Why is This GOP House Candidate Dressed as a Nazi?  —  An election year already notable for its menagerie of extreme and unusual candidates can add another one: Rich Iott, the Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio's 9th District, and a Tea Party favorite, who for years donned …

President Loses ‘Iron Hand,’ Gains Donilon  —  The key to understanding why President Obama picked deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon to replace Gen. James Jones has three grooves: one, Donilon is a civilian policy wonk loyal to the President who has been involved in every facet …

CNN Poll: Was Bush better president than Obama?  —  (CNN) - Americans are divided over whether President Barack Obama or his predecessor has performed better in the White House, according to a new national poll.  —  And a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday also indicates …

Activism of Thomas's Wife Could Raise Judicial Issues  —  RICHMOND, Va. — As one of the keynote speakers here Friday at a state convention billed as the largest Tea Party event ever, Virginia Thomas gave the throng of more than 2,000 activists a full-throated call to arms for conservative principles.

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie agrees to reconsider Hudson River tunnel project  —  TRENTON — A day after Gov. Chris Christie axed the $8.7 billion Hudson River rail tunnel project over its soaring costs, a reprieve of sorts was granted.  —  Following a meeting in Trenton this afternoon …

CNN courts Couric  —  Tweet  —  Friends of Katie Couric are saying the chances of her remaining at CBS are getting slimmer.  —  CNN appears especially eager to sign Couric now that the new show starring ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer is off to a stumbling start.  —  Jeff Bewkes, the CEO …

Harry Reid Pleads with Nevada: Remember All I've Done  —  This post originally appeared on Slate.  —  RENO, Nev.— It used to be that if you needed to get a divorce, you came here.  Harry Reid came to Reno to stop one.  Nevada voters want a split from the Senate majority leader …

Obama says GOP wants to ‘cut education by 20 percent’  —  President Obama pitched education initiatives and funding as key to preparing kids for the jobs of the future, and accused congressional Republicans of standing in the way of goals to graduate more students from college.

Obama Hits GOP Proposal to Cut Education Spending  —  Obama promotes learning agenda, says he won't 'shortchange our children's education' like GOP  —  Offering voters a reason to keep Democrats in power on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama says Republicans would cut education spending …

Foreclosure Fraud For Dummies, 1: The Chains and the Stakes  —  The current wave of foreclosure fraud and the consequences for the economy are difficult to follow.  As such, I'm going to write a few posts to simplify what is going on so you can follow stories as they unfold.

‘This is the biggest fraud in the history of the capital markets’  —  Janet Tavakoli is the founder and president of Tavakoli Structured Finance Inc. She sounded some of the earliest warnings on the structured finance market, leading the University of Chicago to profile her as a …

Rock-Throwing Palestinian Boy Hit by Car in Jerusalem  —  A group of masked boys converge on a car and begin throwing rocks at it in Jerusalem.  In the midst of the chaos, the car up-ends one of the rock-throwers and speeds off.  —  This website uses IntenseDebate comments …

Voting Test Falls Victim to Hackers  —  Hackers infiltrated the District of Columbia's online voting system last week.  They changed all votes for mayor to Master Control Pro and elected HAL 9000 the council chairman.  The blaring University of Michigan fight song played whenever a new ballot was successfully cast.

GUESS WHO'S VOTING?.... The other day, I had an idea for a short election-related video, so I jotted down a few notes.  Of course, I don't know anything about turning back-of-the-napkin ideas into a finished product, so I took the concept to my friend Bill Simmon, a skilled filmmaker …

Sarah Palin speaks to electability issue  —  Speaking to a group of well-connected Republicans at a private dinner in Florida this week, Sarah Palin implicitly addressed questions about her own electability by noting that critics also said Ronald Reagan couldn't win in 1980, three attendees told POLITICO.

Donna Brazille: Mystery funds undermine democracy  —  (CNN) — Give them credit where credit is due: Republicans know how to spend big dollars.  In this election, Republican political strategists and their rich, anonymous supporters are really thinking big.

APNewsBreak: Johnson nets savings on prison labor  —  Republican Senate candidate Ron Johnson, who has campaigned against government subsidies to business, employs up to nine prison inmates at his plastics factories whose health care costs are paid by the state, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

DSCC Moving Money Out of Missouri  —  The DSCC is moving TV ad money out of Missouri, a sign that the Senate race may be moving beyond Democrats' grasp.  —  Four Republican sources who monitor media buying and three Missouri TV stations have confirmed to Hotline On Call that the DSCC has canceled reservations from Oct. 11 to Oct. 25.

China blanks Nobel Peace prize searches  —  Beijing, China (CNN) — With news media across the globe reacting to this year's Nobel Peace Prize announcement, authorities in the winner's homeland are racing to delete his name from all public domains.  —  Type “Liu Xiaobo” — or “Nobel Peace Prize …

In spiked Vanity Fair piece, Jewish leaders worry about Obama  —  Prominent American Jewish leaders cast doubt on President Obama's policy in the Middle East in a long article posted today on Huffington Post by the writers Ed Klein and Richard Chesnoff.  —  The most striking material is from the Anti-Defamation League's Abe Foxman: