John Lewis, invoking George Wallace, says McCain and Palin ‘playing with fire’  —  UPDATED WITH MCCAIN STATEMENT AND OBAMA REACTION  —  Civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis is accusing John McCain and Sarah Palin of stoking hate, likening the atmosphere at Republican campaign events …

John McCain: Davenport Liveblog  —  Why is John McCain in Iowa when polls show him trailing?  Will he again defend his opponent Barack Obama from personal attacks as he did Friday?  What is his response to an Alaska legislative report charging his running mate Sarah Palin with abuse of power?

Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, triggered crisis  —  WASHINGTON — As the economy worsens and Election Day approaches, a conservative campaign that blames the global financial crisis on a government push to make housing more affordable to lower-class Americans has taken off on talk radio and e-mail.

This could be the game changer  —  Someone with the unlikely name of Molotov Mitchell has produced a 10 minute and 52 second video [watch it below] that could well change the terms of the election — if enough people watch it.  Illuminati Productions has posted it to YouTube.

A Misplaced Hockey Mom Moment  —  Let me start this off by saying, I would object to this sideshow whichever political party it involved.  Having vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin drop the ceremonial first puck at the Flyers' opener Saturday night was problematic not because it was Palin …

Did Obama Write “Dreams from My Father” ... Or Did Ayers?  —  There has been speculation about this which I've ignored, no doubt because there are enough policy reasons to oppose Barack Obama and I don't want to feed into what sounds, at first blush, like Vince Fosteresque paranoia.

Biden to Palin: Don't lecture me on patriotism  —  JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (CNN) - Joe Biden Thursday night told Sarah Palin not to lecture him on patriotism, after weeks of attacks mocking him for his statement the wealthy should be patriotic and pay higher taxes because not enough has been asked of them.

Man At Palin Rally Displays Monkey Doll Donning Obama Sticker  —  From CBS News' Scott Conroy:  —  (PHILADELPHIA) As the crowd cheered at a Sarah Palin rally this morning in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a man in the audience grinned as he held up a stuffed monkey doll with a Barack Obama bumper sticker wrapped across its forehead.

Gallup Daily: Obama Ahead by 9 Points  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 8-10 finds Barack Obama holding a sizeable lead over John McCain in national voter preferences, as he has continuously for the past six days.  Today's report puts Obama ahead by nine percentage points, 51% to 42%.

Nutroots use my SAT scoresheet to forge ‘Palin Grades’  —  Gawker—the same online rag that called me a “Crazed Christ-Loving Re-Virgin”—is engaging in some craziness of its own: It's asking readers to judge the validity of what it says may be “Sarah Palin's High-School Grades” …

‘The United States Has Essentially a One-Party System’  —  The linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky has long been a critic of American consumerism and imperialism.  SPIEGEL spoke to him about the current crisis of capitalism, Barack Obama's rhetoric and the compliance of the intellectual class.

A HISTORIC TICKET.... Now that Sarah Palin has been found to have abused her powers, violated state ethics, and lied about it, I did a little digging and found an interesting historical footnote.  —  The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found …

Palin heightens rhetoric on abortion  —  JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin charged into the culture wars Saturday in Pennsylvania, painting Sen. Barack Obama as a radical on abortion rights.  —  The stop comes amid news that Palin violated Alaska ethics law by trying …

Report: McCain, Palin at odds over how hard to hit Obama  —  It's too thinly sourced to be taken very seriously, but since our readership revels in the idea of the 'Cuda being the scrapper to McCain's squish, I figured you'd dig it.  —  The bit about Mark Salter does strike me as plausible.

G.O.P. Officials Hope for Stability From McCain  —  Republican leaders across the country said Saturday that they were worried that Senator John McCain was heading for defeat unless he brought stability to his presidential candidacy and settled on a clear message to counter Senator Barack Obama.

White House Overhauling Rescue Plan  —  WASHINGTON — As international leaders gathered here on Saturday to grapple with the global financial crisis, the Bush administration embarked on an overhaul of its own strategy for rescuing the foundering financial system.

What kind of education reform did Ayers & Obama have in mind?  —  You can draw plenty of rational inferences from Stanley's rich work.  But for a clear statement of Ayers's frightening vision, I submit that his November 2006 speech at the World Education Forum should be required reading.

The Coming Obama Thugocracy  —  A Commentary by Michael Barone  —  “I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors,” Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. “I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican.