Top Items:
KDKA-TV:
Police: Campaign Worker Admits Making Up Story — A Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Ashley Todd confessed to making up the story & is facing charges — PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making …
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John Moody / FOX Forum:
Moment of Truth — It had to happen. — Less than two weeks before we vote for a new president, a white woman says a black man attacked her, then scarred her face, and says there was a political motive for it. — Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old white volunteer for John McCain's presidential campaign …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Ben Smith's Blogs, Wonkette, Political Machine, The RBC, Campaign Silo, Hullabaloo and TVNewser
Greg Mitchell / The Huffington Post:
Fox News VP: If McCain Worker ‘Mutilation’ Story is a Hoax His Campaign is ‘Over’ — It has drawn wide local and national—even political attention, with some of the candidates for president/vice president weighing in or even calling — but now the Ashley Todd story may be starting to fall apart.
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Todd: The attacker fondled me, too; Update: Todd confesses to making up story, say police; Update: Todd “upset” with the media for hyping the story; Update: “She hasn't really shown any obvious remorse” — She forgot to mention that to cops during the initial report, just like she forgot …
Matt / Think Progress:
Fox VP: Hate crime hoax means McCain's campaign is ‘over, forever linked to race-baiting.’ — Following the Drudge Report's lead yesterday, news organizations picked up the story of a McCain campaign volunteer in Pittsburgh named Ashley Todd, who said that a black man mugged her …
Megan McArdle:
McCain worker “victim” of self-hatred — I haven't expressed an opinion about the McCain supporter allegedly beaten up for her political views, because it seemed likely that she had made it up, but I didn't want to risk piling on an actual victim. Now we know: it was a fantasy.
The Politico:
Bachmann tapes apology ad — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has taped an advertisement apologizing for her televised comments calling Barack Obama anti-American, according to a Republican source familiar with her campaign's decision. — Bachmann campaign spokeswoman Michelle Marston …
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Nicholas Johnston / Bloomberg:
Bachmann's ‘Anti-American’ Jab Roils Republican Races
Bachmann's ‘Anti-American’ Jab Roils Republican Races
Discussion:
MyDD
Marc Ambinder:
On Clearance, Terrorists, Palling Around And Such — In response to this morning's post about an anti-Palin faction developing with the McCain campaign and among Republicans, Randy Scheunemann, McCain's chief foreign policy adviser, e-mails:
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Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Michelle Obama: ‘Barack Obama gets it’ — With the Democratic nominee for president away in Hawaii to see his “gravely ill” grandmother, Michelle Obama campaigned for Barack Obama in Ohio today. — The candidate's wife distilled a message that Obama has attempted to drive home …
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Kathleen Parker / Washington Post:
Something About Sarah — My husband called it first. Then, a brilliant 75-year-old scholar and raconteur confessed to me over wine: “I'm sexually attracted to her. I don't care that she knows nothing.” — Finally, writer Robert Draper closed the file on the Sarah Palin mystery …
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Greg Veis / The New Republic:
Reagan Appointee and (Recent) McCain Adviser Charles Fried Supports Obama — Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Ben Smith's Blogs, Washington Wire, Buck Naked Politics, The Corner and Grasping Reality …
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Michael Luo / The Caucus:
Top Salary in McCain Camp? Palin's Makeup Stylist — (Photo: Michael Appleton for The New York Times) — Updated | 12:20 p.m. Who was the highest paid individual in Senator John McCain's presidential campaign during the first half of October as it headed down the homestretch?
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Washington Monthly, unbossed.com, Liberal Values, Salon, MyDD, Political Machine and Kevin Drum
Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
McCain Communications Director Gave Reporters Incendiary Version Of “Carved B” Story Before Facts Were Known — John McCain's Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts …
Brad Bumsted / PittsburghLIVE.com:
Race would be different if Ridge were VP pick, ex-gov says — HARRISBURG — Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge said today that John McCain can't become president without carrying Pennsylvania and that the race would be different if McCain had chosen him as his running mate.
Discussion:
Washington Wire, The Caucus, Marc Ambinder, Boston Globe, TIME.com, Political Machine and Jonathan Martin's Blogs
Floyd Norris:
United Panic — I'll be blogging through much of today, as the world fears the worst. The first posts will be at the bottom. — Slipping Back: European markets closed well above their lows, but now the American market is slipping back, with both the Dow and the S.&P, down 4 percent for the day.
ABCNEWS:
New Allegations in Mahoney Sex Scandal — Current and former members of the staff of Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-Fla) say he has yet to come completely clean about his multiple affairs, abusive behavior and alleged ethical lapses. — Last week, following a series of reports on The Blotter …
Andrew G. Biggs / Wall Street Journal:
Obama Wants Social Security to Be a Welfare Plan — His tax credit amounts to a radical change in the system. — Imagine this: Barack Obama proposes a Social Security payroll tax cut for low earners. Workers earning up to $8,000 per year would receive back the full 6.2% employee share …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
‘Joe the Plumber’ Mulling Run for Congress — Joe Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. “Joe the Plumber,” said Friday he may consider running for Congress in 2010, challenging longtime Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D) in the Toledo-area district. — “I'll tell you what, we'd definitely be in one heck of a fight,” …
Wall Street Journal:
43% Isn't Nothing — Obama looks like a winner, but it's not over yet. — It's all going fast, the whirl of images on the screen, words on the page, data flashing by. Barack Obama's up here, his lead now in the double digits there. In green rooms on book interviews …
cny.org:
Just Look — The picture on this page is an untouched photograph of a being that has been within its mother for 20 weeks. Please do me the favor of looking at it carefully. — If you have no doubt about this either, have you any doubt that the authorities in a civilized society …
Discussion:
Townhall.com
Associated Press:
Former Mass. Gov. William Weld to endorse Obama — SALEM, N.H.—Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, a Republican, is endorsing Democrat Barack Obama for president, citing the senator's steady leadership, good judgment and ability to unify Democrats, Republicans and independents.
Charles Piller / Los Angeles Times:
Palin appointed friends and donors to key posts in Alaska, records show — 100-plus jobs went to campaign donors or their relatives, sometimes without apparent regard to qualifications. Several donors got state-subsidized loans for business ventures of dubious public value.