Obama strategy: Marginalize critics  —  This is the first of a two-part look at the marginalization of the GOP.  Tomorrow: GOP officials fear that the party's image is being defined increasingly by boisterous conservative commentators.  —  President Obama is working systematically …

House Dems want Medicare for everyone  —  Say hello to “Medicare Part E” — as in, “Medicare for Everyone.”  —  House Democrats are looking at re-branding the public health insurance option as Medicare, an established government healthcare program that is better known than the public option.

Volcker Fails to Sell a Bank Strategy  —  Listen to a top economist in the Obama administration describe Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman who endorsed Mr. Obama early in his election campaign and who stood by his side during the financial crisis.

Obama's War on Fox News Becomes a Quagmire  —  THE WHITE HOUSE - Despite the President's promise of a swift and decisive victory, Obama's War on Fox News has developed all signs of an unwinnable quagmire, making the White House even more isolated in its unilateral attempts to crush the growing media insurgency.

Watchdog excoriates execution of TARP  —  A Treasury Department watchdog is warning that a key $700 billion bailout program has damaged the government's credibility, won't earn taxpayers all their money back and has done little to change a culture of recklessness on Wall Street.

Clinton helps Deeds — sort of  —  It's doubtful that any of the few hundred people who turned up for Democrat Creigh Deeds at a Northern Virginia campaign office needed a reminder that their candidate is trailing badly in his race for governor.  —  They got one anyway …

Why we had to get rid of GM's CEO  —  The man who led the auto bailout tells about his shock at the state of the carmaker's finances and management. … Everyone knew Detroit's reputation for insular, slow-moving cultures.  Even by that low standard, I was shocked by the stunningly poor management …

Goldman Sachs's Griffiths Says Inequality Helps All  —  Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) — A Goldman Sachs International adviser defended compensation in the finance industry as his company plans a near-record year for pay, saying the spending will help boost the economy.

The GOP's New York Fiasco  —  Republicans try to lose a House seat.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Republicans are telling themselves that a political wave is building that could carry them to big election gains next year.  Judging by their performance so far in a special election in New York …

Carnegie Hall Stagehand Moving Props Makes $530,044  —  Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) — After you practice for years and get to Carnegie Hall, it's almost better to move music stands than actually play the piano.  —  Depending on wattage, a star pianist can receive $20,000 a night at the 118-year-old hall …

NY-23: Scozzafava Photo-Op Goes Horribly Wrong  —  Michael Patrick Leahy, the Tea Party activist who has been going after NY-23 GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava with hammer and tongs, produces this photo of the candidate stumping today outside of one of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman's offices.

Franken Schools Right-Wing Analyst On Medical Bankruptcies In Countries With Universal Care: 'It's Zero'  —  Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “Medical Debt: Can Bankruptcy Reform Facilitate a Fresh Start.”  The hearing examined medical bankruptcies in America …

San Francisco Alters When Police Must Report Immigrants  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco board of supervisors voted Tuesday to overturn a city policy that has been at the center of a national debate over offering illegal immigrants sanctuary.  —  The policy, ordered by Mayor Gavin Newsom …

Court papers claim Madoff's offices were full of cocaine, topless women  —  Bernie Madoff, cocaine kingpin?  —  New additions to a lawsuit against the jailed Ponzi schemer charge that he presided over an office so fueled by the drug that it was known as the “North Pole.”

Reid tells colleagues AMA led him astray, as ‘doc fix’ nears collapse  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has told colleagues that he was given bad information by the American Medical Association (AMA), which will result in a significant setback to Democrats' healthcare reform strategy.

Will lower health-care costs mean higher wages?  —  As we went over yesterday, the theory of the excise tax is that employers will buy less costly health-care plans and put the money they save into wages.  Most of you had one question in response to that, which was well expressed …

The Financial-Crisis Lit Cheat Sheet  —  This week marks the official publication of the longest, most comprehensive, and highest-priced ($32.95!) work of Crisis Lit yet, New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin's epic Too Big to Fail, which clocks in at a whopping 539 pages (minus the index).

Filmmakers Show Video of ACORN ‘Sting’ in Philadelphia  —  The two independent filmmakers who posed as a pimp and a prostitute and received advice from ACORN employees in five cities on how to skirt tax and immigration laws claim the community organizer group lied when it said the pair …

Grassley Warns HHS Web Site May Be ‘Propaganda’  —  Senate Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is raising concerns that a Department of Health and Human Services Web site that urges visitors to send an e-mail to President Barack Obama praising his health care reform plan may violate rules against government-funded propaganda.

BREAKING** ACORN Video: Prostitution Scandal in Philadelphia, PA Part I  —  *UPDATE Below*  —  Alinsky Rule #1: “Power isn't only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have.”  —  [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed.  Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

General Powell  —  is one of the most distinguished and admired men in America.  As a four-star General, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State Gen. Powell has experienced leadership at the highest levels.  Gen. Powell shows you precisely what it takes to be a leader …

A Drone Strike and Dwindling Hope  —  TWO deafening explosions shook the walls of the compound where the Taliban held us hostage.  My guards and I dived to the floor as chunks of dirt hurtled through the window.  —  “Dawood?” one guard shouted, saying my name in Arabic.  “Dawood?”

Emanuel at the Epicenter: Then and Now  —  WASHINGTON — When Heath Shuler, the former Washington Redskins quarterback, was thinking about running for Congress in 2006, he found he had a new best friend.  Every time the phone rang, it seemed, it was Rahm Emanuel or someone Mr. Emanuel had told to call.

Vitter dodges question about interracial marriage in Louisiana.  —  Although both Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) have publicly condemned Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell for refusing to issue marriage licenses to interracial couples, Sen. David Vitter (R) has stayed noticeably silent.