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:

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 …

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.

Web Archives Confirm Barack Obama Was Member Of Socialist ‘New Party’ In 1996  —  UPDATE: WE WILL POST AT LEAST ONE MORE SOURCE COMING TOMORROW!  Subscribe to feeds or bookmark page.  —  In June sources released information that during his campaign for the State Senate in Illinois …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

Reporter's Notebook: Seeing How The Other Half Lives  —  From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:  —  (NASHVILLE, TENN.) - After most of the previous 12 months covering Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency, it was interesting, instructive and, well, relaxing to follow John McCain for the last few days.

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.

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.

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.

Polls flip: Gays now losing marriage in Calif.  —  A TV ad showing San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom saying California is going to have same-sex marriage “whether you like it or not” is being credited with flipping poll numbers to favor the Nov. 4 ballot proposition to amend the state constitution …

REAL CONSERVATISM....NRO's Andy McCarthy is seriously pissed that John McCain didn't turn last night's debate into a slugfest over Obama's terrorist/socialist/UN loving ways.  Ross Douthat comments: … Actually, it's worse than that.  If McCain loses, as he's almost certain to, we're going to see two reactions.

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 …

Robert Nozick Vs. The U.S. Congress  —  Now that yesterday's market nosedive shows the disappointing Congressional bailout has not calmed markets, let the post-mortem begin.  Disasters like this latest financial meltdown don't just happen.  Mistakes this huge require an impoverished political philosophy to grease the skids.

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”?

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.

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 New Organizers: Obama's Neighborhood Teams  —  Inside the Obama campaign, almost without anyone noticing, an insurgent generation of organizers has built the Progressive movement a brand new and potentially durable people's organization, in a dozen states, rooted at the neighborhood level.

Judge throws out some key prosecution evidence in Stevens trial  —  Judge Emmet Sullivan threw out two big pieces of evidence in the Justice Department's prosecution of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) after it was disclosed that prosecutors failed to provide defense attorneys with all the information they needed to put on their case.