Understanding and Misunderstanding the ‘Enthusiasm Gap’  —  I was an early adopter of the term “enthusiasm gap” in the context of this year's elections, having first applied it in August 2009 — a summer of town-hall protests and Tea Party rallies — to describe polling numbers for Democrats …

TWS Exclusive: Todd Palin Responds to Miller Flap  —  Yesterday, the anti-Palin blog Mudflats leaked an email that Todd Palin had sent to several people, in which he complained about something Alaska Republican senatorial candidate Joe Miller had (not) said about Sarah Palin's qualifications for the presidency.

CNN/Time Poll: 1 in 10 in Nevada say ‘none of the above’  —  (CNN) - Nevada voters get to do what most Americans don't: They can vote for “none of the above.”  —  And a new survey in the deadlocked battle between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican challenger Sharron

POLL: GOP leads widely, Dems in danger but race for House tight  —  In a poll of 12 hotly contested races that could decide who controls the House in the 112th Congress, Republican challengers are beating freshman Democrats in 11 — and in the last one, the race is tied.

Clinton laughs off VP rumors  —  (CNN) - Hours after White House press secretary Robert Gibbs poured cold water on the notion Hillary Clinton may take the VP slot ahead of the 2012 election, the secretary of state followed suit.  —  “I don't believe what I read,” Clinton said laughing during …

At Flagging Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt Culture  —  In January 2008, soon after the venerable Tribune Company was sold for $8.2 billion, Randy Michaels, a new top executive, ran into several other senior colleagues at the InterContinental Hotel next to the Tribune Tower in Chicago.

The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe  —  I would like to warn current and future owners of .ly domains of a concerning incident regarding the deletion of one of our prime domains ‘vb.ly’ by NIC.ly (the domain registry and controlling body for the Libyan domain space '.ly').  —  In short:

Judge Bars Major Witness From Civilian Terrorism Trial  —  Minutes before a major terrorism trial was about to begin, a federal judge barred prosecutors in Manhattan on Wednesday from using a key witness.  —  The government had acknowledged it learned about the witness from the defendant …

Latest poll on Delaware Senate, House races shows Democrats with commanding leads despite Tea Party Republican Effort  —  CONTACT: Andrea Boyle, University of Delaware media relations, 302-831-1421, aboyle@udel.edu  —  Newark, DE - Newark, DE - Four weeks before Election Day 2010 …

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell: Michael Steele is dancing for his GOP ‘master’ UPDATED  —  I don't believe in reading racial tea leaves just for political gain, but what was Lawrence O'Donnell thinking?  Here's how he described RNC Chairman Michael Steele on his MSNBC program tonight:

Apple Making Verizon-Ready iPhone by Year End  —  Apple Inc. plans to begin mass producing a new iPhone by the end of 2010 that would allow Verizon Wireless to sell the smartphone early next year, said people briefed by Apple.  —  The new iPhone would be similar in design to the iPhone 4 currently sold …

Romney Deathwatch, Continued  —  Politico has a good piece today on a subject I've been banging on for a while — the mortal blowinflicted upon Mitt Romney's presidential hopes by the health care debate.  In 2008, a system consisting of a regulated individual markets, an individual mandate …

EX-CNN anchor Rick Sanchez releases statement, says comments “never intended to suggest any sort of narrow mindedness.”  —  Former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez just released a statement saying his comments from last week were not intended to be “narrow-minded” and “should not have been made.”

Voter Disgust Isn't Only About Issues  —  KEANSBURG, N.J. — If you tune in to any of this week's candidate debates around the country, or watch any of the ads that are beginning to dominate the airwaves, you will hear that next month's midterm elections are about all the things you probably thought …

A diplomatic imbroglio: Ambassadors denied entry to White House party  —  From Elise Labott, CNN State Department Producer  —  Washington (CNN) — The White House has another party protocol problem on its hands after as many as 30 diplomats were stopped at the White House gate and not allowed …

Democrats Look to Cultivate Pot Vote in 2012  —  Party Considers Legalization Efforts in Swing States Amid Signs California Measure Is Exciting Young, Liberal Voters  —  Democratic strategists are studying a California marijuana-legalization initiative to see if similar ballot measures could energize young …

Chris Christie Expected to Kill ARC Transit Tunnel  —  Gov. Chris Christie is expected to kill the critical ARC transit tunnel project, reports say.  Photo: Star-Ledger.  —  The largest federal transit investment in American history is on its deathbed, reports Andrea Bernstein at Transportation Nation.

House GOP all in for homestretch  —  House Republicans have drafted a go-for-broke blueprint for the final weeks of the midterm campaign that will bring them to $45 million in television ad spending, with spots reserved in 62 congressional districts across the nation.

VIDEO: Asked About The Chamber's Foreign Funding And Ad Campaign, Roy Blunt Cuts And Runs  —  Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported an exclusive story on how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — the big business lobbying juggernaut running an unprecedented $75 million dollar attack campaign against Democrats …

Panel commissioned by Barney Frank recommends nearly $1T in defense cuts  —  A panel commissioned by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is recommending nearly $1 trillion in cuts to the Pentagon's budget during the next 10 years.  —  The Sustainable Defense Task Force, a commission of scholars …

Do Jews Really Control the Media? … Like This Story … - In 2008, Ross Douthat Said the GOP Needed To Change To Win.  What Does He Say Now?  - Finally, the Feds May Crack Down on Loathsome, Predatory Payday Lenders- The Beauty and Horror of the Shiloh Battlefield- The Weird Chinese City …

Spaghetti Tacos: Silly Enough for Young Eaters  —  IT started as a gag: spaghetti tacos.  —  On an episode of the hit Nickelodeon series “iCarly,” the lead character's eccentric older brother, Spencer, makes dinner one night.  Glimpsed on screen, the dish consists of red-sauce-coated pasta stuffed into hard taco shells.

Palin: Abortion ‘essential’ issue in midterm elections  —  Houston, Texas (CNN) - Sarah Palin starkly framed the midterm elections on Tuesday as a choice between political candidates who favor a “culture of life” and those on the opposite side of the issue wanting to implement “a culture of death.”

CNN's Piers Morgan Vows Format And Other Changes To Beat Fox News Competition: Promises “I'm Going To Be There To Win” And “It's Time To Kick Some Ratings Butt”  —  EXCLUSIVE: Piers Morgan tells us that he's planning big changes to the Larry King Live interview slot he inherits in January.

Obama To Get Out of Dodge After the Election  —  More evidence Obama knows there will be a Democrat bloodbath at the polls: he has changed his schedule and is flying away for 12 whole days, just two days after election, and is going to the other side of the world.

Private sector sheds 39,000 jobs in September  —  Scott Stevenson stands outside the locked gate of a shuttered small manufacturing plant he once worked at in Ferndale, Michigan August 31, 2010.  REUTERS/Rebecca Cook  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private employers unexpectedly cut 39,000 jobs …

Monetary Versus Fiscal  —  Karl Smith has his own version of the models people are using to think about this crisis.  I don't have much disagreement, except that I would group the various non-Keynesian models together as all various attempts to see this as a supply problem …

White House may have blocked oil spill figures  —  White House officials may have blocked the release of a more accurate and dramatic estimate of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, perhaps hindering public confidence in the Obama administration's cleanup efforts, according to an Oil Spill Commission staff report released Wednesday.