100,000 in St. Louis, MO: “All I can say is, wow.”  —  Barack just concluded his speech underneath the Gatway Arch in St. Louis, in front of a record crowd of over 100,000 people.  “All I can say is, wow,” Barack said as he took the stage. … Read the full remarks of Barack's speech in St. Louis, as prepared for delivery . . .

Behind McCain, Outsider in Capital Wanting Back In  —  Cindy McCain was new to Washington and not yet 30 when she arrived at a luncheon for Congressional spouses to discover a problem with her name tag.  —  It read “Carol McCain.”  That was the well-liked wife John McCain had left to marry Cindy …

Pfotenhauer Insults Virginians: ‘Real Virginia’ Is Only Where McCain Is Winning  —  On MSNBC this morning, McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer asserted that “real Virginia” does not include Northern Virginia: … MSNBC host Kevin Cork gave Pfotenhauer a chance to revise her answer, telling her …

Gallup Daily: Obama Maintains Lead  —  Among registered voters, Obama now leads 50% to 42%  —  PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking report from Wednesday through Friday, including two days of interviewing after Wednesday night's final presidential debate …

Signs that Republican Colin Powell will support Barack Obama for president  —  WASHINGTON - After months of playing political Hamlet, Colin Powell is finally ready to tell America who he likes for President - and the smart money says Barack Obama is Powell's choice.

Racists for Obama?  —  New polling and a trickle of stories from the battleground states suggest that Sen. Barack Obama's coalition includes one unlikely group: white voters with negative views of African-Americans.  —  Race has become the elephant in the room of the 2008 presidential campaign …

Michelle Bachmann gives voice to the right's darkest impulses  —  Chris Matthews just gave Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Outer Wingnuttia, all the rope she wanted yesterday on Hardball, and boy did she make a handy little noose with it.  —  First Matthews tried to get Bachmann to tell his audience …

Fact check: Obama said he would ‘spread his wealth around’?  —  The Statement  —  Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, during a speech on October 16 outside Philadelphia, recounted the story of “Joe the Plumber,” a man who held a conversation with Democratic candidate Sen. Barack …

Thousands Face Mix-Ups In Voter Registrations  —  In New Databases, Many Are Wrongly Flagged as Ineligible  —  Thousands of voters across the country must reestablish their eligibility in the next three weeks in order for their votes to count on Nov. 4, a result of new state registration systems that are incorrectly rejecting them.

MCCAIN: MIDDLE-CLASS TAX CUT IS ‘WELFARE’.... And here I thought John McCain couldn't slip further from reality on economic matters.  I stand corrected. … We talked the other day about why McCain doesn't know what he's talking about, but Obama is prepared to deliverer a speech in St. Louis today that drives the point home nicely.

Sarah Palin's Future  —  Alaska's most valuable resource.  —  Elon, North Carolina  —  Six thousand tickets were grabbed up in three hours for Sarah Palin's speech here at the baseball field of Elon University.  An even larger crowd—9,000 inside, 3,000 outside—showed up across the state in Greenville a few days earlier.

Joe and Barack's Tax Problems.  I was stunned to see some document showing Joe the Plumbers' tax problems on my 10pm (CT)newscast on the local NBC affiliate in Chicago on Thursday night.  They have very little time for any national news and they actually spent time on Joe the Plumbers' tax problems.

GOP turnout lagging in heavy N. Carolina early voting  —  Thursday's first day of early voting drew record numbers across North Carolina, election officials said, as more than 100,000 people turned out.  —  That exceeded the 2004 figure by about 40 percent, said Gary Bartlett, executive director of the State Board of Elections.

Nearing Record, Obama's Ad Effort Swamps McCain  —  PHILADELPHIA — Senator Barack Obama is days away from breaking the advertising spending record set by President Bush in the general election four years ago, having unleashed an advertising campaign of a scale and complexity unrivaled in the television era.

Voters say they were duped into registering as Republicans  —  “I am not a Republican,” insisted Karen Ashcraft, 47, a pet clinic manager from Ventura who said she was duped by a signature gatherer into joining the GOP.  “I certainly . . . won't sign anything in front of a grocery store ever again.”

Bernanke Is Fighting the Last War  —  ‘Everything works much better when wrong decisions are punished and good decisions make you rich.’  —  On Aug. 9, 2007, central banks around the world first intervened to stanch what has become a massive credit crunch.