10/22 Roundup: Obama Rising, Blue Hoosiers, Clotheshorse Palin

Leader: Obama Rising

- Just when you thought McCain might be making a run, the polls have broken back in Obama's direction. A WSJ/NBC pollhas Obama up 10, an NYT/CBS poll shows how the public has warmed toObama while cooling toward McCain, and a Pew poll favors Obama by 14 (if it smells like an outlier...).CNN's poll of polls has Obama up 9, and RCP puts it at 7.6. As Simon wrote this morning, this could end up in an historically huge win for Obama.

- Old Man McCain is struggling to make a come back, flubbing the attack lines in his stump speeches. Sunday's NY Times Magazine will have an in-depth piece on the McCain campaign, which, frankly, isn't likely to help him either.

Economy

- An NY Times editorial makes the continued call to keep people in their homes. Without efforts to fix the mortgages themselves, we'll only have half a bailout. Nevertheless, as Rob Shapiro was quoted as saying yesterday, The Times writes that bailing out homeowners is more complicated than it seems.

- David Rothkopf, who spoke at an NDN event last week, wrote in yesterday's FT about  competition faced by the IMF.  

Election '08

- The NYT writes on this year's surge in early voting. The votes are tending to break toward Obama. Washington Wire reports that early voting is particularly big in North Carolina.

- Barney Smith isn't the only Indianan behind Obama... Salon reports on how the Dems might score an upset in the Hoosier state.

- In a WaPo OpEd, Ruth Marcus writes on McCain's uncivil campaign, particularly his encouragement of the notion that Obama is a socialist. Salon lampooned that idea yesterday.

- Jonathan Alter at Newsweek writes on the grim possibility of a bin Laden endorsement of Obama, and how the campaign might respond.

International

- Simon Robinson reports from Islamabad for Time, covering the ill will in the Pakistani military toward American incursions over the border.

- India is putting an unmanned craft on the moon.

One More Thing

- The RNC has spend $150 thousand dollars on  Sarah Palin's wardrobe in the past few months.  But it's not so much. The Obama campaign raises about $150k in an average hour.

- Joe the Plumber? Meh.  How about Eric the CEO of Google? I'd take the latter.

- Rep. Hayes of North Carolina believes that liberals hate real Americans. So the question returns... where are the unreal Americans? Do they reside exclusively in unreal parts of America like Arlingon, Virginia?

- Last, one of the upsides of the financial crisis has been greatly increased airtime for Barney Frank.  Here he is arguing for deficit spending to support the second stimulus: