Pressure Builds on Obama to Shake Up Inner Circle  —  Some high-level Democrats are calling for President Barack Obama to remake his inner circle or even fire top advisers in response to what many party strategists expect to be a decisive defeat on Tuesday.  —  Tensions have come to the surface …

5 Reasons Democrats Could Beat the Polls and Hold the House  —  It was hard to pinpoint exactly when in the night things started to go wrong.  But at some point, a trash can was knocked over in John Boehner's office in the Rayburn House Office Building.  A half-hour later on the other side of town …

Results may shrink president's agenda  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama will reduce the scope of his legislative ambitions if Republicans seize control of the House today as is widely predicted, jettisoning proposals to control greenhouse gases and overhaul immigration laws in favor …

Keith Olbermann Suspends ‘Worst Persons’ Segment Until Further Notice  —  Longtime fans of Countdown may have been disappointed to learn tonight that one of the franchise segments, “Worst Persons,” is no longer - at least for the time being.  Why?  Well as host Keith Olbermann explains in the segment below …

Companies may have to make amends after midterm elections  —  Republicans have a message for the businesses that worked closely with the Obama administration over the past two years on key controversial issues: We won't forget.  —  Take the case of Wal-Mart, the behemoth big-box retailer that liberals have long loved to hate.

Official Election Predictions Post  —  When all the votes are counted, I think there'll be 232 House Republicans.  They'll be joined by 49 Senate Republicans, which is going to set off an interesting frenzy of efforts to entice Senators Nelson, Lieberman, Landrieu, and Pryor to switch parties …

Bill Maher Stands By Mohammed Remarks: 'I Don't Need To Apologize For Being A Proud Westerner'  —  Bill Maher showed up on CNN to talk about comments he made on Real Time regarding the ‘alarming’ number of ‘baby Mohammeds’ in England.  Maher told Wolf Blitzer that he felt no need to …

What will a GOP win mean for health-care reform?  —  The question is not whether Republicans want to repeal the health-care overhaul.  They do.  “We offer a plan to repeal and replace the government takeover of health care,” reads the 2010 Republican Agenda.  —  The question is whether they'll succeed.

The Battle of Harris County  —  A firsthand look at early voting in Houston  —  Voting signs outside a polling station in Harris County.  —  On Friday, Oct. 29, the last day of early voting in Houston, the walkway into Moody Park's polling station in Houston looked like a gauntlet.

Sarah Palin: GOP establishment ‘sleazy’  —  Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin says “sleazy” establishment Republicans are out to get her.  —  Following a POLITICO story reporting that top GOP operatives in Washington - some of whom support her 2012 rivals - are working to stall her momentum …

Why Obama Is No Roosevelt  —  Roosevelt: ‘Your government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst without flinching and losing heart.’ Obama: We don't 'always think clearly when we're scared.'  —  Whatever the outcome of today's election, this much is clear …

U.S. is not greatest country ever  —  When foreign car companies started opening factories in the United States, back in the 1980s, it seemed like an act of obeisance.  The plants didn't make economic sense — Americans had to be paid so much more — but this was a tactful bit of tribute to Empire Central.

Immigration and the Reddish Yellow Menace  —  If you try to work out Brad DeLong's midterm questions you'll see that if China ever does overtake the US in per capita GDP terms, it'll take a very long time for it to happen.  At the same time, China's much larger population means they can overtake us …

Crazed Democrats in Virginia attack opponents, throw signs  —  If you thought negative campaign ads were a problem in this election, perhaps you haven't spent enough time in Virginia's 5th district.  This video depicts two men unleashing a string of racial epithets at members of Americans for Prosperity, who took the video.

Focus Hocus Pocus  —  If there's one piece of conventional pundit wisdom that annoys me most, it's the constant refrain that Obama was wrong to pursue health care, that he should have focused on the economy instead.  —  For the question people saying this never answer is, what would that focus have consisted of?

Rand Paul: ‘We will challenge’ Mitch McConnell  —  Rand Paul, the Republican Senate nominee in Kentucky, says that if he's elected he would not be an automatic vote for the state's senior senator, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who did not back him in the primary but supports him now.

Remember 2008...  When all those nauseating, over-produced faux-musical Obama ads came out?  Well, someone noticed a few discrepancies between what those slick ads promised and what actually happened in the intervening few years and pointed them out in this highly amusing video parody:

How Glenn Beck Spent the Day of Rally to Restore Sanity  —  What's Your Reaction:  —  It seemed the opposite of sanity that on the day of Jon Stewart's big rally with Steven Colbert on the National Mall that Glenn Beck, who inspired the gesture with his own late summer rally, that would be here …

The Real Prize in Tuesday's Elections  —  The GOP is hoping to redistrict dozens of Dems out of their congressional seats—and if things go their way in the Rust Belt, they just might pull it off.  —  Post Comment  —  Forget the Senate and House.  That's short-term thinking.

Third Way aims for front and center  —  The long-simmering battle between moderates and liberals for the soul of the Democratic Party is about to explode.  —  That presents a golden opportunity for Third Way, a five-year-old think tank that remains largely unknown outside the Beltway.

Health Benefits Appear On Rise  —  The number of small businesses offering health insurance to workers is projected to increase sharply this year, recent data show, a shift that researchers attribute to a tax credit in the health law.  Many small businesses, however, remain opposed to the law.