memeorandum: Obama has slim 2-point lead on McCain (John Whitesides/Reuters)

12:40 PM ET, October 8, 2008

Top Items:

Andy McCarthy / The Corner:

You Guys Are Nuts — We have a disaster here — which is what you should expect when you delegate a non-conservative to make the conservative (nay, the American) case. We can parse it eight ways to Sunday, but I think the commentary is missing the big picture.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Guardian, No More Mister Nice Blog, Campaign Silo, Comments from Left Field, Spin Cycle, Eunomia, Jules Crittenden, folo, Taegan Goddard's …, The Other McCain, Balkinization, Right Wing News, TBogg and Taylor Marsh

CNN:

Transcript of second McCain, Obama debate — NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) — Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama debated in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday night. NBC's Tom Brokaw moderated the debate. Here is a transcript of that debate. — Brokaw: Good evening from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

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.

Discussion: Wizbang, The Corner, Hot Air, Stop The ACLU and QandO

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

GOP likes ‘that one’ too — A Republican official emails, on background:

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, The Impolitic, Buck Naked Politics and Daily Kos

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

CBS Poll: Uncommitted Voters Say Obama Won Debate — UPDATED CBS News and Knowledge Networks have, once again, conducted a nationally representative poll of uncommitted voters to get their immediate reaction to tonight's presidential debate. — And this new poll has good news for the Democratic ticket …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Power Line, therecord.barackobama.com, Daily Kos, Jules Crittenden, five feet of fury., Outside The Beltway, Israel Matzav, CNN, DownWithTyranny!, Washington Monthly and Open Left

Ross Douthat:

The Unplayed Card — Andy McCarthy isn't pleased: … You know, part of me actually wishes that John McCain had started talking about Bill Ayers, the Annenberg Challenge, Rashid Khalidi, and how the Global Poverty Act will line the pockets of Hugo Chavez. (Maybe in his answer to one of the questions about the economy - why not?)

Discussion: The Corner and Kevin Drum

Tom Shales / Washington Post:

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.

Discussion: The Corner, New York Times, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Midwest Voices and NewsBusters.org

CNN:
CNN Poll: Obama won the night

Discussion: Salon, Political Radar, Guardian, THE CITIZENS JOURNAL and FiveThirtyEight.com

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:
Obama picks up second debate win, poll says

Discussion: The New Republic, Electoral-vote.com and Washington Monthly

Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:
Paging Rick Warren

Discussion: Commentary and YID With LID

Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
Chris Matthews Post-Debate Drooling

Discussion: Stop The ACLU

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
The Nashville Skyline Debate: First Thoughts

Discussion: USA Today, The Politico, The Live Feed and Real Clear Politics

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 …

Discussion: Newshoggers.com, The Daily Dish, The New Republic, Firedoglake and Jonathan Martin's Blogs

Amz / Democracy Corps: Second Presidential Debate: Undecided Voters Move Decisively Toward Obama

Knoxville News-Sentinel:

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.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Jawa Report, JammieWearingFool, Hot Air, Patterico's Pontifications, Spin Cycle and No Left Turns

The Smoking Gun:
Palin Hacker Indicted

Discussion: Political Punch

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:

For release at 7:00 a.m. EDT Joint Statement by Central Banks — Throughout the current financial crisis, central banks have engaged in continuous close consultation and have cooperated in unprecedented joint actions such as the provision of liquidity to reduce strains in financial markets.

Discussion: The Swamp and naked capitalism

New York Times:
Central Banks Coordinate Cut in Rates

Discussion: Economix, New York Magazine, Conglomerate, Spin Cycle and Portfolio

Mark Steyn / The Corner:

Signing Off — This reader out-Andies Andy: … Steady on. This next month is going to be a long month. Lots of things will happen. But McCain has to make some of them happen. His charge that Obama doesn't know the difference between “strategy” and “tactics” could equally well be leveled at his own campaign.

Discussion: BuzzFlash.org

Kos / Daily Kos:
Breaking their spirits — NRO's Mark Steyn gets email:

Discussion: The Field on the Narcosphere, Mother, May I Sleep …, The Sundries Shack and American Spectator

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Edited SNL subprime video also happens to excise Barney Frank's involvement — Not every comedy sketch on “Saturday Night Live” has to do with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. — It just seems that way recently, as The Ticket has reported here and here and here. — But there's an unusual twist this week over another SNL skit.

Discussion: Show Tracker, Michelle Malkin, JammieWearingFool, Sweetness & Light, Betsy's Page and The Volokh Conspiracy

The Politico:

Campaign shifts back to economic crisis — NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama left here with the presidential campaign unavoidably shifted to the topic of economic crisis and onto the electoral terrain of traditionally conservative states.

Discussion: The New Republic, Washington Monthly, The Swamp, Top of the Ticket, The Nation, TPM Election Central, Ben Smith's Blogs, Democratic Strategist and folo

Hotline On Call:
Palin's First Avail — On the plane this afternoon from FL to NC.

Discussion: The Daily Dish and Political Machine

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:

FIRST THOUGHTS: NOTHING CHANGED — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann — NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Part three of the four-part debate series is now over, and the one big conclusion is that nothing changed. And nothing changing isn't a good result for McCain.

Discussion: The New Republic and Donklephant

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.

Discussion: Open Left

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 …

Discussion: The Swamp, Think Progress, Fraters Libertas and The Big Picture

Marc Ambinder:

The McCain Resurgence Plan — On a conference call with reporters, McCain policy chief Douglas Holtz-Eakin spelled out how McCain would pay for his plan for the government to buy troubled mortgages and replace when with more favorable fixed-rate mortgages at minimal direct cost to the homeowners.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin and Hot Air

Matthew Weaver / NO QUARTER:

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.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, The Corner, protein wisdom, Classical Values and YID With LID

Camille Paglia / Salon:

Nobody's dummy — Liberals underestimate Sarah Palin's vitality and — yes — smarts at their own peril. Plus: Obama's presidential air, Biden's condescending mugging, feminism's lost sisters. — Dear Camille, — I was actually leaning towards Obama before he stated his willingness …

Discussion: The G Spot, Commentary, pandagon.net and Don Surber

Byron York / The Corner:

The Debate: Bad Feelings After the Snoozer in Nashville — I have a new story up on last night's debate in Nashville. After it ended, there was serious unhappiness in some quarters of the McCain campaign — not with Barack Obama, but with NBC's Tom Brokaw.

Discussion: Commentary

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: MoJoBlog, TalkLeft and The Next Right

John Whitesides / Reuters:

Obama has slim 2-point lead on McCain — NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has a slim 2-point lead on Republican rival John McCain in a tight White House race, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

Peter Kirsanow / The Corner:

Obama's Disqualifier — Andy McCarthy's right that it's imperative to attack the premise that Obama's a plausible president. Obama consorted with a terrorist who brags about planting bombs and whose organization planted hundreds of bombs. Some were meant to kill cops. Some were meant to kill soldiers.

Hotline On Call:

The Early Line: Diageo/Hotline Tracking Poll — Obama and McCain are now tied 44-44% among men. Today's Diageo/Hotline poll is the first in which Obama has not led men since he trailed them 46-45% in the survey completed 9/26. — The candidates remained tied on economic issues.

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Corner, Wake up America and Hot Air