Top Items:
Levi Johnston / Washington Post:
Democrats gain in poll but GOP still leads as midterm elections near — Less than a month before the midterm elections, the political landscape remains strongly tilted toward Republicans, although Democrats have made modest improvements with voters since their late-summer low point, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Discussion:
Gallup, The Plum Line, Ezra Klein, Hot Air, The Fix, Speakeasy, Daily Kos, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Prairie Weather, The Page and DailyHowler.com
RELATED:
Russell Berman / The Hill:
Centrist Dems may reign in House
Centrist Dems may reign in House
Discussion:
CQ Politics, DownWithTyranny! and Mock, Paper, Scissors
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
The Morning Plum — * Dems experiencing a modest uptick in their fortunes?
The Morning Plum — * Dems experiencing a modest uptick in their fortunes?
Discussion:
The Note, Think Progress, Balloon Juice and Public Policy Polling
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Online:
Why Christine O'Donnell's New Ad Might Work — It begins with the candidate, to camera, announcing to voters that she, Christine O'Donnell, is not a witch. One's temptation at this point would be to stop right here and begin to laugh like a hyena at a comedy show featuring the Dave Chappelle of hyenas.
Discussion:
The Politico, Washington Wire, The Huffington Post and TPMDC
RELATED:
Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:
What Did I Tell You About Her? — Christine O'Donnell's …
What Did I Tell You About Her? — Christine O'Donnell's …
Discussion:
Hot Air, minx.cc, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Da Techguy's Blog, Gateway Pundit, Weigel, Left Coast Rebel and Don Surber
Sean Alfano / NY Daily News:
Tea Party darling Christine O'Donnell in first ad: 'I'm not a witch'
Tea Party darling Christine O'Donnell in first ad: 'I'm not a witch'
Discussion:
Haaretz and The Agonist
Brad Phillips / Mr. Media Training:
I Am Not a Witch: Christine O'Donnell's New Ad
I Am Not a Witch: Christine O'Donnell's New Ad
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
On the right, hateful words are fired like bullets — I still ride a bike. I do 12 miles, several days a week, and as I do so I listen to music — the Pandora service on my iPhone. I have created a station that plays folk rock. Lately, it has repeatedly played the Neil Young song “Ohio” …
Discussion:
Hit & Run, NewsBusters.org, Weasel Zippers, The Mahablog, protein wisdom, The Powers That Be, JammieWearingFool and Althouse
RELATED:
Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
Obama's new culture war over government's role
Obama's new culture war over government's role
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Commentary and A Spork in the Drawer
Chris Stirewalt / Fox News:
Fox News Polls: GOP Poised to Gain or Hold Senate Seats in Key States — Democrats have a mountain to climb in West Virginia. — The latest Fox News battleground state surveys of five key states shows Republicans in good position to gain two seats and hold two seats left open by GOP retirements.
Pew Hispanic Center:
Latinos and the 2010 Elections: Strong Support for Democrats; Weak Voter Motivation — In a year when support for Democratic candidates has eroded, the party's standing among one key voting group-Latinos-appears as strong as ever. Two-thirds (65%) of Latino registered voters say they plan …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog and Facing South
RELATED:
Marc Lacey / New York Times:
Disillusioned Hispanics May Skip Midterms, Poll Suggests
Disillusioned Hispanics May Skip Midterms, Poll Suggests
Discussion:
Riehl World View
Associated Press:
Sen. Murkowski Asks Alaska Stations Not to Air Tea Party Ads — JUNEAU, Alaska — U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's campaign is warning Alaska broadcasters not to air ads by a national tea party group that the campaign says are “littered with lies and intentional mischaracterizations” about her and her write-in campaign.
Discussion:
National Review, Hotline On Call, Hot Air, The Confluence, Conservatives4Palin.com, Weasel Zippers, HotAirPundit and Sister Toldjah
RELATED:
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Ways of Looking at Bank Profits — Annie Lowrey reports on yesterday's conference on financial regulation implementation: … I think some of this interest in financial sector profitability is a bit misguided, but since people want to lay down markers in this regard I think it's worth trying …
Discussion:
Speakeasy and Clusterstock
RELATED:
Annie Lowrey / The Washington Independent:
Financial Reform in Peril
Financial Reform in Peril
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Ezra Klein and Wall Street Journal
Jillian Rayfield / TPMMuckraker:
Missouri Tea Partiers, Joe The Plumber Join Movement Against ‘Radical’ Anti-Puppy Mill Legislation — Dog bites man or man bites dog? — A conservative group in Missouri is picking up the backing of the Tea Party and Joe The Plumber in its quest to stop the Humane Society …
Discussion:
Oliver Willis, Speakeasy and Balloon Juice
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Soft Side — By now everyone has an image of Rahm Emanuel. He's the profanity-spewing political street-fighter. He's the guy who once sent a dead fish to a political opponent. This past week, “Saturday Night Live” spoofed him as an abrasive pit bull.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, The Atlantic Wire and Hit & Run
RELATED:
Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
Who's Got West Wing Juice? Look to Flickr
Who's Got West Wing Juice? Look to Flickr
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
With Tagline, MSNBC Embraces a Political Identity — MSNBC, once the also-ran but now the No. 2 cable news channel, has a new tagline that embraces its progressive political identity. — The tagline, “Lean Forward,” will be publicly announced Tuesday, opening a planned …
Lee Fang / Think Progress:
Exclusive: Foreign-Funded ‘U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Running Partisan Attack Ads — The largest attack campaign against Democrats this fall is being waged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a trade association organized as a 501(c)(6) that can raise and spend unlimited funds without ever disclosing any of its donors.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Washington Monthly, The Politico, TPMMuckraker, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Oliver Willis and Hullabaloo
Jan Crawford / CBS News:
Kagan Leaves a Mark on Her First Day — There's been a lot of hyped-up consternation about whether Elena Kagan was ready to be a justice. Among the nine, she is the only justice who hadn't first been an appeals court judge, and so the chatter among critics is that she would struggle because her learning curve was steep.
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy and Patterico's Pontifications
Nathan Brown / AdirondackDailyEnterprise:
Hoffman drops out (update) — Statement tells voters to back Doheny; no elaboration given — SARANAC LAKE - Doug Hoffman has dropped out of the race to represent New York's 23rd Congressional District. — Hoffman's name will still appear on the ballot on the Conservative line; however …
Discussion:
Swampland, Taegan Goddard's … and The Page
Deborah Feyerick / CNN:
Times Square bomb plotter sentenced to life in prison — New York (CNN) — A judge in Manhattan sentenced Faisal Shahzad to life in prison for the botched Times Square car bombing as the 31-year-old Pakistani-American defiantly warned in court to “brace yourself, the war with Muslims has just begun.”
Discussion:
The Huffington Post and Joe. My. God.
Fox News:
GOP Rep. Cao ‘Hurt’ After Obama Endorses Dem, Warns of Opponent's Ethics History — Republican Rep. Joseph Cao — in an act of either selfless concern or political expediency — says he “must” warn President Obama that the Democratic candidate he's endorsed in the race has a history of ethical problems.
Discussion:
Top of the Ticket, Michelle Malkin, iOwnTheWorld.com and FoxNews.com
Zaid Jilani / Think Progress:
After Firefighters Watched Home Burn, Obion County Expands Subscription-Only Fire Service To More Towns — As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, South Fulton Fire Department firefighters from Obion, Tennessee, last week stood by and watched as a family's home burned down because their services …
Discussion:
The Reaction, The Impolitic and Mediaite
Wall Street Journal:
Frank's Own Battle Erodes Help for Fellow Democrats — It's the kind of political year in which even Rep. Barney Frank is being forced to break a sweat. — The Massachusetts Democrat, one of Congress's most well-known members, usually wins re-election by steamrolling his opponents.
Discussion:
Politics Daily, National Review and The Caucus
Elisabeth Rosenthal / New York Times:
U.S. Military Orders Less Dependence on Fossil Fuels — With insurgents increasingly attacking the American fuel supply convoys that lumber across the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan, the military is pushing aggressively to develop, test and deploy renewable energy to decrease its need to transport fossil fuels.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Stranger …, Swampland, Climate Progress, Green, Sweetness & Light, Wonk Room, Peter Daou, Balloon Juice and Associated Press
Arthur Laffer / Wall Street Journal:
The Bill Gates Income Tax — If Washington's most famous billionaires are really worried about their state's finances, they'd write personal checks to the government and leave everyone else alone. — Framed on a wall in my office is a personal letter to me from Bill Gates the elder.
Discussion:
Betsy's Page
Glenn Harlan Reynolds / New York Post:
Every color but camo — Tweet — My daughter is looking through college-recruitment materials, and pretty much all of them go on at great length about “diversity.” To judge from the brochures — not only the text but also the relentless photos of ethnically diverse students in various settings …
Discussion:
Mudville Gazette, WTSP.com 10 News Local News, The DSCC and The Page
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Odds Against Third-Party Bid Not as Long as They Seem — Thomas Friedman's Sunday column, in which he predicted the emergence of a “serious third party candidate in 2012, with a serious political movement behind him or her,” is attracting a lot of comment — and criticism — in different parts of the blogosphere.
Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Year of the missing candidate — With a month left until the midterm elections, there is something noticeably absent from some key statewide races: the candidates. — They're ducking public events, refusing to publicize the ones they do hold and skipping debates and national TV interviews altogether …
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, The Spot and Mediaite
Michael Cooper / New York Times:
Rail Service Expansion Imperiled at State Level — Republicans running for governor in a handful of states could block, or significantly delay, one of President Obama's signature initiatives: his plan to expand the passenger rail system and to develop the nation's first bullet-train service.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Ezra Klein, The New Republic, The Future of Capitalism and Balloon Juice
Tom Barton / Island Packet:
Graham warns Obama agenda ‘dead on arrival’ after mid-term election — tbarton@islandpacket.com — 843-706-8169 — Feeds | | Search the Archive — With less than a month until elections, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has been busy whipping up votes for two fellow Republicans …