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 …

Obama Arrives in Hawaii to Visit Ailing Grandmother  —  HONOLULU — On a whirlwind trip back to Hawaii, Senator Barack Obama spent more than an hour visiting his ailing grandmother late Thursday and is set to return to her bedside on Friday morning after arriving here on a nine-hour flight …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

Sarah Palin Refuses To Answer Whether Or Not Abortion Clinic Bombers Are Terrorists  —  diggs  —  digg it  —  I just watched some highlights of Brian William's interview with Sarah Palin and John McCain.  —  This exchange was shocking: (I transcribed this section myself — sorry about any errors.)

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 …

Religious right group upset over GOP abandonment  —  The Family Research Council's (FRC) political arm ripped Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) Thursday for withdrawing ad spending on behalf of two endangered Republican candidates.  —  FRC President Tony Perkins said in a letter to Cole …