Top Items:
Jennifer Parker / Political Radar:
Palin Fears Media Threaten Her First Amendment Rights — ABC News' Steven Portnoy reports: In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by …
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Sarah Palin speaks on the First Amendment — (updated below) — Somehow, in Sarah Palin's brain, it's a threat to the First Amendment when newspapers criticize her negative attacks on Barack Obama. This is actually so dumb that it hurts: … Maureen Dowd recently made an equally stupid comment …
Discussion:
Buck Naked Politics
Drudge Report:
PURGE: SKEPTICAL REPORTERS TOSSED OFF OBAMA PLANE — NY POST, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, WASHINGTON TIMES TOLD TO GET OUT... ALL 3 ENDORSED MCCAIN — The Obama campaign has decided to heave out three newspapers from its plane for the final days of its blitz across battleground states …
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TRAIL BLAZERS, Hot Air, Weekly Standard, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Tales from the Trail, YID With LID, Firedoglake, Pajamas Media, TIME.com, THE TOOT, PoliGazette, NO QUARTER, Right Wing Nut House, Dirty Harry's Place, Scared Monkeys, JammieWearingFool, ThoughtsOnline, New York Magazine and Classical Values
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Washington Times:
Washington Times kicked off Obama plane for finale — The Washington Times, which has covered the Barack Obama campaign from the start, was kicked off the Democrat's campaign plane for the final 72 hours of the race. — The Obama campaign informed the newspaper Thursday evening of its decision …
Fox News:
Three Reporters From McCain-Endorsing Newspapers Removed From Obama's Plane — Reporters from three newspapers that endorsed John McCain have been told that they can't travel aboard Barack Obama's plane in the final days leading before Election Day. — FOXNews.com — Friday, 2008-31-305
Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room: Newspaper: ‘No Evidence’ Reporter Booted Over Endorsement
CNN:
Former Reagan adviser endorses Obama — (CNN) — Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein told CNN's Fareed Zakaria this week he intends to vote for Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday. — Duberstein said he was influenced by another prominent Reagan official - Colin Powell - in his decision.
Natalie Gewargis / Political Punch:
Obama's New Attack on Those Who Don't Want Higher Taxes: ‘Selfishness’ — On the stump this week, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has pushed back against Sen. John McCain's description of his tax policies. — “The reason that we want to do this, change our tax code, is not because I have anything …
Discussion:
TigerHawk, Weekly Standard, The Corner, ScrappleFace, QandO, Gateway Pundit, Wizbang, Flopping Aces, Booman Tribune and Commentary
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Gallup:
Gallup Daily: Obama's Lead Widens Some on All Bases — Advances to 8-point lead among “traditional likely voters” — PRINCETON, NJ — The political landscape could be improving for Barack Obama in the waning days of the campaign. Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 28-30 shows …
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Comments from Left Field, Political Machine, Donklephant, Daily Kos and Below The Beltway
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The 99 Percent Solution — Barack Obama says that frequently differences in judicial philosophy aren't going to matter because in “ninety-nine percent of cases [because] the Constitution is actually going to be clear. Ninety-nine percent of the cases, a statute or congressional intent is going to be clear.
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Kos / Daily Kos:
AZ-Pres: Neck and neck, and check out 2010 — Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 10/28-30. Likely voters. MoE 4% (No trend lines) … I can't believe we may actually win Arizona. And I have a bonus treat for you guys: … Janet Napolitano is Arizona's governor, currently serving her second term.
Discussion:
Washington Wire, TalkLeft, Opus Hussein X's Blog, Raw Story, Salon, Campaign Silo, The Reaction, AMERICAblog News, Left in the West and Guardian
Lisa Schiffren / The Corner:
What if it's really close? — Rush Limbaugh highlighted this yesterday, and it's subsequently getting picked up on the blogosphere today. It is, putatively, the work of a repentant Hillary staffer who moved to the Obama campaign and is appalled by what she's learned of their deviousness and scheming …
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The Huffington Post:
Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild: Barack Obama's America — When Barack Obama announced that he was running for president he was very clear that, if elected, he planned “not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation.” Twenty months after that statement in Springfield Illinois …
Discussion:
New York Magazine
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Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Who's Got The Momentum? — In the last 96 hours of any election, both parties seek to cast themselves and their candidate as the ones closing strong with a wind at their back. — This presidential election is no different, as already today the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain have each held a …
Sean Cockerham / Anchorage Daily News:
Senate race in final leg — THE PUSH: Stevens insists he's not guilty while Begich envisions a different future. — scockerham@adn.com — With just four days before the election and Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens insisting he's not a felon, the U.S. Senate race is white hot.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Big Brass Blog, The Washington Independent, Emptywheel, Washington Monthly and Corrente
John Podhoretz / Commentary:
10 Reasons Why McCain Might Win — This is why it might happen. Not saying it will. — 1) One poll has undecided voters at 14 percent on the last weekend, which means most of them probably really aren't undecided, that they are either going to stay home or vote preponderantly for McCain and pull McCain across the finish line.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
Big Media Figures Admitting That Drudge's Influence Has Waned — It's one of the key underplayed stories of this election, but more and more media figures are beginning to acknowledge that the onetime Ruler of Their World has lost his hypnotic sway over the media.
Discussion:
New York Magazine
Andy McCarthy / The Corner:
As Mark Steyn says: McCain — faute de mieux — Yes, sports fans, I do know all about how the International Republican Institute, while McCain was chairing it (which he apparently still does), gave goo-gobs of money to a Rashid Khalidi founded Center for Palestine Research and Studies …
Slate:
Barack Obama should be able to disclose his small-dollar donors pretty easily. — Barack Obama refuses to release the names of the 2 million-plus people who have given his campaign less than $200. According to campaign officials, it would be too difficult and time-consuming to extract this information from its database.
Laura Onstot / The Daily Weekly:
Your Second Grade Teacher Was Right - Good Handwriting is Important — This guy's vote almost didn't count and he's kind of famous. Will yours? (Photo via www.mikekinsley.com) — Michael Kinsley founded Slate, edited the LA Times opinion pages, and pens columns for the Washington Post.
Wall Street Journal:
Obama and the Runaway Train — The race, the case, a hope for grace. — The case for Barack Obama, in broad strokes: — He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years …
Glenn Thrush / The Crypt's Blogs:
Docs detail alleged payment to Coleman's wife — A Texas businessman who claims he was forced to make $75,000 in secret payments to the wife of Minnesota Sen. Norman Coleman has produced documents showing cash transfers to an insurance firm that employs the senator's wife Laurie.
Discussion:
Think Progress, Open Left, The Marathon Blog, Daily Kos, The Nation and The Huffington Post
Sean Quinn / FiveThirtyEight.com:
The Big Empty — As the only reporter during this election who has actually visited upwards of 50 of John McCain's field offices around the country (13 battleground states and counting), this piece by Matthew Mosk at the Washington Post comes as no surprise:
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
McCain: ‘Or’ — McCain on Palin. — post comment | … Inspirational? To whom? — what a sad pathetic remorseful and embarrassing endorsement. He doesn't even believe that and I'm sure if he had the chance to do it over again he would stay far away from Palin as possible. — So says Rudy.
Discussion:
Campaign Silo
Ethan Porter / The New Republic:
Rashid Who? — Why the Jews finally came home to Obama — By late last spring, concerns about Jews deserting the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, had reached a fever pitch. Writing in his popular blog for Politico, Ben Smith declared that Obama had a “Jewish problem.”
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
When Consumers Capitulate — The long-feared capitulation of American consumers has arrived. According to Thursday's G.D.P. report, real consumer spending fell at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the third quarter; real spending on durable goods (stuff like cars and TVs) fell at an annual rate of 14 percent.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Team McCain conference call: polling — With a mere four days left, the polls have begun to tighten in the presidential race. Pennsylvania appears within the margin of error, and a last-minute surprise could turn the race in McCain's favor — or so they would like to think.
The E&P Pub:
Kristol: Don't Trust the ‘NYT’ ...err, Whoops — Appearing once again on The Daily Show, Bill Kristol, Jon Stewart's favorite whipping boy ("Bill Kristol, aren't you ever right?"), tonight defended the McCain-Palin ticket, at one point informing the show's host that he was getting his news from suspect sources.
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Does an ‘October surprise’ still linger? — (CNN) — It's Halloween on Friday, but campaign aides to Barack Obama and John McCain may be spooked for another reason: Events that dominated the news right before the previous two presidential elections may have been game-changers.
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
So You Think You Can Dance? — An Obama-McCain smack-down. Hilarious:
Discussion:
Bob Cesca's Goddamn …