Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame  —  FORT MYERS, Fla., Oct. 6 John McCain is collapsing in the polls in Florida and other swing states, but Sarah Palin, God bless her, has a solution.  —  “For me, the heels are on, the gloves are off,” she announced at high noon Monday to a group …

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 Vegas Office Raided in Voter Fraud Investigation  —  ACORN's Las Vegas headquarters has been raided by Nevada authorities looking for evidence of voter fraud.  —  LAS VEGAS — Nevada state authorities are raiding the Las Vegas headquarters of an organization that works to get low-income people to vote.

Markets Slide After Bernanke Remarks  —  Another late day slide.  —  Stocks skidded lower on Tuesday afternoon despite reassurances from the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, that the central bank was prepared to lower interest rates, words that many investors had said they were waiting to hear.

McCain also said U.S. troops killed civilians  —  John McCain in 2000 said because of tactical decisions U.S. troops were put in the position of killing civilians in Kosovo — something awfully similar to the comments he's now attacking Barack Obama for.  —  During a Republican primary debate …

Fox presents anti-semitic Florida gadfly as credible source on Obama  —  On an hourlong documentary over the weekend, Fox News aired an innuendo-driven program narrated by Sean Hannity called “Obama & Friends: The History of Radicalism.”  —  Their star witness was Andy Martin, whose incendiary …

Peggy Noonan Admits GOP Base Is Full Of Racist A**holes  —  A rather revealing exchange on ‘Hardball’ last night in which Nooner tells the truth about her fetid, decaying party (ignore the BS about Nooner being undecided about who to vote for): … Calling Obama a terrorist?  Fine.

After Bailout, AIG Execs Head to California Resort  —  Rescued by Taxpayers, $440,000 for Retreat Including “Pedicures, Manicures”  —  Less than a week after the federal government committed $85 billion to bail out AIG, executives of the giant AIG insurance company headed for a week-long retreat …

Man shot three times in street by racist gunman - for wearing Barack Obama T-shirt … A man told today how he was shot three times in a London street for wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt.  —  Dube Egwuatu was buying a mobile telephone top-up card in an off-licence when the gunman confronted …

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 …

Bush Now Least Popular President Since Polling Began  —  Not sure how I missed this yesterday, but with the new Gallup poll, George W. Bush has passed Nixon and Truman, and become the least popular President of all-time.  According to the Roper Center, here is the worst net approval / disapproval result …

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 …

CBS 5 Poll: Young Voters Lead Prop 8 Support Shift  —  SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― A new CBS 5 poll finds that California's Proposition 8 has picked up support in the wake of a television ad campaign that features footage of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaiming same-sex marriage is here to stay “whether you like it or not.”

FIRST THOUGHTS: NEEDING A GAME-CHANGER  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann  —  NASHVILLE, Tenn. — McCain heads into tonight's debate here down in the polls and in need of a game-changer.  Three weeks after the Wall Street crisis began …