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 …

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 …

My Friend Bill Ayers  —  Once wanted by the FBI, he's since become a model citizen.  —  “Waving the bloody shirt” was the phrase once used to describe the standard demagogic tactic of the late 19th century, when memories of the Civil War were still vivid and loyalists of both parties could be moved to “vote as they shot.”

The Polls - 10/15  —  Share This: Digg!  —  Yesterday, Sarah Palin said: … Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, today's look at the polls.  DKos/R2000 has Obama up 11, 52-41.  NYT/CBS has Obama up 14, 53-39.  Battleground has Obama up 13, 53-40.  The LATimes has Obama up 9, 50-41.

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 …

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 …

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.

New intelligence report says Pakistan is ‘on the edge’  —  WASHINGTON — A growing al Qaida-backed insurgency, combined with the Pakistani army's reluctance to launch an all-out crackdown, political infighting and energy and food shortages are plunging America's key ally in the war on terror deeper …

Obama Voted ‘Present’ on Mortgage Reform  —  The only banking ‘deregulation’ in recent years was that of Fan and Fred.  —  In each of the first two presidential debates, Barack Obama claimed that “Republican deregulation” is responsible for the financial crisis.

BREAKING: 6th Circuit reverses on TRO (devastation, humiliation for Jennifer Brunner)  —  A 3-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals recently vacated a temporary restraining order which would effectively make Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner follow the law - and do her job - in preventing election fraud.

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.

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.

What Went Wrong  —  How did the world's markets come to the brink of collapse?  Some say regulators failed.  Others claim deregulation left them handcuffed.  Who's right?  Both are.  This is the story of how Washington didn't catch up to Wall Street.  —  A decade ago, long …

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 …

Pinch Yourself  —  The contrast between, on the one hand, the huge amount of material about Obama's radical associations that has been published in on-line journals and in a few brave newspapers, and on the other the refusal by big media to address it and to vilify those who do, becomes more astounding by the day.

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.”

Cheney has heart problem, misses fundraiser  —  Vice President Dick Cheney experienced an abnormal heart beat this morning and will see doctors to “restore his normal rhythm” — the second time in less than a year that he will have the procedure.  —  Cheney, 67, canceled a planned appearance …

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” …

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 …

When Life Hands You Deficits . . .  New presidents tend to go for grand slogans for their nascent administrations: New Deal, New Frontier, New Covenant.  In that vein, the New Sobriety may not sound quite so uplifting, but that is the unavoidable situation in which the next president will begin his term.

Fast track the new president  —  THE NEXT PRESIDENT will be elected on Nov. 4, but will not take office until Jan. 20.  Normally, this lag time is not an issue.  But with the financial system in meltdown, the “real” economy threatening to follow, and a feckless, lame-duck administration unable to lead …

National Review Boots Buckley Son For Obama Boost  —  Christopher Buckley knew he was venturing into treacherous territory when he endorsed Barack Obama: “It's a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive.  They'd cut off my allowance,” he wrote.  —  The penalty turned out to be more severe.