Top Items:
Michael Luo / The Caucus:
Palin's Makeup Stylist Fetches Highest Salary in 2-Week Period — 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? — Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain's chief foreign policy adviser …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, The Heretik, Spin Cycle, TIME.com, Donklephant, The Impolitic and Balloon Juice
Mark Mooney / ABCNEWS:
Exclusive: Obama Explains Why His Campaign Will Wait for ‘Toot’ — Obama Tells 'GMA's' Robin Roberts Why He's Halting His Campaign Swing to Visit Grandmother — Barack Obama is home today in Hawaii with his ailing grandmother rather than on the campaign trail because he fears she won't make it to Election Day.
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Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Final bill on the Barackopolis: $5.3 million — Keep this figure in mind when people claim that the $150,000 the RNC spent on Sarah Palin's wardrobe represents some kind of frivolity. At least she's going to wear the clothes more than once, and it may raise some decent funds for charity at the end of the campaign.
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Michael Luo / The Caucus:
Obama Spending Furiously Outpaces McCain's — Senator Barack Obama's fund-raising juggernaut appears to have slowed dramatically from its record-shattering pace in September, raising $36 million in the first half of October, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Discussion:
Spin Cycle
The Politico:
Blame game: GOP forms circular firing squad — With despair rising even among many of John McCain's own advisors, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering—much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely.
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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 Krauthammer / Real Clear Politics:
McCain for President — WASHINGTON — Contrarian that I am, I'm voting for John McCain. I'm not talking about bucking the polls or the media consensus that it's over before it's over. I'm talking about bucking the rush of wet-fingered conservatives leaping to Barack Obama before they're left …
Discussion:
The Hill's Pundits Blog, Boston Globe, Marc Ambinder, Hot Air, Babalu Blog and LewRockwell.com Blog
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.
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Ken Dilanian / Associated Press:
Spending rose in Palin's Alaska administrations
Spending rose in Palin's Alaska administrations
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
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 …
Discussion:
Think Progress, The New Republic, NewsBusters.org, Riehl World View, Daily Kos and The Caucus
ABCNEWS:
Breaking Down the Battleground States — McCain Faces an Uphill Battle in Eight Key States Up for Grabs — Election Day often comes down to the results of a few crucial battleground states where key electoral votes can hold the key to the White House. — In 2000, that battleground was certainly Florida.
Discussion:
TalkLeft
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Michelle Malkin:
Why that McCain volunteer's “mutilation” story smells awfully weird; Update: Police to administer polygraph; conflicting evidence at scene — Scroll down for updates..."Police planned to administer a polygraph test to Ashley Todd, 20, because her statements about the attack conflict with evidence …
Discussion:
The Corner, Salon, PittsburghLIVE.com, Althouse, Simply Left Behind, Political Machine, Wizbang, Shakesville, TMZ.com, Jules Crittenden, The Smoking Gun, The RBC, Don Surber, Wake up America, KDKA-TV, minx.cc, Jesus' General, Hot Air, Oliver Willis, WTAE-TV, The Daily Dish, The New Republic, American Power, NewsBusters.org, Solomonia, Comments from Left Field, Babalu Blog, Patterico's Pontifications and Sadly, No!
RELATED:
New York Times:
Group's Tally of New Voters Was Vastly Overstated — On Oct. 6, the community organizing group Acorn and an affiliated charity called Project Vote announced with jubilation that they had registered 1.3 million new voters. But it turns out the claim was a wild exaggeration …
Discussion:
Townhall.com, The Swamp, Washington Post, Hot Air, QandO, JammieWearingFool and Election Law
Joel Rubin / Los Angeles Times:
Bratton records phone message supporting Obama — The endorsement, which is not yet being used, extols the Democratic presidential candidate's record on ‘policing issues,’ the LAPD chief says. — Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton waded into the contentious U.S. presidential campaign Thursday …
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Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Exclusive: L.A. Police Chief Bratton tapes anti-McCain robo-call for Obama
Exclusive: L.A. Police Chief Bratton tapes anti-McCain robo-call for Obama
Discussion:
The LA Times President …
New York Times:
Barack Obama for President — Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation's future truly hangs in the balance. — The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush's failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars …
Alan Reynolds / Wall Street Journal:
How's Obama Going to Raise $4.3 Trillion? — The Democrat's tax and spending plans deserve closer examination. — The most troublesome tax increases in Barack Obama's plan are not those we can already see but those sure to be announced later, after the election is over and budget realities rear their ugly head.
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 …
Patterico / Patterico's Pontifications:
1&1 Internet Has Allowed My Domain to Be Hijacked — The company “1&1″ has allowed my domain, patterico.com, to be hijacked. — Look up at the address bar. This is still the Patterico site — but I no longer have the patterico.com domain — even though I renewed it before the expiration date.
Discussion:
protein wisdom
Andy McCarthy / The Corner:
Runnin' with the Devil — In the first segment of the Great One's program last night, Mark highlighted this article by Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker, describing a clip, recently dug up by the Confederate Yankee site (the clip was also played by Mark), in which the FBI informant …
Discussion:
Take Our Country Back, Balloon Juice, Stop The ACLU, RIGHTWINGSPARKLE and Little Green Footballs
New York Times:
Everybody's Voting for the Weekend — BY Nov. 4, more than $5 billion will have been spent trying to persuade voters to cast their presidential and congressional ballots one way or another. Despite all the money and the news media hysteria, and even with record numbers of Americans heading to the polls …
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight.com:
Today's Polls, 10/23: McCain on Life Support — This is not the time when John McCain can afford a bad polling day. And yet he's had perhaps his worst one of the year. — The national trackers were essentially a push — three moved toward Obama, two toward McCain, two were flat — but the action today is at the state level.
Discussion:
American Street, WHAS-TV, The Mahablog, Slog, Democratic Strategist, The Buzz and PoliBlog (TM)
Marc Ambinder:
11 Days Out, And The Whispering Begins — Call it a circular firing squad, or internal dissension, or simply the natural evolution of a campaign that is disappointed with how the endgame is playing out. — There's a faction within the McCain campaign has begun to whisper about Gov. Sarah Palin to reporters.