Republicans making gains against Democrats ahead of midterm elections  —  Republicans are heading into the final weeks of the midterm campaign with the political climate highly in their favor, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.  Americans are increasingly frustrated by a lack …

One Nation, Two Deficits  —  The nation faces a nasty dual deficit problem: a painful jobs deficit in the near term and an unsustainable budget deficit over the medium and long term.  This month, the Senate will be debating an issue with significant implications for both …

State Gains Would Give Redistricting Edge to G.O.P.  —  The midterm elections are being closely watched for the answer to a high-stakes question: Will Republicans have a majority in Congress for the next two years?  But it is the outcome of a lower-profile battle over state legislatures …

Daley won't run for re-election: ‘I have done my best’  —  Mayor Richard Daley says he will not run for re-election in 2011, saying it's “time for me, it's time for Chicago to move on.”  —  “The truth is I have been thinking about this for the past several months,” Daley said at a City Hall news conference that stunned the city.

Planned Quran-burning could endanger troops, Petraeus warns  —  Feeling passionate about this story?  Put your thoughts on video and share them with CNN iReport.  —  (CNN) — The pastor of a Florida church planning to burn Qurans told CNN Tuesday while the congregation plans to go through …

Fidel to Ahmadinejad: ‘Stop Slandering the Jews’  —  (This is Part I of a report on my recent visit to Havana.  I hope to post Part II tomorrow.  And I also hope to be publishing a more comprehensive article about this subject in a forthcoming print edition of The Atlantic.)

Rome is Burning  —  There is a critical point that I fear the commentariat is just not getting.  In my darker moments I fear that some of my fellow economists aren't getting it either but we aren't going to go there.  —  Look at these two graphs because they tell you the fundamental problem in America today:

Scrubbing Santorum  —  Why Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum can't beat his Google problem.  —  Post Comment  —  Rick Santorum would very much like to be president.  For the past few years, he has been diligently appearing at the sorts of conservative events—the Values Voters Summit …

Can the Tea Party win in Delaware the way it won in Alaska?  —  WILMINGTON, Del.—Mike Castle is in his element.  It's Saturday and Delaware's only representative in the U.S. House has positioned himself at the entrance to the Arden Fair, a 103-year-old celebration of a left-leaning artist community …

Desert Firestorm: The Nevada Senate Race Heats Up  —  A Retooled Angle Campaign Threatens to Topple the Majority Leader  —  After a disastrous start as the Republican Senate nominee in Nevada, Sharron Angle has begun to turn her campaign around and is once again raising Republican hopes …

The Obama Economy  —  How trillions in fiscal and monetary stimulus produced a 1.6% recovery.  —  So two months before an election, and 19 months after the mother of all spending programs, President Obama said yesterday he's rolling out one more plan to stimulate the economy.

The United States of Inequality  —  In 1915, a statistician at the University of Wisconsin named Willford I. King published The Wealth and Income of the People of the United States, the most comprehensive study of its kind to date.  The United States was displacing Great Britain …

Peretz: Muslims Are Indifferent to Human Life and Therefore Unworthy of First Amendment Protection  —  New Republic Editor in Chief Martin Peretz: … I for one am thrilled that the First Amendment gives Peretz the right to offer his racist views up for public consumption …

Appeasing the Google Gods  —  I can no longer file a story in our computer system without filling out a box, a small gray square that may well determine the future of serious journalism.  —  The box is supposed to contain words and phrases that will help me reel you in.

Infrastructure  —  Some bleary-eyed thoughts from Japan on the reported administration proposal for $50 billion in new spending:  —  1. It's a good idea  —  2. It's much too small  —  3. It won't pass anyway — which makes you wonder why the administration didn't propose a bigger plan …

Why Obama Is Proposing Whopping Corporate Tax Cuts, and Why He's Wrong  —  President Obama reportedly will propose two big corporate tax cuts this week.  —  One would expand and make permanent the research and experimentation tax credit, at a cost of about $100 billion over the next ten years.

Obama Approval/2010 Vote Correlation  —  We'll start rolling our Maine poll out tomorrow and even there a majority of likely voters for this fall disapprove of Barack Obama.  —  How big of a problem is Obama's unpopularity for Democratic candidates?  We're finding that almost no one who disapproves …

Republican Runs Street People on Green Ticket  —  TEMPE, Ariz. — Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks.  The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street.