Bob Woodward book details Obama battles with advisers over exit plan for Afghan war  —  President Obama urgently looked for a way out of the war in Afghanistan last year, repeatedly pressing his top military advisers for an exit plan that they never gave him, according to secret meeting notes …

Paladino Trails Cuomo By 6 Points In New York Gov Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Small Tea Party Movement Backs Republican 4-1  —  Republican Carl Paladino, aided by a 4 -1 margin among Tea Partiers, trails New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic candidate for Governor …

CNN/Time poll: Coons up 16 over O'Donnell  —  (CNN) - A new poll suggests that Delaware Republicans might have blown their chance to win back a Senate seat long held the by the Democrats.  —  According to a CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday …

Murkowski not stripped of committee leadership position  —  Senate Republicans have decided not to strip Sen. Lisa Murkowski of her leadership position on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  —  Washington (CNN) - In a surprise move, Senate Republicans decided not to remove …

The awesome stupidity of replacing Larry Summers with a CEO  —  If Obama's advisors think the president has an “anti-business” problem, they should be fired  —  If the Obama administration appoints a corporate executive to replace Larry Summers as National Economic Council director …

Ohio Democrat Chair Fires ‘F-Word’ At Tea Party  —  Chris Redfern Makes Emotional Speech Before Steel Workers  —  CLARINGTON, Ohio — In the midst of a heated general election cycle, Ohio's Democratic Party chairman is admitting he used some “colorful language” during a political event in Monroe County Monday night.

Andrew Breitbart Caught in Gay Scandal!  —  On September 19th, Andrew Breitbart and Glenn Beck headlined the Right Nation 2010 event in Hoffman Estates, IL.  Outside, protesters from Organizing for America, Obama's sheep-herding initiative, gathered to scream at attendees - and spit on Breitbart.

Angle: I made $236,000 off Rush Limbaugh, and Hannity was profitable, too  —  Remember those comments Sharron Angle made about how FOX interviews were different because she could use the network to raise money.  She wasn't kidding.  —  Here's some audio of Angle at a house party this month, bragging about how profitable FOX can be:

Did Somebody Say “Fringe”?  —  Not so long ago, Rand Paul—son of Ron, “modern-day revolutionary,” and practicing ophthalmologist—would have been written off as a harmless political extremist.  For believing that the Federal Reserve should be gutted.  Or that the Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional.

Moderates privately urge Dem leaders: No vote on middle class tax cuts!  —  A number of “moderate” House Dems have privately given Nancy Pelosi and other Dem leaders an earful in recent days, urging them not to hold a vote on whether to extend just the middle class tax cuts and not the high end ones …

Stuxnet malware is ‘weapon’ out to destroy ... Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant?  —  Cyber security experts say they have identified the world's first known cyber super weapon designed specifically to destroy a real-world target - a factory, a refinery, or just maybe a nuclear power plant.

President Obama gets personal on health care  —  President Barack Obama, in a highly personal way, defended his health care reforms to a backyard audience in suburban Virginia, part of a strategy to remind voters of new benefits taking effect this week under the landmark law he signed six months ago.

ONE OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE ADS OF THE CYCLE.... In a year filled with odd statewide candidates, I still have a hard time figuring out what California's Carly Fiorina is thinking.  —  The Republican Senate nominee is best known for her tenure as HP's chief executive, during which the company lost …

Prop 19, Initiative to Legalize Marijuana in California, Favored 47% - 38% in New Poll  —  The ballot initiative Proposition 19, which would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in California, still leads by nine points in the latest poll from PPP:  —  PPP (PDF) (9/14-16)

Obama: “Mexicans” Were Here “Long Before America Was Even An Idea”  —  “Long before America was even an idea, this land of plenty was home to many peoples.  The British and French, the Dutch and Spanish, to Mexicans, to countless Indian tribes.  We all shared the same land.”

Lawsuits Accuse Megachurch Leader of Sexual Misconduct  —  ATLANTA — Two young men in Georgia said Tuesday that the pastor of a 33,000-person Baptist megachurch, Bishop Eddie L. Long, had repeatedly coerced them into having sex with him.  —  In two lawsuits filed in DeKalb County …

TheDC exclusive: Stephen Colbert to testify before House immigration subcommittee Friday  —  Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert is slated to testify at a congressional hearing Friday on immigration titled “Protecting America's Harvest,” two sources have told The Daily Caller.

Chris Christie ‘not ready’ for 2012 run  —  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who's captured the imagination of conservatives enthralled by his fiscal maneuvers to cut spending, said on Wednesday that any talk of him seeking the Republican presidential nomination is premature because he's “not ready.”

GOP ‘Pledge’: Spending caps, tax cuts  —  House Republicans are set to release on Thursday a “Pledge to America,” an ambitious and sweeping set of proposed changes to domestic and security policy, including promises to freeze most federal government hiring, cut Congress' budget …

Medicare Czar Flees ‘Rationing’ Query  —  After Donald Berwick's controversial recess appointment to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), his allies claimed that he was preparing a “point-by-point” rebuttal to his critics.  Berwick does have a lot of explaining to do, after all.

Paladino board botch  —  Tweet  —  ALBANY — Bomb-throwing GOP gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino was left red-faced yesterday as his first public-policy effort, the naming of a four-member “blue-ribbon tax-cut team,” collapsed just minutes after it was announced.