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 . . .

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 Corke gave Pfotenhauer a chance to revise her answer, telling her …

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 …

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 …

McCain's Cosmological Breakthrough: Unreality Is Expanding  —  The McCain campaign has broken through a heretofore impenetrable barrier in quantum physics, experimentally proving the existence of unseen dimensions and, in the process, setting three of its surrogates on a pathway towards winning …

Today's Polls, 10/18  —  John McCain has once again improved his position in the national tracking polls, having gained ground in 4 of the [5] 6 trackers that published today (Rasmussen and IBD/TIPP were the exceptions).  ** Our model now perceives that Obama has come somewhat off his peak numbers …

Class Will Tell  —  Why is Bill Ayers a respectable member of the upper middle class and Sarah Palin contemptible?  —  Pour yourself a Johnnie Walker Black and remember.  The presidential campaign was going to be about sex—the sex of the inevitable winning candidate.  Then it was going to be about race.

A tale of two networks  —  Carl Cameron and Ed Henry are both top-flight reporters.  —  But they work for networks which are viewed in, shall we say, differing lights by Republican activists.  —  So when Fox's Cameron and CNN's Henry took to opposing risers today at a McCain rally in Woodbridge …

Lahde Quits Hedge Funds, Thanks ‘Idiots’ for Success  —  Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) — Andrew Lahde, the hedge-fund manager who quit after posting an 870 percent gain last year, said farewell to clients in a letter that thanks stupid traders for making him rich and ends with a plea to legalize marijuana.

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 …

Some early W.Va. voters angry over switched votes  —  Jackson County touch-screens switched votes, 3 residents say  —  At least three early voters in Jackson County had a hard time voting for candidates they want to win.  —  Virginia Matheney and Calvin Thomas said touch-screen machines …

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.

(Update 4) Kossacks, Thank You and Michele Bachmann, $488,127.30 raised!  —  The last few hours have been nothing short of astounding.  Since Congresswoman Michele Bachmann appeared on MSNBC's Hardball earlier tonight, there's been a deluge of support unlike anything we have seen.  —  Kossacks:

F.B.I. Struggles to Handle Wave of Financial Fraud Cases  —  WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is struggling to find enough agents and resources to investigate criminal wrongdoing tied to the country's economic crisis, according to current and former bureau officials.