforts to push her supporters to vote and campaign for Barack Obama.

“As we continue to read the headlines about our troubled economy, the stakes of this election only get higher,” Clinton said in a Friday message. “Today I am asking all of you to hit the phones, hit the road and spread the word that we must elect Barack Obama President and we must send a filibuster-proof majority to Congress.”

Clinton’s political action committee, HillPAC, is launching a new grassroots movement on Saturday morning that will help mobilize volunteers to phone-bank, blog and canvass for Obama and other Democrats in tough congressional races. This effort, called “Hillary Sent Me!” will focus on a different battleground state each week.

“This is a call to action,” Clinton said. “We all have a role. And there is not a moment to lose. Tell them that Hillary sent you.”

Clinton’s speech to the Democratic National Convention at the end of August helped to bridge the gap between the two former rivals, as the former presidential candidate formally asked her delegates to vote for Obama. But John McCain’s campaign has continued to highlight Clinton voters who have endorsed the Republican nominee in a bid to woo disaffected former backers of the New York senator.

Hillary Sent Me! will send supporters to New Hampshire the weekend of September 27 to campaign for Obama and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat who is fighting for GOP Sen. John Sununu’s Senate seat. The group will mobilize volunteers in Ohio and Pennsylvania in the middle of October.