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:

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.

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 …

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 …

The real reason a lot of women can't stand Sarah Palin  —  There's a ridiculous fluff piece in TIME this week that's getting a lot of attention.  In it, a female essayist alleges that among the reasons many women can't stand Sarah Palin is the fact that she's just too darn attractive.

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 …

Feds investigating sheriff after ‘Hussein’ remark  —  LEE COUNTY: Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott may have more to worry about than just the court of public opinion.  Federal investigators are now looking into whether Scott broke the law by campaigning for John McCain.

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.

Conservatives Call Obama's Correct Pronounciation Of Pakistan ‘Exotic’ And ‘Annoying’  —  Conservatives are in a tizzy over the way Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) pronounced “Pakistan” during last night's debate: … Even the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder liveblogged yesterday, “Noticing that Obama says Pahk-istan and McCain says Pack-istan.”

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.

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.

Obama's Top Field Generals Dispatched To Florida  —  The Obama campaign's top two field generals have decamped to Florida, a sign of its confidence that the state, with 27 electoral votes, is tilting toward the Democratic candidate.  —  Steve Hildebrand, the deputy campaign manager …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

Obama: McCain Scoring ‘Cheap Political Points’  —  Democratic Contender Discusses Economy in Post-Debate Exclusive With Charlie Gibson  —  Sen. Barack Obama says the personal attacks levied against him by the campaign of his presidential rival, Sen. John McCain, particularly references …

Poll: Economy costs Coleman lead in Senate race  —  Two new MPR/Humphrey Institute polls show Democrat Al Franken went from 9 points behind to 4 points ahead of Coleman following congressional approval of the Wall Street bailout plan.  Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley's support held steady …