×
- Despite bailout negotiations being still very much up in the air, John McCain is de-suspending his campaign -- contradicting his Wednesday promise to stay in Washington until a deal was reached.
- The Obama campaign is playing the expectations game for tonight, raising the bar quite high for McCain ("If he slips up, makes a mistake, or fails to deliver a game-changing performance, it will be a serious blow to his campaign") and lowering them considerably for Obama ("Debates are not a good format for Obama"). Meanwhile, TNR assembles McCain and Obama's best debate moments, Time recalls ten memorable debate moments from the past, and C-SPAN is to presidential debate archives what the Alexandria library was to the ancient world.
- In addition to Ilan Goldenberg's debate scorecard in today's Prospect, Max Bergmann has a very thoroughly-explored list of "10 claims John McCain will make in tonight's debate."
- Things just keep getting worse for Sarah Palin. First, Kathleen Parker urges in her column -- distributed in about 300 papers nationwide -- for Palin to step down as vice-presidential candidate for the good of the country (ouch). Then Palin insinuates that Henry Kissinger is "naive" about foreign policy (wow) and thinks traveling abroad is a sign of elitism (make it stop). Finally, NBC has hundreds of letters written by Palin, many unflattering, including one where the Wasilla mayor channeled her inner Heston and excoriated a California federal court for upholding the removal of 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance: "San Francisco judges forbidding our Pledge of Allegiance? They will take the phrase ‘under God’ away from me when my cold, dead lips can no longer utter those words." Just like the Founders intended, right?
- Slate predicts the next 10 McCain campaign stunts. It's supposed to be humorous, but some of them actually seem plausible at this point.
- Remember Mike Huckabee? The Huckabee who ran for president? The Huckabee who won Iowa? Founder of HuckPAC? Well, he's got his own show now, and it's called -- get ready -- "Huckabee." Premiere is Saturday.
- For poll nerds only: Pollster has nifty new Flash-based trendline charts that allow you to filter, modify and embed customized charts for the battleground states and the national polls.
--Mori Dinauer
