‘Substantive’ Press Is Taken for a Spin  —  OXFORD, Miss. — David Axelrod was surrounded by a pack of camera-toting, mike-wielding, pushing-and-shoving media types, one of whom asked whether his man Barack Obama had been “too nice” in the just-completed debate with John McCain.

Gallup Daily: Obama Maintains 8-Point Lead  —  Registered voters prefer Obama to McCain, 50% to 42%  —  PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update, based on Sept. 26-28 polling, shows Barack Obama with a 50% to 42% lead over John McCain, unchanged from the prior report.

O'S DANGEROUS PALS  —  BARACK'S ‘ORGANIZER’ BUDS PUSHED FOR BAD MORTGAGES  —  WHAT exactly does a “community organizer” do?  Barack Obama's rise has left many Americans asking themselves that question.  Here's a big part of the answer: Community organizers intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to customers with poor credit.

Obama sought rape victim for ad  —  Barack Obama's campaign earlier this month sought to find a rape victim to appear in a campaign commercial, according to an email obtained by Politico.  —  Kiersten Steward, director of public policy at the Family Violence Prevention Fund …

The 3 A.M. Call  —  It's 3 a.m., a few months into 2009, and the phone in the White House rings.  Several big hedge funds are about to fail, says the voice on the line, and there's likely to be chaos when the market opens.  Whom do you trust to take that call?  —  I'm not being melodramatic.

The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore  —  Let me cut to the chase.  The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this.  Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken.

Bailout questions answered  —  I'm being asked two big questions about this thing: (1) Was it really necessary?  (2) Shouldn't Dems have tossed the whole Paulson approach out the window and done something completely different?  —  On (1), the answer is yes.

FAREED ZAKARIA GPS  —  Meeting with World Leaders at the United Nations  —  THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.  —  FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, GLOBAL PUBLIC SQUARE: Welcome to GPS, the GLOBAL PUBLIC SQUARE, to our viewers in the United States and around the world.

US elections: Barack Obama's team believes he can win by a landslide  —  Barack Obama's senior aides believe he is on course for a landslide election victory over John McCain and will comfortably exceed most current predictions in the race for the White House.

You won't believe where that $700-billion bailout figure came from  —  Here's something that John McCain and Barack Obama and Sarah Palin and even longtime Washingtonian Joe Biden probably don't know.  Not to mention Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and Ron Paul, who usually knows everything.

The Bailout Package: Vital and Acceptable  —  Financial markets in the United States and around the world face a dire emergency requiring urgent and decisive action.  Some key parts of the credit market are on the verge of gridlock, resulting not just in the collapse of major financial institutions …

Chicago dive bar scores hit with nude Sarah Palin portrait  —  People are flocking to snap pictures of the latest tribute to Sarah Palin, a nude portrait depicting her in red stilettos and her trademark eyeglasses.  —  Brian Boyer  —  Artist Bruce Elliott says the hardest part was “getting the color right.”

MCCAIN CAMP TO IFILL: GO EASY ON PALIN  —  The McCain camp is saying that veep debate moderator Gwen Ifill will have to answer for herself if she asks too many foreign policy questions Thursday night:

Olmert Says Israel Should Pull Out of West Bank  —  JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published on Monday that Israel must withdraw from nearly all the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem to attain peace with the Palestinians and that any occupied land it held onto …