Obama: ‘Lipstick on a pig’  —  Amie Parnes reports from Lebanon, VA: … The crowd apparently took the “lipstick” line as a reference to Palin, who described the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull in a single word: “lipstick.”  —  UPDATE: The McCain campaign is now saying Obama called Palin a pig, which he didn't.

World wants Obama as president: poll  —  US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said.  —  All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer …

McCain Sex-Ed Ad Launched; Obama Camp: “Perverse”  —  John McCain is out with a response ad to Barack Obama's attacks today on his education policy, accusing the Democratic nominee of not accomplishing a single education-related goal other than to promote “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners.

Comedy gold: Lefty radio hosts crestfallen as Palin defended by ... Mike Gravel  —  You don't hear their hearts actually start to break until he says, “Troopergate is going to come out in her favor.”  Although the most traumatic part, surely, must have been the exchange about how the mayor …

NBC/WSJ Poll: '08 race turns into a dead heat  —  Barack Obama holds a narrow one-point lead over John McCain  —  Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin stand together on the stage during a campaign event at in Albuquerque, New Mexico on September 6, 2008.  —  Deputy political director

Georgia GOP candidate calls black MSNBC reporter ‘uppity.’  —  Speaking to a Georgia morning news show last Thursday, GOP congressional candidate Rick Goddard criticized an MSNBC reporter's sharp questioning of former House speaker Newt Gingrich at the Republican National Convention.

Family with Down Syndrome Child Meets John McCain and Sarah Palin  —  BEGIN TRANSCRIPT  —  RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir.  Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?  —  CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?  —  RUSH: How about that?

LYING SARAH WATCH  —  Sometimes when you've got a liar as big as Sarah Palin on the line only a timeline will really do justice to her fibbing ways.  —  So a lot of you have written in to ask: Okay, she says she said ‘Thanks.  But no thanks’ to the Bridge to Nowhere.  But how exactly did it all come out?

An awkward moment in Columbia  —  Victoria McGrane:

I Dream About Sarah Palin.  Do You?  —  SEND US YOUR DREAMS ABOUT THE REPUBLICAN VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE.  —  I rarely remember my dreams, but for the past week, GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been haunting me.  Night after night, she appears in my dreams, always as a scolding, ominous figure.

Brown backs Obama  —  Gordon Brown has broken with British convention and made clear that he favours Barack Obama as the next US President.  —  In a departure from the usual self-denying ordinance of Prime Ministers past, Brown has written an article for The Monitor magazine …