Two women from the Dominican Republic told The Daily Caller that Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex earlier this year.  —  In interviews, the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000 acre resort in the Dominican Republic.

Sifting the Numbers for a Winner  —  A crucial element: the mix of Democrats and Republicans who show up this election.  —  It comes down to numbers.  And in the final days of this presidential race, from polling data to early voting, they favor Mitt Romney.  —  He maintains a small but persistent polling edge.

Civil rights icons pump Obama in Forsyth  —  Lowery: Don't think whites going to heaven  —  UPDATED TO INCLUDE MAYOR'S COMMENTS: 5 p.m.  —  Two icons of the civil rights movement visited Forsyth on Saturday to campaign for the reelection of Barack Obama.

Oct. 31: Obama's Electoral College ‘Firewall’ Holding in Polls  —  On Oct. 11, this blog posed the question of whether President Obama's “firewall” in battleground states was all that it was cracked up to be.  —  At that point, Mr. Obama still technically held the lead in the FiveThirtyEight forecast …

NBC/WSJ/Marist polls: Obama leads in Iowa, running neck and neck in N.H, Wis.  —  Less than a week before Election Day, President Barack Obama holds a statistically significant lead over Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the battleground of Iowa, while the two candidates are locked in tight races …

NEWS FLASH  —  BREAKING: THREE BUSH-APPOINTED JUDGES GIVE THUMBS UP TO VOTER DISENFRANCHISEMENT IN OHIO |  Late last week, a federal district court ordered Ohio to stop disenfranchising voters who are directed to vote at the wrong polling place due to poll worker error.

Exclusive: Classified cable warned consulate couldn't withstand ‘coordinated attack’  —  The U.S. Mission in Benghazi convened an “emergency meeting” less than a month before the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, because Al Qaeda had training camps …

Atlantic City mayor accuses Christie of ‘double standard’ in Sandy response  —  Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford accused New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) of having displayed a “double standard” in his handling of communities affected by the landfall of Hurricane Sandy.

Beeson: Obama ‘firewall is burning’  —  Romney political director Rich Beeson said Wednesday that the Obama team's electoral firewall — aka, Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin — is “burning.”  —  “The firewall that I think they talked about was Iowa, Wisconsin,and Ohio,” he said on a conference call …

It's Global Warming, Stupid  —  Yes, yes, it's unsophisticated to blame any given storm on climate change.  Men and women in white lab coats tell us—and they're right—that many factors contribute to each severe weather episode.  Climate deniers exploit scientific complexity to avoid any discussion at all.

The Facebook spike  —  As John notes in the adjacent post, a group of former special operators have set up a Facebook page called SOS: Special Operations Speaks.  SOS posted the graphic below on their Facebook page:  —  Facebook took the graphic down twice on the ground that it violated …

What I'm Hearing About The Sex Scandal  —  I've heard the story, but I don't want to say what it is because, well, I have no idea if it's true.  —  But in the interests of sparing you 1 heart attacks and 2 overly optimistic guesses: What it's about, rumors say, is a Senator.

U.S. yanks support for Syrian opposition group, warns of extremist takeover of uprising  —  ZAGREB, Croatia — The Obama administration on Wednesday renounced the proclaimed leaders of the Syrian political opposition and said any group seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad must reject attempts …

Barclays faces record £290m penalty  —  British bank suffers another hit to its battered reputation as it confronts huge costs for alleged US energy market manipulation  —  Barclays took another major hit to its already bruised reputation last night when a US regulator threatened …

Status Update on Gallup Election Polling Following Superstorm Sandy  —  Here's an update on Gallup's thinking when we suspended our national daily tracking of the presidential election campaign as of Monday, Oct. 29.  Basically, we reached the conclusion that Superstorm Sandy had compromised …

Obama's Powell ad: Stay the course  —  After announcing radio buys yesterday featuring Colin Powell's endorsement, the Obama campaign rolls out a TV spot featuring clips of the former secretary of state's endorsement on CBS News — the script: … It's sort of an interesting note to end on …

Arab tweeps should stop gloating over Sandy disaster: Saudi Grand Mufti  —  The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holliest sites, has condemned the gloating by radical “tweeps” in the Arab world over the Sandy storm disaster, which left more than 100 people dead in the U.S. East Coast, as “illegitimate”

New ADP Count Slashes Job Creation for September  —  Revisions to the way payroll data firm ADP counts private sector job creation have resulted in a sharp drop in the September employment count.  —  ADP's new calculations put the monthly job creation at just 88,200, down from the 162,000 …

Show Me Your Model  —  It might be easy to believe we're approaching Peak Trutherism, what with good old-fashioned birthers now being supplemented by BLS truthers and poll truthers.  But just you wait—should Barack Obama win this election, we'll see an explosion of election trutherism that will be truly unprecedented in scope.

Obama's campaign goes empty and strident  —  “It is a great advantage to a president, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know he is not a great man.”  —  Energetic in body but indolent in mind, Barack Obama in his frenetic campaigning for a second term is promising …

National Polls, State Polls, and Democrat Turnout  —  NRO is back this morning!  Hurrah!  —  Also this morning, I'm scheduled to appear on Chuck Todd's “Daily Rundown” on MSNBC around 9:40 or so.

A Partisan Advantage for Obama?  —  As I pointed out at the end of August, I see political and economic context of the election as favoring Mitt Romney, though not overwhelmingly so.  In fact, I think that Romney's gains after the first debate partly reflected a dissatisfied electorate responding …

Political Memo: Romney Tones Down Campaign Rhetoric as Vote Nears  —  TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney used to talk up the “crucial” importance of having two parents in the home, saying “a mom and dad together” have a big impact.  But over the past week, he has been extolling the virtues …

Child sex convict Sandusky sent to Pennsylvania maximum security prison  —  HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Former Penn State assistant football coach and convicted child sexual predator Jerry Sandusky will spend the rest of his days in a maximum security prison in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania …

Observations in the aftermath of Sandy  —  1. The traffic in the blackout areas of Manhattan is lawless in the most literal sense: the traffic lights aren't working, so the law cannot be applied as usual.  But “lawless” doesn't seem to be a fitting description; the driving seems better-behaved than usual.