21.7% Of Households In Top Local TV Markets Watched Obama Infomercial  —  The combined overall household rating for Senator Barack Obama's Wednesday night infomercial, in the top 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters, was 21.7.

JOE?  WHERE DID YOU GO?  —  From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy  —  DEFIANCE, Ohio — “Where is Joe?  Is Joe here with us today?”  —  That's the question John McCain asked roughly 6,000 people at Defiance Junior High School here this morning, But the correct answer was no — Joe the Plumber was nowhere to be found.

McCain camp trying to scapegoat Palin  —  John McCain's campaign is looking for a scapegoat.  It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.  —  And it has decided on Sarah Palin.  —  In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva.  She takes no advice from anyone.”

It's time  —  America should take a chance and make Barack Obama the next leader of the free world  —  IT IS impossible to forecast how important any presidency will be.  Back in 2000 America stood tall as the undisputed superpower, at peace with a generally admiring world.

Obama and the Politics of Crowds  —  The masses greeting the candidate on the trail are a sign of great unease.  —  There is something odd — and dare I say novel — in American politics about the crowds that have been greeting Barack Obama on his campaign trail.

Huffington Post Writer Stabs Lover 222 Times  —  It was inevitable that the Huffington Post would somehow end up sullied by recruiting such a massive army of unpaid contributors.  But few would have imagined something this awful: Valued HuffPo political blogger Carol Anne Burger shot herself Friday …

Checks on ‘Joe’ more extensive than first acknowledged  —  Tax, welfare info also sought on McCain ally  —  A state agency has revealed that its checks of computer systems for potential information on “Joe the Plumber” were more extensive than it first acknowledged.

Poll finds 23% of Texans think Obama is Muslim  —  WASHINGTON — A University of Texas poll to be released today shows Republican presidential candidate John McCain and GOP Sen. John Cornyn leading by comfortable margins in Texas, as expected.  But the statewide survey of 550 registered voters …

Reliable Red States No Longer  —  POLL RESULTS FROM COLORADO, FLORIDA, NORTH CAROLINA, OHIO, AND VIRGINIA CONTAIN LITTLE TO CHEER MCCAIN.  —  As John McCain battles to remain competitive with Barack Obama in the closing days of the campaign, he is facing an uphill task just to hold …

Pennsylvania Hope for McCain  —  Republican must-win state poll from NBC/Mason Dixon:  —  Obama 47, McCain 43, Undecided 9

Sen. Bond Warns Palin Crowd That Obama Wants Judges Who Empathize With “The Gay”  —  From CBS News' Scott Conroy:  —  (CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO.) - Taking the stage as one of the pre-program speakers at a Sarah Palin rally here in Rush Limbaugh's hometown, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri …

A Joke And What It Reveals  —  Speaking in front of a huge audience at downtown Raleigh rally yesterday, Barack Obama threw off a humorous line about John McCain's accusation that the Obama tax plan is redistributionist: … Ha ha.  —  Only, in this passage Obama revealed precisely …

Gallup Daily: Obama Lead Among Likely Voters 5 to 7 Points  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama holds a statistically significant lead over John McCain in both Gallup likely voter models, according to Oct. 27-29 Gallup Poll Daily tracking.  In the traditional model, which defines likely voters based …

FOX News Poll: Obama's Edge Over McCain Narrows  —  The race for the White House has tightened significantly — with Barack Obama now ahead of John McCain by three percentage points — according to a FOX News poll released Thursday.  —  FOXNews.com  —  As the candidates make their closing arguments …

Reality Check: The Cost Of Obama's Pledges  —  Web Exclusive: If Victorious, Barack Obama May Find Fewer Resources Than He Needs For His Campaign Promises  —  (CBS) This story was written by CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews.  —  Without question, the Barack Obama infomercial served …

You're Still A Racist, Obama Advisor Says  —  Even if you vote for Obama, you're still probably a racist, according to Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, in his remarks at a recent panel discussion at my alma mater.  Ogletree, Obama's top advisor on race issues, explains that since Obama is …

What They're Forgetting about The Forgotten Man [Amity Shlaes]  —  Bill Scher clearly doesn't like the argument that the government intervention made the Depression of the 1930s great in magnitude.  I am flattered that he treats the argument as new and attributes it to me alone, and my book, The Forgotten Man.

Pre-emptive ejection: Audience members removed at McCain rally in Cedar Falls  —  Audience members escorted out of Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., campaign event in Cedar Falls questioned why they were asked to leave Sunday's rally even though they were not protesting.

GOP Mailer Uses Obama Supporter To Attack...Obama  —  The Republican Party of Wisconsin is sending out a somewhat peculiar attack-mailer targeting Barack Obama.  —  The literature accuses the Illinois Democrat of never having “led” like a president is required to do, citing a history of voting …

Why White Supremacists Support Barack Obama  —  How do racists, anti-Semites and all-purpose hate-mongers view the possibility of America's first black president?  Not necessarily the way you think they would.  —  If recent polls are to be believed, white voters favor John McCain over Barack …

Feds probe Countrywide's ‘V.I.P.’ program  —  The wide-ranging criminal investigation into wrongdoing at Countrywide - once the nation's largest mortgage originator - now includes serious scrutiny of a loan program that provided special mortgage deals to the well-connected and powerful, including two U.S. senators.

Double digit gap  —  A reliable source tells me that the CBS/New York Times poll due out later today will have Obama up 11 among likely voters, ticking down two points since their poll a week ago, but still a very, very wide margin in the waning days of the contest.

Exxon Mobil: Biggest profit in U.S. history  —  Largest U.S. oil company surges past analyst estimates to post net income of $14.83 billion.  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Exxon Mobil Corp. set a quarterly profit record for a U.S. company Thursday, surging past analyst estimates.

Obama aunt may live in Boston  —  She has worked for BHA, city says  —  Barack Obama's story, spanning from his mother's roots in Kansas to his father's in Kenya and his childhood spent in Hawaii and Indonesia, has been well chronicled and a central part of his allure as a candidate who transcends national and racial lines.

THE LAST WORD—ALMOST  —  The Crystal Ball's Next-to-Last Projections for the 2008 Election  —  Director, U.Va. Center for Politics  —  These are our 2008 election projections as of Thursday, October 30.  We will make final adjustments and tweaks on Monday afternoon, November 3, and post them to the website.