Palin Proved to Be Formidable Foe in Alaska Debates  —  ANCHORAGE, Alaska — There are two things people here remember about Sarah Palin's debating style during her race for governor two years ago.  —  One is the stack of color-coded cue cards she took to the podium for help whenever she was asked a policy question.

Nervous GOP urges McCain to attack  —  John McCain's fade in recent polls, combined with a barrage of negative news coverage during the financial crisis, has leading Republican activists around the country worrying about his prospects and urging his campaign to become much more aggressive …

A debate “moderator” in the tank for Obama; Update: McCain campaign didn't know about book  —  My first syndicated column of the week, filed this afternoon, shines light on PBS anchor Gwen Ifill, who will moderate Thursday's only vice presidential debate.  Try as she might to deflect questions …

oh - oh !!  —  I confirmed for us here on GretaWire: the McCain campaign did NOT know about Gwen Ifill's book (I think I told them when I made my efforts - emails about midnight - to find out!)  I am stunned....the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate.

The McCain Bubble?  —  New Pew poll shows what everyone already knows — John McCain is slipping a lot.  But they also have interesting demographic breakdowns.  People normally think of Democrats as always winning big among African-American voters, so there's been relatively little attention paid …