Exclusive: Obama to preempt McCain assault  —  Branding his opponent as “erratic in a crisis,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is preempting plans by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to portray him as having sinister connections to controversial Chicagoans.  —  Obama officials call it political jujitsu - turning the attacks back on the attacker.

GOP dread: Dems could hit 60 Senate seats  —  The possibility that Democrats will build a muscular, 60-seat Senate majority is looking increasing plausible, with new polls showing a powerful surge for the party's candidates in Minnesota, Kentucky and other states.

Pressured to Take More Risk, Fannie Hit a Tipping Point  —  “Almost no one expected what was coming.  It's not fair to blame us for not predicting the unthinkable.”  — Daniel H. Mudd, former chief executive, Fannie Mae  —  When the mortgage giant Fannie Mae recruited Daniel H. Mudd …

Conservatism = Debt  —  Cato's David Boaz alleges that “it must be a great disappointment to Goldwater Republicans to discover this story that got almost no notice this week.”  The story in question turns out to be about the burgeoning national debt in the Bush years:

John Warner might vote for Democrat  —  Retiring Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) beat his Democratic opponent, Mark R. Warner, by 6 percentage points in the Old Dominion's “Warner vs. Warner” race of 1996.  —  Now, he might cross party lines and vote for him.  —  Mark Warner, who went …

The Early Line: Diageo/Hotline Tracking Poll  — The Diageo/Hotline tracking poll has switched to LVs.  Only RVs who describe themselves as “extremely likely” or “very likely” to vote, or have already voted, will be included in the survey.  — Touchdown Fighting Illini?

Palin's Alternate Universe  —  Sarah Palin is the perfect exclamation point to the Bush years.  —  We've lived through nearly two terms of an administration that believed it could create its own reality: … Now comes Ms. Palin, a smiling, bubbly vice-presidential candidate who travels in an alternate language universe.

L.A. Times Finally Admits that the President Can Fire the SEC Chair After All  —  It turns out that the President can indeed fire the Chair of the SEC after all.  —  After the L.A. Times and many others wrote that the President has no such authority, I sent a complaint to the L.A. Times on September 23.

With One Month To Go: Why McCain Will Close and Win  —  Because the country cannot afford the greatest gamble in its modern history at this moment in time.  —  A confrontation with Iran looms and instability in Pakistan grows.  The Islamist threat has been beaten back in Iraq …

Economic Unrest Shifts Electoral Battlegrounds  —  The turmoil on Wall Street and the weakening economy are changing the contours of the presidential campaign map, giving new force to Senator Barack Obama's ambitious strategy to make incursions into Republican territory …

Dick Cheney, Role Model  —  In all the talk about the vice-presidential debate, there was an issue that did not get much attention but kept nagging at us: Sarah Palin's description of the role and the responsibilities of the office for which she is running, vice president of the United States.

Vetting McCain's Health Plan  —  Tax credits would move people out of group plans and into individual policies where the benefits aren't as good.  —  If you think that “The Market”—whatever market—always works for the best, you'll love John McCain's version of health insurance reform.