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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

NPR's Final Survey: Obama moves into commanding lead in battleground states and on all key elements of campaign  —  Greenberg Quinlan Rosner National Public Radio  —  US Politics … Executive Summary  —  With just over a week left before the election, Barack Obama's strategy of campaigning …

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.

Bill Ayers to Release New Edition of Memoir, After Nov. 4th  —  Bill Ayers may have been a radical leftist “domestic terrorist” back in the day, but it doesn't mean he's above making a buck now.  Beacon Press in Boston plans to release a new edition of Ayers's 2001 memoir, Fugitive Days, on November 12.

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

The Obama (Stock Market) Discount May Be Real  —  Are investor concerns about an Obama presidency influencing the stock market?  And by “concerns” I mean “existential panic.”  And by “Obama presidency” I mean “a tax-hiking and regulatory reign of terror.”  And by “influencing” I mean “eviscerating.”

Bono to become New York Times columnist  —  A new writer will be joining the New York Times editorial staff, issuing literate meditations on the issues of the day.  He's Irish.  He wears wrap-around sunglasses.  And his name rhymes with “Oh no!”  —  Yes, U2's Bono is the latest columnist …

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.

THREATENING LETTERS SPARK NEW PROP 8 CONTROVERSY  —  Last Updated:  —  A threatening letter has sparked a new controversy here in San Diego surrounding the gay marriage debate.  Donors who gave money to the No on Prop 8 campaign say they received blackmail letters demanding money …