The Palins' un-American activities  —  Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, at a rally in Vienna, Ohio, on Sept. 16, 2008.  —  “My government is my worst enemy.  I'm going to fight them with any means at hand.”  —  This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right?

Gallup Daily: 9-Point Obama Lead Ties Campaign High  —  Voters prefer Obama to McCain by 51% to 42%  —  PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking poll shows registered voters preferring Barack Obama to John McCain for president by 51% to 42%.  —  The nine percentage point lead …

Dukakis on the Election: Obama Knows How to Win, ‘McCain Has Nothing’  —  When John McCain's campaign made it clear over the weekend that their stretch-run strategy would lean heavily on raising questions about Barack Obama's personal history and past “associations,” Obama's communications director provided …

ACORN office in Vegas raided in voter-fraud probe  —  LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada state authorities are raiding the Las Vegas headquarters of an organization that works to get low-income people to vote.  —  A Nevada secretary of state's office spokesman said Tuesday that investigators are looking …

William Ayers' past was unknown: Obama  —  NASHVILLE — Barack Obama has since condemned the Vietnam war-protest tactics of William Ayers, though a top adviser said today Obama didn't know of his past when Ayers hosted a campaign reception for Obama in 1995.

Obama Outspending McCain Nearly 3 to 1 on Television  —  Barack Obama is outspending John McCain at nearly a three-to-one clip on television time in the final weeks of the presidential election, according to ad buy information obtained by The Fix, a financial edge that is almost certainly contributing …

Advisers worry about ‘grumpy McCain’  —  When Politico's Ryan Grim approached Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) after the evening of the Senate bailout vote, the reporter didn't even get his question out.  —  “Excuse me, you're bothering me,” McCain said.  —  It was a surprising rebuke …

McCain dumps racial-joking campaigner  —  The McCain campaign has denounced a racially charged, anti-Barack Obama newspaper column written by one of the Republican campaign's organizers in Virginia, and has removed the author-activist from his post as a member of the candidate's statewide leadership team …

After Bailout, AIG Executives Head to Resort  —  Less than a week after the federal government offered an $85 billion bailout to insurance giant AIG, the company held a week-long retreat for its executives at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., running up a tab of $440,000 …

Palin will sit for two more Fox News interviews; campaign scoffs at idea of a press conference.  —  Fox News announced today that it scored two more interviews with Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK).  A Sean Hannity interview with Palin and John McCain will air tomorrow night, followed by a Palin interview by Greta Van Susteren.

Obama Team Ready for Mud  —  Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs in St. Paul, Minn. (Jim Mone/Associated Press)  —  NASHVILLE — Barack Obama's advisers are usually cautious about managing expectations — never predicting a landslide, always downplaying how well their candidate will do in the debates.

McCain, Obama trade shots over economy  —  (CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama said the country is in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression as he began his second presidential debate with Sen. John McCain.  —  He blamed President Bush and McCain for the crisis, saying they had worked to “strip away regulation.”

Cindy McCain makes appearance at Children's Hospital  —  Cindy McCain said today that she expects her husband to clear the record at tonight's debate and let America know where he truly stands.  —  McCain, who stopped to visit a half-dozen children at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital …

Sarah Palin's museum of trite right-wing tactics: 1980-2008  —  (updated below)  —  Listening to a Sarah Palin rally is like visiting a museum exhibit of every empty, trite, manipulative right-wing political slogan from the last three decades.  Today, an anti-war heckler interrupted …

U.S. debt grows too big for National Debt Clock.  —  The National Debt Clock in New York's Times Square — first erected in 1989 when the debt was less than $3 trillion — cannot keep pace with the growing national debt, now at more than $10 trillion.  NBC's Brian Williams reported last night that …

Glass smashed at Dems' Denver HQ  —  KathrynScott Osler Denver Post (THE DENVER POST |  Someone threw bricks through the glass door and a window of the Colorado Democratic Party headquarters in west Denver early this morning.  —  No one was inside the office at 777 Santa Fe Drive when the incident happened.

Debate Liveblogging  —  9:29: FWIW, here's what the Obama campaign says about their spending cuts. … Where's the infrastructure bank?  Health care?  Etc.  —  9:27: A 78-year old from Chicago asks what Americans ought to sacrifice: McCain talks about spending cuts...even some …

Hulu, NBC Pull SNL Skit  —  But Political Skits Bringing in Huge Numbers  —  The presidential campaign has been good for “Saturday Night Live” — and for Hulu.com.  In a few short weeks, the first clip of Tina Fey impersonating Gov. Sarah Palin has become the site's most-viewed of all time.

A follow-up follow up  —  Lynn Sweet reported yesterday that the two campaigns had reached an agreement under which, among other things, moderator Tom Brokaw wouldn't ask follow-up questions tonight.  —  But Brokaw wasn't a party to the deal, I'm told, and hasn't agreed to it …