Top Items:
Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:
McCain pulling out of Michigan — John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play. — McCain will go off TV in Michigan …
Discussion:
The Swamp, Washington Post, Townhall.com, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, The Plank, unbossed.com, Newshoggers.com, Liberal Values, TalkLeft, Martini Revolution, Ben Smith's Blogs, MSNBC, Open Left, Political Machine, MyDD, Emptywheel, Political Radar, AMERICAblog News, Comments from Left Field, Hot Air, Reason, The Debatable Land, Spin Cycle, TPM Election Central, Taylor Marsh, Truthdig, Early Returns and Salon
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Mike Allen / The Politico:
Palin's new plan: Go after Biden — ST. LOUIS — Sarah Palin plans to go on the attack in tonight's debate, hitting Joe Biden for what she will call his foreign policy blunders and penchant for adopting liberal positions on taxes and other issues, according to campaign officials involved in prepping her for tonight's showdown.
Mike Allen / The Politico:
McCain fate hangs on three states — ST. LOUIS — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) now must win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Minnesota in order to get enough electoral votes to win the presidency, his campaign says. — Those were considered swing states in 2000 and 2004, but George W. Bush lost them both times.
Foon Rhee / Boston Globe:
McCain: Life isn't fair — Republican John McCain — making the rounds of the morning news shows as polls show him falling behind Democratic rival Barack Obama and his running mate losing the confidence of voters — sounded either bitter or fatalistic, or perhaps was trying some gallows humor.
Discussion:
Liberty Street, Comments from Left Field, The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, TalkLeft and Shakesville
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Plouffe protests — David Plouffe spoke to reporters just now, my colleague Victoria McGrane reports, previewing the debate. — After repeatedly calling Palin first “an extremely good debater,” then a “great” one, at the end he ramped it up to “Gov. Palin is one of the best debaters in American politics …
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
McCain's ‘Stop Sarah Palin’ strategy working like a charm, polls show — Fresh evidence tonight that the brilliant McCain campaign strategy to lock away the political effervescence of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to stoke overconfidence among the nation's Democrats and set the stage …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, NewsBusters.org, Democratic Strategist, Washington Post and Wonkette
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
GOP ‘Gotcha Journalism’ Charges Throw Spotlight on Debate — For days now, television viewers have watched Sarah Palin unable to explain the significance of her home state's bordering Russia, unable to name a Supreme Court ruling she disagrees with, unable to name a single newspaper she reads.
RELATED:
Ross Douthat:
The Struggles of Sarah Palin — What's been interesting - in a watching-from-behind-your-hands sort of way, if you're a conservative who wishes her well - about Palin's interviews with Charlie Gibson and especially Katie Couric is the way they've provided examples of almost every single …
Chris Orr / The New Republic:
Another Reason Palin Will Win Tonight — I think Michelle is spot on in her pre-analysis of tonight's Biden-Palin debate, but I'd add one additional dynamic that's likely to operate in Palin's favor: She is much closer to her floor of support right now than her ceiling.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish
Michelle Cottle / The New Republic:
Cue The Comeback — Will Palin get pushed into a sinkhole of cringe-inducing incoherence tonight? Don't bet on it! — There's a memorable exchange in the divinely trashy B-movie The Devil's Advocate in which Al Pacino—well-cast as the head of a Manhattan-based legal empire who also happens to be Satan …
iowahawk:
Ifill Ethics Commission Clears Ifill — By Gwen Ifill — PBS Chief Political Correspondent — and Gwen Ifill — President, Ifill Center for Media Ethics — and Gwen Ifill — Editor, BarackBeat Fanzine — WASHINGTON - As expected, a blue ribbon panel from the Ifill Center …
RELATED:
Liz Cox Barrett / CJR:Drudge Raises a Point
Discussion:
The Raw Story, The Volokh Conspiracy, News Hounds, The Huffington Post, NewsBusters.org and Jack & Jill Politics
Jim Tankersley / The Swamp:
Debate pre-game: Biden's gaffe reel — So much for the expectations game. — John McCain's campaign is all-but daring Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden to commit a, well, Biden-esque flub in tonight's debate with GOP counterpart Sarah Palin. Hours before the curtain goes up in St. Louis …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Judge Could Dismiss Stevens's Indictment or Declare Mistrial — Prosecutors Wait Until Last Minute to Disclose Potentially Exculpatory Material — A federal judge this morning scolded lawyers prosecuting Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R) on ethics charges for waiting until the last minute …
Discussion:
The Crypt's Blogs, Patterico's Pontifications, Weekly Standard, Firedoglake, Emptywheel and Kevin Drum
RELATED:
New Yorker:
THE CHOICE — Never in living memory has an election been more critical than the one fast approaching—that's the quadrennial cliché, as expected as the balloons and the bombast. And yet when has it ever felt so urgently true? When have so many Americans had so clear a sense that a Presidency has …
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Photos: Minnesota Left's political tolerance — Tonight, as we prepare for our Debate Party tonight at Trocadero's, one of the listeners for our radio station AM 1280 The Patriot has to prepare for some hard work cleaning his work van and personal car. He made the mistake of thinking …
Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
New Obama Ad In South Stars Bluegrass Legend Saying Obama Is “A Good Man” — Now this is a good ad. A Virginia Democrats sends over a new radio spot that Obama is airing in the southern part of the state — it stars homegrown bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley vouching for Obama's values …
Marc Fisher / Washington Post:
Gilchrest Unloads on Know-Nothing Pols and the Rest of Us — Wayne Gilchrest, the nine-term Republican congressman who represents Maryland's Eastern Shore and parts of Anne Arundel County, has had it, and he's ready to talk. — He's had it with his own party, which he says “has become more narrow …
Matt / Think Progress:
Hans Von Spakovsky Claims Obama Would Have A ‘Partisan And Politically-Biased’ Justice Department — In May, controversial former Justice Department official Hans Von Spakovsky withdrew his name from consideration for the Federal Election Commission, following months of opposition from lawmakers and civil rights groups.
Discussion:
Human Events
St. Petersburg Times:
Florida GOP meets in secret as Obama passes McCain in polls — TALLAHASSEE — Florida Republican leaders hastily convened a top secret meeting this week to grapple with Sen. John McCain's sagging performance in this must-win state. — Their fears were confirmed Wednesday when four …
Margaret Newkirk / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Black turnout high in early voting — A disproportionate number of Georgia's 194,138 early voters are African-American, in what could be an encouraging sign for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. — As of Wednesday, about 39 percent of those voters — 74,961 — are African-Americans …
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