Shocking development: Mrs Obama decides enough is enough: “My husband was born in Hawaii and adopted by his step father, does that make him unpatriotic; she asks”, on a direct telephone to API.  —  Accusing API of colluding with American internet bloggers in an effort to bring down her husband …

Bill Ayers: ‘What could I possibly add?’  —  Decades removed from his radical opposition to the Vietnam War, UIC professor William Ayers lies low amid the political furor  —  As his name was tossed back and forth Tuesday in the fury of the presidential campaign, 1960s radical William Ayers spent …

Voting for Obama anyway  —  I just got an astounding e-mail from a Republican consultant I know well.  He's a guy who's always thought Obama had a “glass jaw,” and was always among those agitating for hitting Obama harder.  —  Recently, he conducted a focus group in an upper-Midwestern state …

Obama Flack Accidentally Sends Out Pre-Debate Talking Points  —  “Reminder: These are for staff only and not for distribution,” warns the email.  —  And then, the spin, accidentally sent to reporters this morning.  —  “* This is John McCain's last chance to turn this race around …

Material linking Obama to Bin Laden removed from Sacramento GOP Web site  —  Sacramento County Republican leaders Tuesday took down offensive material on their official party Web site that sought to link Sen. Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden and encouraged people to “Waterboard Barack Obama” …

Breaking news: Secret Service investigating threat from Scranton Palin rally  —  The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a threatening remark directed at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during a political event in Scranton.  —  The agency followed up on a report in The Times-Tribune …

Colin Powell Is Ready To Endorse  —  When Colin Powell turns off his TV after the final presidential debate, he will have learned everything he is going to learn about the candidates vying to succeed his former boss, George W. Bush.  Powell has made it clear that he has been thinking …

McCain, advisers divided over Wright attack  —  John McCain is at odds with many of his top advisers over launching a renewed attack on Barack Obama's ties to his long-time pastor and mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, according to campaign sources.  —  Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin …

Obama Dominating Among Early Voters in Five Swing States  —  SurveyUSA has a lot of good habits as a pollster, and one of them is breaking out the results of early and absentee voting in states where such things are allowed.  So far, SurveyUSA has conducted polling in five states where some form of early voting was underway.

WisPolitics: No RNC ads for the next week, TV stations report  —  The Republican National Committee hasn't booked ads for the next week in Wisconsin TV markets after running a series of spots attacking Barack Obama and congressional Dems, according to TV sources.

GOP deploys squirrels  —  Meet Tony Romo and Mickey Mouse.  —  They are this year's version of those dolphins that stalked John Kerry in 2004, swapping out “flip-flopping” for ACORN.  —  The nut-hunters swooped into Harry Smith's Manhattan nest this morning, surprising the CBS “Early Show” anchor.

CNN POLL: Obama making gains in red states  —  HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) - As the two major party presidential candidates get ready to face off in person one last time, new polls in some crucial states that could decide the race for the White House suggest John McCain is having to defend himself …

Palin, McCain stir up storm of ugly racism  —  'South Pacific" is a morality play for our time.  Sarah Palin is the Ensign Nellie Forbush — an All-American girl as racist, this time a racist with her eye on the White House.  She can stir up crowds to shout “Kill him!” …

US communists say their time has come  —  NEW YORK (AFP) — A rare bird in the political world, the US Communist Party is feeling rather smug in these days of capitalist turmoil.  —  At the party's New York headquarters on 23rd Street in Manhattan, regional party chairman Libero Della Piana …

OBAMA FIRES A ‘ROBIN HOOD’ WARNING SHOT  —  WASHINGTON - You won't find it in his campaign ads, but Barack Obama let slip his plans to become a modern-day Robin Hood in the White House, confiscating money from the rich to give to the poor.  —  Conservatives yesterday ripped Obama after he was caught …

Don't Mean to Be a Party Pooper  —  The triumphalism on the Left and defeatism on the Right about the present moment in American politics have long since departed from reality.  I know emotions such as glee and angst are always lying just below the surface among the politically active …

CIA Tactics Endorsed In Secret Memos  —  The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects — documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials …

Gallup Daily: Before Final Debate, Obama Leads by 7  —  McCain's 43% matches his high over the past two weeks  —  PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking report shows Barack Obama continuing to lead John McCain, now by seven percentage points among registered voters, 50% to 43%.

CNN bid to tie Palin to secessionists is a stretch  —  The cable news network fails to show that Sarah Palin embraced the call by some in the Alaskan Independence Party to sever their beloved state from ‘the Lower 48.’  —  'Who is Todd Palin?  What is his influence?

At Moment of Truth, U.S. Forced Big Bankers to Blink  —  WASHINGTON — On one side of the table sat Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, flanked by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair.  —  On the other side sat the nation's top bank executives …

Matt Taibbi and Byron York Butt Heads Over Whether McCain Deserves Blame for the Wall Street Meltdown  —  Every day (or close to it) until November 4, a series of writers and thinkers will discuss the election over instant messenger for nymag.com.  Today, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi …

Public Not Desperate About Economy or Personal Finances  —  Obama Clearer than McCain in Addressing Crisis  —  Americans are concerned about the nation's economic problems almost to the exclusion of every other issue, and they register the lowest level of national satisfaction ever measured in a Pew Research Center survey.

Gods That Failed  —  In 1949, a number of famous writers, among them Arthur Koestler, André Gide, Richard Wright, Stephen Spender and Ignazio Silone, wrote essays explaining why they were no longer communists.  The essays were collected in a volume entitled “The God That Failed.”

6th Circuit's En Banc In Ohio  —  The 6th Circuit's en banc ruling yesterday upholding a st...forget it.  They did what, Rick Hasen? … Ok, pay attention.  This is important.  —  Mickey Mouse can register, right, but he can't vote.  —  Well, he can.  He can vote absentee — no photo ID, no need to appear in person.

Those Hard-Boiled Eggheads  —  I'm not sending Paul Krugman Champagne.  —  He won the Nobel prize in economics this week, and while I'm sure that's delightful for him, it has raised the bar to an impossible height for his fellow columnists at The Times.  We used to strive for Pulitzers …

Ambushed By History  —  For all their talk about respecting the constraints of reality, conservatives generally hold to the “great man” theory of history.  It is leftists who embrace economic determinism.  Conservatives read biographies of Winston Churchill and wait in constant expectation for the second coming of Ronald Reagan.