All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Tonight, immediately following our primetime coverage of President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, Katie Couric will speak with Sen. John McCain in a live Web-exclusive interview on CBSNews.com and CNET.com at approximately 10:30 p.m. The Webcast features other guests, too - and all the analysis you expect from what Katie likes to call "the best political team in the galaxy."

And as usual, you get to join the conversation. The Webcast includes live response to viewer questions, which can be submitted now at www.cbsnews.com/webcast or by e-mailing questions@cbs.com.

Check out a preview here:

Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News.

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It’s a week before America chooses its next president – but the government is already gearing up for Inauguration Day.

Part of the sidewalk in front of the White House has now been fenced off. It’s where they’ll start building the big reviewing stand from which the 44th President of the United States will watch the Inaugural Parade.

Across the street in Lafayette Park, trailers and more fencing have been moved into position. That’s the site where booths for the news media will be constructed along with grandstands for VIPs with special tickets for the parade.

Up at the U.S. Capitol, the Joint Congressional Committee on the Inaugural Ceremonies began its preparations last month – holding a ceremony Sept. 24 to mark the driving of the "first nail" in the inaugural platform.

There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the country must make a big to-do over the inauguration of a new president. All that’s required ...

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Sharyl Attkisson is an investigative correspondent for CBS News.

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Fake occupations like "lover"? Non-existent zip codes like "00000"? Imaginary people like "Doodad Pro"? Neither campaign appears to corner the market on odd entries from the donor files.

But with Obama receiving many more individual donations, a stunningly larger total (Obama's got more than $603 million to McCain's $358 million), and -depending who you ask - an impressive (or suspicious) month of record fundraising in September, some are trying to take a closer look at Obama's stats.

"He's been taking in a lot of money very rapidly," says Sheila Krumholz who heads up the Center for Responsive Politics. She says ...

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Last night the presidential candidates lobbed information missiles across the table - but how many of them were on target?

John McCain blamed the housing crisis on lending practices at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Not quite. They don't hand out loans to home buyers, they buy mortgages from banks.

Then, Barack Obama said 100 percent of McCain's ads are negative. That was only true for one week of the campaign, and both have spent more money on negative ads than positive ones.

Despite McCain's assertions, experts say Obama's health care plan would not hurt small businesses. On the flip side, they say McCain's $5,000 rebate would be enough to offset the tax burden from most employer-based insurance plans.

Do those health plans cover aspirin? It's all giving me a headache. It's no small task to memorize all the numbers and regurgitate all that information at a debate. But as Mark Twain said, "When you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

Talk about 15 minutes of fame. A professional handyman from Toledo, Ohio, was thrust into the national spotlight during last night's final presidential debate ... repeatedly. According to the New York Times, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain mentioned or spoke directly to Joe Wurzelbacher – immortalized as "Joe the Plumber" – more than 20 times during their primetime discussion with Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer.

And as the debate ended, so did Joe's anonymity. By the time he was contacted by a producer at the CBS Evening News, Wurzelbacher said three news trucks were already parked outside his home. But he made time to speak with Katie during both the primetime debate analysis and our online-only Webcast.

See what he had to say - or watch the video - below.

Katie Couric: We want to go to Joe the plumber, Joe Wurzelbacher from Toledo, Ohio, because Joe is telling me that he's got three live trucks parked outside his house - actually from Holland, Ohio, let me correct that, Joe. Was this a bit of a surreal experience, hearing your name mentioned not once, but twice, but almost half a dozen times during the course of this debate, Joe?

Joseph Wurzelbacher: Yeah, actually, surreal's a good word to use for it. It was - you know, I was glad I was able to act as some type of point, you know, to where they could sit there and hammer out what they both think, what they want to say. But ultimately, you know, the important part was the debate.

Couric: And again, why don't you just reiterate quickly for us, Joe, because I want you to get back, get to your local news station where you are, how you felt about the statements made by the candidates vs. the statements you heard when they were out on the campaign trail talking to you.

Wurzelbacher: One thing I noticed ...

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With less than a month left, this presidential campaign has taken a decidedly ugly turn.

At Republican rallies, some over heated supporters have started to yell things like "terrorist" and "treason" when Barack Obama's name is mentioned. This is depressing and unacceptable.

Freedom of speech is one of our most cherished rights, but words that incite violence should be seriously condemned by all the candidates.

It's no surprise that "civil discourse" is such an oxymoron these days. When I sometimes peruse comments on the Internet, they are loaded with vitriol and profanity. I'm embarrassed for the authors of those comments, and for the readers who stumble upon them.

Words are like weapons – they can damage who we are. This is an important time to remind ourselves that even when passions are high, we can agree to disagree. And we can do so with reason – and respect.

The pundits are spinning like whirling dervishes today to declare their candidate the winner of last night's debate. But no matter who won, the clear losers are the undecided voters.

A CBS News poll found that 72 percent of them still feel the same way today – unsure. Part of the reason may be found in another poll number. Fifty-seven percent said neither candidate did a good job of answering the questions.

Based on the thousands of e-mails to our Webcast last night, the economy is Topic A at the kitchen table. Ellen from Mississippi wrote, "Without the slinging of mud and this one said this and did that, what are you going to do for Americans who work hard for a future that is not too promising?"

401Ks have lost $2 trillion in the past 15 months. The financial mess is already a Main Street problem, but Americans are still just hearing a lot of K Street spin. To the uncommitted voters, here's hoping the third time's a charm – that you'll hear real solutions at the next debate next Wednesday.

Sandra Hughes is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

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There couldn’t be a more critical time to be a small business owner. So many small businesses rely on loans – for everything from payroll to buying needed equipment – that when credit dried up these past few weeks they started facing critical decisions on how to keep their businesses going. According to the National Small Business Association, which has recently polled its members about the economic crisis, nationwide 28,000 fewer small business loans have been approved this year. Sixty-seven percent of small business owners surveyed recently said they’ve been impacted by the credit crunch.

We interviewed two Southern California business owners who told us in addition to this recent crisis, they’ve been troubled for years over increasing healthcare premiums and what they feel are excessive taxes and regulations. What we also learned from our interviews is that while politicians talk a lot about the small businessman and woman, the small business owner doesn’t feel like anyone in Washington is listening to their needs.

Mike O’Toole owns the Gondola Getaway in Long Beach, Calif. The idea to take people on gondola rides through the canals of his hometown came to him in business school. And he’s been making it work for 27 years. But O’Toole says: “if we’re the engine that drives the country (as so many politicians like to say) we need a new mechanic.” Why? He told us he’s drowning in regulations and taxes. There is no way he could afford to provide healthcare for all his employees, many of whom are part-time; because it would put him out of business.

Mark Murai is a third-generation strawberry grower who also owns processing plants. His top concern is paying for healthcare for his 30 employees whom he considers like family. But ...

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John Blackstone is a CBS News correspondent based in San Francisco.

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When I was asked to prepare a report on how the candidates’ positions on climate change would impact voters, I remembered one voter who cares deeply about global warming. I first met her in January while I was on assignment in Antarctica. Jean Pennycook studies penguins there, and she has seen the devastating impact on penguin colonies when glaciers melt more rapidly than anyone has seen before. I decided it was time to check in with Pennybrook again.

When she’s not in Antarctica, Pennycook teaches environmental science at Awhanee Middle School in Fresno, Calif. I sat in on a class where she talked to students about the science of global warming and about the real-world results she has seen first hand down in the Antarctic penguin habitat. The most significant thing she sees in this presidential campaign is that – after eight years of the Bush Administration pretty much denying that global warming is caused by human activity – both parties' nominees accept the scientific conclusion that climate change is real. While she hopes that will bring new sense of urgency at the top in Washington, she continues to work from the bottom up, telling students that doing things like saving energy at home is a step toward saving some penguins at the other end of the earth. She asks them the kids: "are you willing to turn out the lights in your room to save the penguins?"

Some people are doing much more than turning out the lights. John Fiscalini is a California dairy farmer who was shocked when people started pointing fingers at agriculture as one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases. He discovered the truth: Manure from his 3,000 cows produces huge ...

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