NBC Wanted to Hire Jon Stewart As Host of Meet the Press  —  “They were ready to back the Brink's truck up,” one source said  —  2.4k  —  This Sunday marks Chuck Todd's one-month anniversary in the anchor chair at Meet the Press.  Despite an opening-week ratings spike from his exclusive sit …

Aides knew of possible White House link to Cartagena, Colombia, prostitution scandal  —  As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved.

Nephew of Ebola Patient Thomas Duncan Decries ‘Unfair’ Treatment  —  Ebola patient Thomas Duncan died in the hospital in Dallas Wednesday, after weeks of being treated for the virus, and just hours later his nephew, Joe Weeks, spoke out against the “unfair” way he believes his uncle was being treated by the hospital.

Fox News Polls: Senate battleground races trending GOP, Roberts up in Kansas  —  Oct. 8, 2014: Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., left, answers a question during a debate with independent candidate Greg Orman, right, in Overland Park, Kan. (AP)  —  New Fox News battleground polls show a Republican trend …

Police officer fatally shoots teenager in south St. Louis  —  • By Margaret Gillerman mgillerman@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8126 and Valerie Schremp Hahn vhahn@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8246  —  Update, from 1 a.m. media briefing:  —  St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said the officer …

Mary Landrieu replaces campaign manager  —  In what appears to be a significant October campaign shakeup, Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is replacing her campaign manager and hiring her former chief of staff as a senior adviser.  —  The Democrat has pushed Adam Sullivan out of the manager role …

Arkansas: How Bill Clinton will save the Senate  —  As I was having my morning coffee and chicory, I couldn't help but smile reading Jonathan Martin's piece on former President Clinton's recent appearance in Arkansas on behalf of incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor, who is facing a tough race for reelection.

Exclusive: Senate Democrats Flooding South Dakota Airwaves  —  Will voters in South Dakota and Kansas save Senate Democrats?  —  The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will spend $1 million in South Dakota — mostly on television and the rest on field operations …

Leon Panetta Is What's Wrong With DC  —  Obama's former defense secretary is out with a scathing new memoir about his time in the White House.  But why should we buy anything he says?  —  When Harry Truman apocryphally said, “if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog” he might have had someone like Leon Panetta in mind.

Can Liberalism Be Saved From Itself?  —  My recent collision with Ben Affleck on Bill Maher's show, Real Time, has provoked an extraordinary amount of controversy.  It seems a postmortem is in order.  —  For those who haven't seen the show, most of what I write here won't make sense unless you watch my segment:

Other countries aren't doing enough to stop Ebola  —  A few rich nations are now providing most of the money and doing most of the work.  That has to change immediately.  —  President Obama has made it crystal clear that Ebola is an urgent global crisis that demands an urgent global response.

Obama's 2008 Backers: We're Ready for Warren  —  The Massachusetts Senator says she'll sit out 2016.  But some Democratic diehards won't take no for an answer, and are already building a campaign for her.  —  She is, she insists, not interested, telling The Boston Globe, “There is no wiggle room.

In Defense of Obama  —  President Obama signing the Affordable Care Act.  In our new cover story, Paul Krugman explores the president's successes.

‘Doing an IRS’?  EPA can't find top official's text messages  —  The EPA is poised to “do an IRS” — similar to what the tax agency had to do with dismissed top official Lois G. Lerner — and officially notify the National Archives that it may have lost key electronic records …

OK Republican: Any Muslim Who Practices Islam Shouldn't Be Trusted  —  A local Oklahoma Republican representative said recently that while not all Muslims are bad people, any Muslim that subscribes to the actual practices of Islam should not be trusted.  State Rep. John Bennett even went …

School Told to Call Kids ‘Purple Penguins’ Because ‘Boys and Girls’ Is Not Inclusive to Transgender  —  A Nebraska school district has instructed its teachers to stop referring to students by “gendered expressions” such as “boys and girls,” and use “gender inclusive” ones such as “purple penguins” instead.