McCain on financial bailout: 'Just like Iraq, I'm not afraid to go it alone.'  —  Today, the Washington Post reveals more details about what happened during the White House meeting on Thursday between President Bush and top lawmakers.  Despite indicating that his presence was pivotal …

Round 1 in debates goes to Obama, poll says  —  OXFORD, Mississippi (CNN) — A national poll of people who watched the first presidential debate suggests that Barack Obama came out on top, but there was overwhelming agreement that both Obama and John McCain would be able to handle the job of president if elected.

Paul Newman, a Magnetic Titan of Hollywood, Is Dead at 83  —  Paul Newman, one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars, died Friday at his home in Westport, Conn. He was 83.  —  The cause was cancer, said Jeff Sanderson of Chasen & Company, Mr. Newman's publicist.

Palin grabs a seat at the bar  —  Perhaps it was coincidence that the song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” was playing as Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin worked the crowd at the Irish Pub last night.  —  But her amorous fans were definitely ready to let the moose-hunting Alaska governor rule.

SO ANGRY  —  McCain's unwillingness to make eye contact with Obama through the debate seems to be getting picked up by a lot of observers.  Here's an interesting exchange on the subject between Chris Matthews and the Post's Eugene Robinson ...  Here's one comment we got from TPM Reader EO ...

A Genuine and Immediate Crisis  —  What Congress has to do now.  —  I've received phone calls in the last hour from two economists I respect, one of them Larry Lindsey, the other in a position where he'd prefer not to be named.  Both have government experience, neither is alarmist by nature, and they say this:

Why Obama Won Big  —  Nate Silver is a must-read.  This is a fascinating nugget: … The more it sinks in, the more I think Obama actually knocked it out of the park last night.  He is, in some ways, the inverse McCain.  McCain is all drama and explosions but then ... the air smells like damp, finished fireworks smoke.

The Washington Panic  —  The Paulson plan is a tool to avoid a deeper downturn.  —  Thursday night's negotiated sale of Washington Mutual to J.P. Morgan Chase was a nifty bit of financial plumbing that minimized the damage to taxpayers while putting a banking zombie in sounder hands.

“Horses**t”: Correction  —  I've removed the original post of a little time ago because after listening to the clip about two dozen times, what sounded like McCain saying “horses**t” actually comes through as having a hard “c” at the front of it.  My husband insists that McCain said “Course not.”

On strategy and tactics  —  The least self-aware moment for John McCain in last night's debate came at the half-way point, when he said, “I'm afraid Senator Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy.”  —  In a sense McCain was sticking to his battle plan in saying this …

The Next Day, a New Debate on Who Won  —  OXFORD, Miss. — The presidential campaigns roared out of here Saturday morning facing a task arguably as difficult — and as important — as the debate between Barack Obama and John McCain itself: How to influence the public perception of who won …

Ratings Shock — Last Night's Audience Smaller than Bush-Kerry's  —  After predictions that these Obama-McCain debates would earn record audiences in the 80-100 million range, the “overnights” from the five broadcast networks are in — and at least where they are concerned, the viewership for last night's debate was surprisingly low.