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 …

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 …

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.

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.

An ‘Idiot Wind’  —  John McCain's latest attempt to link Barack Obama to extremism  —  WITH THE presidential campaign clock ticking down, Sen. John McCain has suddenly discovered a new boogeyman to link to Sen. Barack Obama: a sometimes controversial but widely respected Middle East scholar named Rashid Khalidi.

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 …

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.

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.

Eagleburger Blisters Palin: “Of Course” She's Not Ready  —  A former Republican Secretary of State and one of John McCain's most prominent supporters offered a stunningly frank and remarkably bleak assessment of Sarah Palin's capacity to handle the presidency should such a scenario arise.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

DOWN TO THE FRIGGIN' WIRE  —  Here at TPM, we're watching all the senate races really closely.  But I'll confess to a special personal interest in the Minnesota contest pitting Al Franken against Sen. Norm Coleman.  I'm a longtime fan of Franken's and I think I can call him a friend.

Record Retrospective: Obama on affirmative action  —  In five days, Senator Barack Obama '91 could become the the first African-American and the second Harvard Law School graduate (after Rutherford B. Hayes, Class of 1845) to be elected President of the United States.

Mortgage Plan May Irk Those It Doesn't Help  —  As the Treasury Department prepares a $40 billion program to help delinquent homeowners avoid foreclosure, it confronts a difficult challenge: not making the plan too tempting to people like Todd Lawrence.  —  An airline pilot who lives outside Norwich …

Don't Just Do Something.  Stand There.  —  People ask me if the current mess feels like 1929.  But the right comparison is 1932, when Herbert Hoover was desperately trying anything, anything at all, to get the economy going.  The stock market had crashed.  The economy was starting to follow it down.

Richardson strays  —  Speaking with great confidence, Bill Richardson defines “middle class” in Obama's plan as people making $120,000 and under.  —  He's right, of course, that those people would get a tax cut — but Obama holds harmless families whose income is up to $250,000.

America isn't about to become liberal heaven  —  Yes, Americans will be voting for Obama and change.  But they don't want radicalism, just competence and decency  —  As America's government prepares to take a sudden and historic leftward turn, this might seem an odd moment to ponder what a conservative country it is.

McCain's Mountain of a Problem  —  Our model does not make any specific adjustments for early voting, but it is presenting a major problem for John McCain in three states in the Mountain West region, where Barack Obama has a huge fraction of his vote locked in.