Gallup Daily: Obama's Lead Over McCain Expands to 11  —  52% share of the vote is Obama's highest to date  —  PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking report shows Barack Obama with a 52% to 41% lead over John McCain.  —  These results, based on Oct. 5-7 polling …

David Brooks: Sarah Palin “Represents A Fatal Cancer To The Republican Party”  —  In an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg at New York's Le Cirque restaurant to unveil that magazine's redesign, Brooks decried Palin's anti-intellectualism and compared her to President Bush in that regard:

2005  —  “He [Obama] said they have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Mr. Obama began serving in the United States Senate in January 2005” (New York Times, 10/3)  —  Why in the world was Barack Obama still communicating on the phone or via email with Bill Ayers up until 2005 …

John McCain's New Mortgage Plan Is Worse than I Had Imagined Possibly, Even Given What I Know About John McCain  —  Douglas Holtz-Eakin says, this morning: … What does this mean?  It means that John McCain wants to give $100 billion of taxpayers' money to America's worst-behaving mortgage financiers.

McCain Loses It: Calls Americans ‘My Fellow Prisoners’  —  Update (12:26pm): I've posted an extended version of the clip in the vodpod so you can see the context.  McCain was talking about his domestic policies, and clearly meant to say “Americans” or “countrymen” or somesuch.

Obama's 180 on genocide  —  JOHN MCCAIN'S opening words last night were: “Senator Obama, it's good to be with you at a town hall meeting!”  Indeed it was.  We now know why Barack Obama declined McCain's invitation earlier this year to appear together in a series of 10 town hall meetings around the country.

Palin Fields Questions on Plane  —  ABC News' Imtiyaz Delawala Reports: For the first time in a month on the campaign trail, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin took questions from her full traveling press corps, covering topics ranging from her continued connection of Sen. Barack …

Nobody's dummy  —  What a powerful letter — which I am pleased to share with Salon readers.  Yes, let us not forget the tragic series of dubious political judgments that led the U.S. to lurch into Southeast Asia after the French had prudently packed up and left.

Palin's Kind of Patriotism  —  Criticizing Sarah Palin is truly shooting fish in a barrel.  But given the huge attention she is getting, you can't just ignore what she has to say.  And there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw.

A Showdown That Was More of a Letdown  —  Considering how adamantly John McCain advocated a “town hall” arrangement for this year's presidential debates, viewers might justifiably have expected him to thrive in the debate held last night in Nashville, since it followed that format.

Obama is Hiding a Radical Past!  —  Edited and updated at 8:50 p.m. ET.  —  Did you know that Barack Obama was affiliated with a leading national socialist party?  Barack Obama didn't include in his 2008 resume that he entered politics in the mid-1990s endorsed by Chicago's leading socialists.

They Liked Him, They Really Liked Him  —  From TIME's Amy Sullivan:  —  As he did for the first presidential debate, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg gathered a group of undecided voters in a swing state (this time Colorado) to watch the town hall, polling them before and after to gauge …

Obama's Name Again Is Used in Attack  —  Elizabeth Holmes reports from Lehigh, Pa., on the presidential race.  —  Barack Obama's middle name was attack fodder once again Wednesday when John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin were introduced at a rally here in Lehigh, Pa.

Housing Pain Gauge: Nearly 1 in 6 Owners ‘Under Water’  —  More Defaults and Foreclosures Are Likely as Borrowers With Greater Debt Than Value in Their Homes Are Put in a Tight Spot  —  The relentless slide in home prices has left nearly one in six U.S. homeowners owing more on a mortgage …

Md. Police Put Activists' Names On Terror Lists  —  The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday.

John Boehner on Barney Frank: 'He's from Massachusetts, although he can't say the word 'Massachusetts"  —  House minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), one of the GOP architects of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, outlined a few Republican talking points for the final weeks of the election Tuesday …

UTK student David Kernell indicted in Palin e-mail hacking case  —  David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee., for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.  —  More details as they develop online and in Thursday's News Sentinel.

750,000 lost jobs?  The dodgy digits behind the war on piracy  —  A 20-year game of Telephone  —  If you pay any attention to the endless debates over intellectual property policy in the United States, you'll hear two numbers invoked over and over again, like the stuttering chorus …

Bush: The elephant in the room  —  (CNN)- During the first debate, Barack Obama mentioned President Bush ten times.  Many of the references tied him to John McCain — who never mentioned the name of the current commander-in-chief.  —  Tonight, the Republican nominee pointed to Bush three times …