Top Items:
The Huffington Post:
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:
Discussion:
Hot Air, Think Progress, Washington Monthly, The Daily Dish, The New Republic, Legalities, Taylor Marsh, Wonkette, Bob Cesca's Goddamn … and folo
Gallup:
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 …
Discussion:
Reuters, The Swamp, Firedoglake, American Street, Oliver Willis, The Reaction, MyDD, Jules Crittenden, FiveThirtyEight.com and Comments from Left Field
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The Jed Report:
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.
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Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
LOSING IT? — In most political speeches, the common refrain is “my fellow citizens”. — John McCain just referred to the country as “my fellow prisoners.” — “Across this country, this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners and the same standards of clarity and candor must now be applied to my opponent.”
Discussion:
Open Left
Victor Davis Hanson / The Corner:
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 …
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
SCRAPPING THE AYERS ATTACK ALREADY?.... The political world was told to expect some ugly, guilt-by-association attacks last night. We'd hear about Bill Ayers. And Tony Rezko. And maybe even Jeremiah Wright. The phrase “unrepentant terrorist” would be bandied about. — And then, nothing.
Discussion:
TIME.com, The New Republic, Balloon Juice, Top of the Ticket, Newshoggers.com, TPM Election Central and The Swamp
David Harsanyi / Denver Post:
Negativity and the truth — Most polls tell us that Americans …
Negativity and the truth — Most polls tell us that Americans …
Discussion:
protein wisdom
Brad DeLong / Grasping Reality with Both Hands:
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.
Discussion:
Think Progress, Paul Krugman, TalkLeft, Matthew Yglesias, Washington Wire, Corrente, The Anonymous Liberal, The Sideshow and Kevin Drum
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Jeff Jacoby / Boston Globe:
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.
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Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:
Paging Rick Warren — Why did a town hall debate in Nashville revolve around what interests an East Coast newsman? — A presidential debate at its best gives voters a glimpse of a candidate's personality, quick-wittedness, likeability, sense of humor, judgment, basic honesty, knowledge, even character.
Nitya / Political Radar:
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 …
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Washington Wire:
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.
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Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:
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.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Lonewacko, The Next Right, MoJoBlog, Lean Left, Buck Naked Politics, TalkLeft and Stop The ACLU
Salon:
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.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, protein wisdom, Classical Values, Taylor Marsh, five feet of fury. and The G Spot
Jbrown / Politically Drunk On Power!:
Web Archives Confirm Barack Obama Was Member Of Socialist ‘New Party’ In 1996 — In June sources released information that during his campaign for the State Senate in Illinois, Barack Obama was endorsed by an organization known as the Chicago “New Party”. The ‘New Party’ was a political …
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Wall Street Journal:
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 …
Justin Fox / The Curious Capitalist:
Treasury prepares for a TARP-and-switch. And it's a good thing, too — Did anybody else notice that when Hank Paulson was describing in his press conference today what the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act enables Treasury to do, the first thing he listed was “to inject capital into financial institutions”?
Marc Ambinder:
Ad Spending Update: McCain's 100% Negative — According to the latest figures from Ken Goldstein and the Wisconsin Advertising Project, the presidential campaigns are spending nearly $29 million a week to persuade YOU on television that the other guy is bad.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
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Kate Howard / Tennessean.com:
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 …
Discussion:
The New Republic
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Lisa Rein / Washington Post:
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.
The Politico:
The worst debate ever — With the country at one of its most interesting — not to mention terrifying — moments in a generation, John McCain and Barack Obama met in Nashville for what was surely one of the dullest and least satisfying presidential debates in memory. — There have been boring debates before, of course.
Time Edit / Swampland:
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 …
Kate Sheppard / Gristmill:
One swing voter, swung — For the first time in this year's presidential debates, the two candidates were asked point-blank about what they would do to address climate change in the first two years of their administration. — Ingrid Jackson asks the candidates about environmental issues.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Parsing in St. Paul — Norm Coleman's campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan, gives one of of the most painful avails I've ever seen to the polite, but persistent, Minnesota Capitol press, who force him to give the same non-answer over and over to the question of who's paid for Coleman's suits.