McCain Denounces Pitchfork-Wavers  —  Here in Lakeville, the traveling press was pretty sure we'd see more of the kind of vicious anti-Obama attitude that's becoming a hallmark of McCain rallies of late.  —  As the town hall started, McCain was off with more pep than usual.

Palin schedules bus tour of West Virginia  —  CLEVELAND, Ohio (CNN) — In what may be another signal that the troubled economy is forcing John McCain's campaign to play electoral map defense, Sarah Palin has scheduled a bus tour for Sunday through West Virginia, a state that's been leaning red throughout this presidential race.

Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama  —  Welcome to The Daily Beast: A Q&A with Tina Brown  —  The son of William F. Buckley has decided—shock!—to vote for a Democrat.  —  Let me be the latest conservative/libertarian/whatever to leap onto the Barack Obama bandwagon.

THE GIST OF THE ACORN STORY  —  The Republican party is grasping on to the ACORN story as a way to delegitimize what now looks like the probable outcome of the November election.  It is also a way to stoke the paranoia of their base, lay the groundwork for legal challenges of close outcomes …

Barack ‘Osama’ on Rensselaer County ballots  —  TROY — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name is spelled “Osama” on hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County.  —  The misspelling, which elections officials on both sides of the aisle insist …

Prop 8=Prop Hate  —  To the children of same-sex parents: You Are Bad.  —  Doesn't matter if you are happy, well-adjusted, well cared-for, educated or secure.  Doesn't matter if your parents are hard working, tax paying, law abiding or nice.  —  Children brought up in loving …

Fox Poll: Nearly Two-Thirds Say Ayers Makes No Difference To Their Vote  —  These numbers, buried in the internals of a new Fox News poll out today, are the first time a national poll has tried to gauge the impact of Barack Obama's association with William Ayers.  And the numbers are pretty bad for McCain:

Memeorandum Colors: Visualizing Political Bias with Greasemonkey  —  Like the rest of the world, I've been completely obsessed with the presidential election and nonstop news coverage.  My drug of choice?  Gabe Rivera's Memeorandum, the political sister site of Techmeme …

Troopergate hearing (Updated: 12-0 vote to release the report)  —  4:11 p.m.The Legislative Council just voted 12-0 to release the report, except for certain parts they consider confidential.  —  The reporters were to be available immediately, but no one seems to know where to get them here at the Legislative offices.

Barack Obama's Involvement with ACORN Unearthed, Missing Article Recovered  — Elections - Elections 2008 - News - Politics - Society - U.S. Politics - US News  —  While Barack Obama's connection with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has not gone entirely unreported, it has not been fully explained.

Not about the financial crisis  —  The crisis isn't the only scary thing going on.  Something very ugly is taking shape on the political scene: as McCain's chances fade, the crowds at his rallies are, by all accounts, increasingly gripped by insane rage.  It's not just a mob phenomenon …

Defending the crowds  —  McCain spokesman Brian Rogers pushes back against the storyline of rabid McCain crowds and Obama's criticism:

McCain's Risky Turn  —  There is a scene early in “Dead Certain,” Robert Draper's book about President Bush, when the Bush campaign, reeling from its loss to John McCain in New Hampshire in the 2000 primary, is plotting its moves for a do-or-die struggle in South Carolina.

GOLLY, PALIN TO PLAY HERSELF ON ‘SNL’  —  SOCCER moms and Joe Sixpacks, listen up.  Get your beer, mooseburgers and caribou dips ready.  Sarah Palin is doing “Saturday Night Live.”  Not Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin doing “Saturday Night Live.”  But the Sarah Herself.  She has already OK'd it.

Radical Measures May Be In The Wings  —  As the financial crisis threatens to spiral out of control, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is prepared to take extraordinary steps through the extensive authority granted to him under emergency rescue legislation.  —  With the legislation's main mechanism …