Kloppenburg declares victory  —  By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel  —  Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory Wednesday, based on results reported by the Associated Press.  —  The Associated Press shows Kloppenburg received 740,090 votes and incumbent David Prosser received 739,886 votes.

Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts Announce New Agreement; Beck to ‘Transition Off’ Daily TV Program  —  Editor's note: After a great deal of speculation about Glenn Beck's future on television, here is the freshly-inked news release.  There will be a couple of key headlines out of this …

Paul Ryan's Multiple Unicorns  —  Gosh.  For a plan that supposedly sets a new standard of seriousness, Paul Ryan's vision (pdf) depends an awful lot on unicorn sightings — belief in the impossible.  Let me review the top three unicorns.  —  First, the plan assumes that tax cuts will set off a literally unprecedented boom.

John Boehner Cries Amid Government Shutdown Standoff  —  ABC's Jonathan Karl reports:  —  He did it again.  —  John Boehner was driven to tears again today.  This time it happened at a closed-door meeting of House Republicans.  —  According to sources inside the meeting …

Teen Finds Campaign Worker At Back Door At 3AM  —  ANKENY, Iowa — A 15-year-old girl found a campaign worker from Alabama banging on her Ankeny family's back door early Wednesday morning.  —  Chloe Steward told KCCI she heard her dog barking around 3 a.m. and went to investigate.

'I'd kill myself first!'  John Edwards ‘suicidal’ over facing jail, claim pals  —  Disgraced politician John Edwards is said to be deeply depressed - to the point of being suicidal - over the prospect of a criminal trial that could end with him being jailed if found guilty.

Bachmann: Why I'm qualified to be president  —  Michele Bachmann, after Bill O'Reilly asks her if she has the frame of reference to be the leader of the free world.

West Wing briefing: Obama headed out of D.C. as shutdown looms  —  A fiery President Obama insisted Tuesday that if he and congressional leaders couldn't reach a deal to avert a government shutdown, “I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House.”  —  “I will invite the same folks that we invited today,” he added.

NJ Gov. Christie Calls Teachers Union ‘Political Thugs’  —  “They chose to continue to get their salary increases rather than be part of the shared sacrifice,” he said.  —  Dismissing objections to his blunt talk, Christie said, “We're from New Jersey and when you're from New Jersey, what that means is you give as good as you get.”

Memory Hole Alert  —  Wow.  Yesterday afternoon I downloaded the tables from that Heritage report that's the basis for the Ryan plan.  The first page looked like this:  —  You can see the unemployment forecast, with the amazing 2.8 percent prediction, in the fourth set of figures.

Gadhafi, in letter, asks Obama to end air strikes  —  WASHINGTON - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has appealed directly to President Barack Obama to halt what the Libyan leader called “an unjust war,” and wished Obama good luck in his bid for re-election next year.

WSJ/NBC Poll: A Donald Trump Surprise  —  By Jonathan Weisman and Scott Greenberg  —  Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney appears to be the early front-runner in the largely unformed race for the Republican nomination for president, but real estate magnate Donald Trump may be a surprise contender …