BIDEN: SAY IT TO HIS FACE  —  From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli  —  ST. JOSEPH, MO - Joe Biden echoed the campaign's response to continued Republican efforts to highlight Obama's past associations, adding a personal touch to the idea that McCain wasn't willing to make the attacks in person.

Exclusive: Obama buys half-hour of network primetime  —  Barack Obama has purchased a half-hour of primetime television on CBS and NBC, sources confirm.  —  The Obama campaign is producing a nationwide pitch to voters that will air on at least two broadcast networks.

Obama on Ayers: ‘I assumed that he had been rehabilitated’  —  In an interview with the sympathetic conservative talk radio host this afternoon, Obama offered the clearest explanation yet of how an extremely careful politician allowed himself anywhere near a former '60s radical who would become …

In Dozens of Calls, Palins and Aides Pressed for Trooper's Removal  —  ANCHORAGE — The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten.  This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin's Anchorage office was on the line.

Keating to McCain in 1986: 'I'm yours til death do us part.'  —  The Washington Times reports that in 1986, John McCain wrote a note on House stationery to Charles Keating, chairman of a failed savings and loan association who went to prison in the late 1980s.

McCain Co-Chair Calls Obama “A Guy Of The Street,” Raises Drug Use  —  Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, a McCain campaign co-chairman, edged up to an explicitly racial attack on Barack Obama on Thursday, describing the Illinois Senator as a “guy of the street” before raising his youthful drug use.

QUESTIONER: ‘I ACTUALLY DID’ KNOW FANNIE  —  From NBC's Michael Levine  —  I tried to get in touch via Facebook with Oliver Clark, the man who McCain said probably didn't know what Fannie Mae was before the financial crisis (at Tuesday's debate).  Apparently others have done the same.

USA TODAY/Gallup Poll signals that debate boosted Obama, not McCain  —  Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama convinced many more viewers to think more favorably of him during Tuesday night's presidential debate than did his Republican opponent, John McCain, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll signals.

Dan Balz's corrupted journalistic “balance”  —  (updated below)  —  The Washington Post's Dan Balz has an article today perfectly illustrating how the modern journalist's conception of “balance” leads them to distort the truth.  Balz's article is about the increasing use of “character attacks” …

Stocks Plunge Again; Dow Under 8,600  —  Stocks fell sharply in late afternoon trading in New York on Thursday as concerns about the global financial system mounted and investors priced in a deep recession.  —  The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index was down nearly 7.6 percent …

Charlie Gibson engages in verbal sex with Barack Obama (UPDATED)  —  I watched the interview with Obama last night and that's the conclusion I came to.  His condescension, his arrogance, his looking over his glasses and down his nose at the interviewee and his smirks, all were missing.

Rothenberg Warns of GOP “Bloodbath”  —  The horizon looks bleak for House and Senate Republicans.  AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite  —  UPDATE, 4 pm: The Cook Political Report is also amping up their predictions of Democratic gains in the House and Senate next month.

GOPers aren't just angry at the Democrats...  ...they want McCain to hit Obama much harder.  —  A memorable moment from today's Wisconsin town hall meeting, with an African-American (who notes he's gotten an “ass-whipping” for suporting McCain) all but getting down on bended knee.

Esquire Endorses Barack Obama for President  —  We thought this election would be a serious fight over the future of this country, but only one candidate showed up.  —  It was a day in February and the sun was little more than a gaudy accessory.  The man stood on a bridge along Eleventh Street in Milwaukee.

Economists Expect U.S. Crisis to Deepen  —  The U.S. economy has sunk into a recession and government action is critical to stem the damage, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.  —  “We're in the middle of a very dark tunnel,” said Brian Fabbri of BNP Paribas …

Fear and loathing bubbling up at GOP events  —  Republican activists are increasingly uneasy about the prospect of an Obama presidency, a loathing that is being borne out now at McCain and Palin rallies.  —  My colleague Amie Parnes, with the GOP ticket today in Wisconsin, sends along an exchange at a town hall meeting:

The Obama Discount  —  I have no idea whatsoever if there's merit to this, and if there is how much merit, but lots of email like this: … Update: Enraged readers sent here from other sites might want to read this.

Dow 9,000!  —  Stock prices are, however, the least of our worries.  The money markets are frozen; the TED spread is 4.14%.  —  G7 meeting tomorrow, IMF-World Bank over the weekend.  Now is the time for major action — an announcement of coordinated capital injections, liquidity measures, and more.

Two kinds of fraud  —  “Acorn” may not exactly be a household word, but it was on the cover of one of the newspapers I read in hard copy today, so it seemed worth getting into a marginal story that the GOP is trying to make central.  —  The key distinction here is between voter fraud …

Obama vs. S&P 500  —  A friend of mine who works in the finance industry sent this to me: