Brazil's once humdrum presidential race now resembles one of the country's famed soap operas, with a newcomer thrust into the spotlight by a plane crash and the longtime favorite reeling from a one-two punch of bad news. With just over a month to go before the Oct. 5 vote, President Dilma Rousseff awoke to newspaper headlines Saturday announcing that Brazil's long-sputtering economy had officially entered recession for the first time in more than five years.