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:
Associated Press, The New Republic, The Moderate Voice, The Swamp, The Reaction, FiveThirtyEight.com, The Gun Toting Liberal, Don Surber, The Other McCain, Newshoggers.com, Hot Air, TalkLeft, Washington Post, Open Left, Political Machine, MyDD, Political Radar, unbossed.com, Emptywheel, AMERICAblog News, Comments from Left Field, Washington Monthly, culturekitchen, Liberal Values, TIME.com, MSNBC, The Debatable Land, Reason, Early Returns, TPM Election Central and Taylor Marsh
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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:
Comments from Left Field, The Huffington Post, Liberty Street, TalkLeft and Washington Monthly
Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
McCain Moves Out of Michigan: What It Means — The news that John McCain's campaign is abandoning its efforts in Michigan — first reported by Jonathan Martin at Politico — is the latest in a series of negative developments for the Republican ticket over the last two weeks.
Marc Ambinder:
McCain's Now Playing Defense; Obama Bracing For Counterattacks — The Politico reports this afternoon that the McCain campaign has canceled their television ads and direct mail program in Michigan, and plans instead to fortify McCain's defensive positions in states won by President Bush in 2004.
St. Petersburg Times:Florida GOP meets in secret as Obama passes McCain in polls
Discussion:
Oliver Willis
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.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, TalkLeft, Political Punch, Hotline On Call, The Swamp, Talking Points Memo, Boston Globe, Weekly Standard, Yahoo! News, The Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh, TPM Election Central, Patterico's Pontifications, Open Left, Portfolio, Hot Air, TBogg, Balloon Juice, AMERICAblog News, Agence France Presse, Wake up America, Sister Toldjah, Politics Blog, The Reaction, Donklephant, MyDD and Stop The ACLU
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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 …
Victor Davis Hanson / National Review:
Sarah Biden — Journalists continue to ask, “What was John McCain thinking in selecting the gaffe-prone Gov. Sarah Palin?” — In what has now become a disturbing pattern, the Alaska governor seems either unable or unwilling to avoid embarrassing statements that are often as untrue as they are outrageous.
Discussion:
Macsmind
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:McCain's ‘Stop Sarah Palin’ strategy working like a charm, polls show
Peter Hamby / CNN:Palin's foreign policy adviser stood in for Biden in mock debates
Discussion:
Weekly Standard
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.
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Liz Cox Barrett / CJR:
Drudge Raises a Point — Gwen Ifill has done solid, important journalism. She'll likely be a good, tough, and neutral moderator to the vice-presidential debate. Let's set that aside, for now. — Conflict of interest is often about appearances. There appears, to us …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Ed Driscoll.com, News Hounds, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Huffington Post, The Raw Story and NewsBusters.org
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Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:
RNC shatters monthly fundraising record — The RNC raised nearly $66 million in September, breaking its all-time record. — Committee spokesman Alex Conant credited the haul to the strength of John McCain and Sarah Palin. — The figure is a reminder that, despite her recent slip-ups …
Discussion:
www.redstate.com
Matt / Think Progress:
Lieberman: We Need To Pass The Bailout Because ‘It Will Be Good For John McCain’ — On Fox News today, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) discussed the downturn in Sen. John McCain's presidential prospects, saying McCain “is behind now because of the economy.” Lieberman then said that he hopes …
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 …
Keith Thomson / The Huffington Post:
The Cyrano Issue: Can A Candidate Cheat in a Debate? — The Jan. 24 Republican debate in Boca Raton got me curious. — As you may recall, moderator Tim Russert asked Mitt Romney, “Will you do for Social Security what Ronald Reagan did in 1983?” A disembodied whisper of “He raised taxes” …
Discussion:
Democrats.com
Toby Harnden / Toby Harnden's blog listings:
Revealed: UK ambassador's verdict on Barack Obama — Austan Goolsbee , Barack Obama , David Axelrod , David Plouffe , Downing Street , Gordon Brown — The following is the full text of a July 2008 letter sent by Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the United States, to Gordon Brown …
Discussion:
The Jawa Report
Justin Scheck / Wall Street Journal:
Mackerel Economics in Prison Leads to Appreciation for Oily Fillets — Packs of Fish Catch On as Currency, Former Inmates Say; Officials Carp — When Larry Levine helped prepare divorce papers for a client a few years ago, he got paid in mackerel. Once the case ended, he says, “I had a stack of macks.”
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 …
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 …
Discussion:
www.redstate.com
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, Weekly Standard, Firedoglake, Patterico's Pontifications and Emptywheel
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Confronting Racism Against Obama — A pretty amazing speech by the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka. To see a white union man take on racism this way is very moving. Something truly profound could happen in this election, if we want it to:
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