Senate Democrats Poised to Pick Up 5-7 Seats  —  Senate Republicans had been doing a pretty solid job of maintaining their distance from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump by running their own campaign that focused largely on more local issues or those issues that motivate their base.

What Drives Donald Trump?  Fear of Losing Status, Tapes Show  —  By any measure, Arsenio Hall was a Hollywood success: He had starred in popular films, packed houses as a stand-up comic and hosted a hit late-night television show bearing his name.  —  Donald J. Trump saw it differently by the mid-2000s.

Florida spirals away from Trump  —  From polling to early voting trends to TV ad spending to ground game, Donald Trump's Florida fortunes are beginning to look so bleak that some Republicans are steeling themselves for what could be the equivalent of a “landslide” loss in the nation's biggest battleground state.

Poll: Republican Party Fractured As Hillary Clinton Maintains Solid Lead  —  Hillary Clinton's 5-point lead over Donald Trump remains virtually unchanged since last week—but after prolonged in-fighting among GOP party leaders, a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters (57 percent) …

Donald Trump: ‘I have no interest in Trump TV’  —  Donald Trump says he has no interest in setting up “Trump TV” when the election ends.  —  “No, I have no interest in Trump TV,” Trump said on Cincinnati radio station 700WLW on Tuesday.  “I hear it all over the place.

Hacked Email Shows Obama Knew About Clinton's Private Email While Claiming He Didn't  —  The same day that President Barack Obama publicly insisted that he learned about Hillary Clinton's use of private email for government business from news reports, internal campaign emails show that Clinton staffers knew he wasn't telling the truth.

Police: Homes Near Sen. Pat Toomey's Vandalized With Anti-GOP Messages  —  UPPER MILFORD Twp., Pa. — A pair of homes were vandalized, with anti-GOP messages in Zionsville, Pa. near the residence of Senator Pat Toomey in Lehigh County, who is currently battling challenger Katie McGinty for his seat.

To work as intended, Obamacare needs a bigger, more unpopular mandate  —  The rapid increase in premiums for Affordable Care Act plans that the Department of Health and Human Services now says it expects for 2017 is a reminder of a very simple — but politically extremely challenging …

The Right Is Giving Up on Democracy  —  It's not just Donald Trump and his fans who think the system is rigged.  —  The single most ominous thing that Donald Trump said in all three presidential debates was a misguided attempt at a quip: “I'll keep you in suspense, okay?”

A CITY CLERK OPPOSED AN EARLY-VOTING SITE AT UW-GREEN BAY BECAUSE ‘STUDENTS LEAN MORE TOWARD THE DEMOCRATS’  —  New e-mails released to The Nation reveal ongoing GOP attempts to suppress the vote.  —  By ,  —  Students wait in long lines to register and vote at UW-Eau Claire Davies Center on Tuesday, April 5, 2016.

Oversampling is used to study small groups, not bias poll results  —  Every election year, questions arise about how polling techniques and practices might skew poll results one way or the other.  In the final weeks before this year's election, the practice of “oversampling” …

How will Trump supporters react if he loses?  —  What will happen if Hillary Clinton wins the U.S. presidency, as is widely predicted?  Will Trump's supporters raise pitchforks and torches on Nov. 9, rejecting the results — or will they accept the loss?  —  Donald Trump has ratcheted …

AT&T Is Spying on Americans for Profit  —  On Nov. 11, 2013, Victorville, California, sheriff's deputies and a coroner responded to a motorcyclist's report of human remains outside of town.  —  They identified the partially bleached skull of a child, and later discovered the remains …

Inside Donald Trump's One-Stop Parties: Attendees Recall Cocaine and Very Young Models  —  The morals of Donald J. Trump, as a longtime model lover and then a modeling agency owner, were forged in another era, one in which young girls were used as a sort of currency between men doing business with one another.

Breitbart coordinated with liberal activist and organizer who disrupted GOP primary campaign events  —  A liberal activist and organizer coordinated with reporters from the conservative news site Breitbart during the primaries to cover his disruptions of events for candidates such as Sen. Marco Rubio.

Trump Spent $300K Of Donor Money On Books From ‘Art Of The Deal’ Publisher  —  It looks like Donald Trump's book sales got a boost from his own presidential campaign.  —  The Republican nominee directed $300,000 of small donors' money to the publisher of his bestselling business book …

Obama Was Right About Republican Extremism All Along  —  They should've listened to his warnings about the dangers of right-wing rhetoric.  Now they're going to pay for it.  —  It has been a long time since a popular, term-limited president has campaigned vigorously on behalf of his presumptive heir.

Clarence Thomas's Twenty-Five Years Without Footprints  —  This month marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Clarence Thomas's confirmation to the Supreme Court.  Conservatives like Thomas have dominated the Court throughout his tenure, and he has been in the majority in all of their victories.

The Most Astute Analysis of American Politics in 2016?  SNL's “Black Jeopardy!”  Sketch.  —  It had more to say about class and race than a thousand tenderly crafted portraits of the white working class.  —  For the past year, political journalists across the ideological spectrum have worked …

How angry does Donald Trump make me?  Angry enough to steal 40 Trump signs.  —  How a middle-aged mom became a political vandal. … Donald Trump campaigns in Bangor, Maine, on Oct. 15.  (Photo by Sarah Rice/Getty Images)  —  FALMOUTH, Maine — I committed a crime this month, along with two of my friends.

James O'Keefe quietly employs convicted felon who tried to blackmail David Letterman  —  Former TV producer Robert “Joe” Halderman now helping Project Veritas with guerrilla filmmaking  —  With $10,000 in funding from Donald Trump's “charitable” foundation, guerrilla filmmaker James O'Keefe …

The Divide Over America's Future: 1950 or 2050?  —  Pessimism about the direction of the country is considerably higher today (74%) than it was at this time during the 2012 presidential race, when 57% of the public said the country was off on the wrong track.

The Failure Of American Institutions, Not Of Conservatism, Made Donald Trump Possible  —  The Washington Free Beacon's Matthew Continetti argues at length in an essay published Friday that populism has displaced conservatism in the Republican Party, creating a crisis for the conservative intellectual class …