memeorandum: Candidates: Make me your backup — DES MOINES, Iowa … (Mike Glover/Associated Press)

10:05 AM ET, November 1, 2007

Top Items:

Sam Youngman / The Hill:

Campaign call reveals Clinton debate concern — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) top advisers, doing damage control after the candidate's debate performance Tuesday, told supporters on a conference call Wednesday that the campaign needed more money to fight back.

Discussion: TownHall Blog, MSNBC, Macsmind, TIME, Los Angeles Times, Redstate, The Politico, The Atlantic Online, Blue Crab Boulevard, Blogs for Bush, Outside The Beltway and Wake up America

Washington Post:

Clinton Regroups As Rivals Pounce — After a rare night of fumbles by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination rushed to maximize the damage yesterday, even as her advisers argued that the "piling on" engaged in by an all-male field of opponents …

Discussion: TalkLeft, Associated Press, The Caucus, MSNBC, Wonkette, New York Times, ImmigrationProf Blog, Redstate, Los Angeles Times and The Page

Michael Cooper / New York Times:

Biden-Giuliani Smackdown Enlivens Campaign Trail — In addition to the headline-grabbing Edwards-Obama-Dodd tag-team match with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic debate Tuesday night in Philadelphia had a pretty lively undercard: Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. vs. Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Discussion: Ezra Klein

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Hillary Stumbles, Needs More Cash: Advisors

Boris Johnson / Telegraph:
I want Hillary Clinton to be president

Discussion: TIME: Swampland and Samizdata.net

Marc Santora / New York Times:
In Debate, Immigration Is Fodder for Clinton Rivals

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

Patterico / Hot Air:

L.A. Times Editor Denies Having Heard About the Sex Scandal Story — And I Believe Him — This morning Allah linked that rumor that the L.A. Times is sitting on a sex scandal involving a leading presidential candidate. I tried nosing around a little, and asked Matt Welch about it.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Captain's Quarters and Pajamas Media

LUKE FORD:

A Dark Unseen Scandal Star? — Mickey Kaus writes: … I'm placing my money on the lesbian-Hillary angle. — If you examine the candidates connected by the gossip columnists to current sex scandals, Hillary leads the way with her Huma connection. — Here's a picture of Hillary's personal assistant Huma Abedin.

Discussion: Tim Worstall Tabloid Edition, Say Anything, Atlas Shrugs, JammieWearingFool, Bookworm Room and Cliff Schecter

Scott Shane / New York Times:

Nominee's Stand May Avoid Tangle of Torture Cases — In adamantly refusing to declare waterboarding illegal, Michael B. Mukasey, the nominee for attorney general, is steering clear of a potential legal quagmire for the Bush administration: criminal prosecution or lawsuits …

Discussion: The Swamp, Firedoglake, Balkinization, State of the Day, Media Matters for America, The American Street, The Huffington Post, The Politico, Death, Kiko's House, Think Progress, Daily Kos, Feministe and Prairie Weather

Kevin Aylward / The 2007 Weblog Awards:

Finalists Announced — Here is a partial list of the finalists for The 2007 Weblog Awards. Finalists badges (hosted by Imageshack) will be available Thursday. Voting is scheduled to begin Thursday evening (late), but at this point we can't pinpoint the exact time polls will open.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Suitably Flip, At-Largely, Wizbang, The Van Der Galiën Gazette and Pam's House Blend

The Politico:

The angry voter: Bad news for Dems — Congressional Democrats certainly know the power of a throw-the-bums-out message. It vaulted them to power a year ago this week. Little wonder anxiety is boiling over inside the new majority as lawmakers ponder a succession of polls and reach …

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and Left in the West

Rex Nutting / MarketWatch:

Inflation was low because oil prices surged — In GDP math, sometimes one plus one equals zero — WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — As odd as it sounds, the government reported that inflation was at a four-decade low in the third quarter, primarily because import oil prices rose so much.

Discussion: Greg Mankiw's Blog

Bob Willis / Bloomberg:
U.S. Economy: Growth Unexpectedly Accelerated

Discussion: Publius Pundit

Sarah Lai Stirland / Wired News:

'Criminal' Botnet Stumps for Ron Paul, Researchers Allege — If Texas congressman Ron Paul is elected president in 2008, he may be the first leader of the free world put into power with the help of a global network of hacked PCs spewing spam, according to computer-security researchers who've analyzed …

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, Outside The Beltway, The American Mind, American Thinker, Ars Technica, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Blue Crab Boulevard, JammieWearingFool and LewRockwell.com Blog

Ben Johnson / Front Page Magazine:

Code Pink Learns from Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week's Slanderers — Code Pink learned something from the far-Left college students who smeared Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week at George Washington University this month: the liberal establishment is a most effective and willing accomplice …

Discussion: Fox News

Codepink / CODEPINK DC in Action:
CODEPINK D.C. Introduces Blackwater's new Department of Corporate Integrity

Discussion: michellemalkin.com and Gateway Pundit

USA Today:

A year before voting, a nation of discontent — Call us the Unhappy States of America. — One year before Election Day 2008, most Americans are dismayed by the country's direction, pessimistic about the Iraq war and anxious about the economy. Two of three disapprove of the job President Bush is doing.

Discussion: Think Progress and Eschaton

Irenep / Michael Yon:

Iraqi Islamic Party says, "Al Qaeda is Defeated." — O1 November 2007 — Iraqi Islamic Party: "Al Qaeda is Defeated" — "Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated," according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and alphabet city

Marc Moore / The Van Der Galiën Gazette:

Lawsuit May Bankrupt Phelps' "Church" — After members of Reverend Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church demonstrated at the funeral of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder his father was justifiably upset. But Albert Snyder didn't just get mad - he got even: … That's a shame. A real shame.

Discussion: Firedoglake, NEWS.com.au, Wake up America and Say Anything

Matthew Dolan / Baltimore Sun:
Father of slain Marine wins case against funeral protesters

Bloomberg:

Atlanta Urinals, Fountain Run Dry as UPS, Coke Fight Drought — Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) — Urinals without water. Fountains without water. A waterfall without water. — Dry is the goal as United Parcel Service Inc., Coca-Cola Co. and other companies in the Atlanta area rally to cut water use …

Kevin G. Hall / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Experts: Fiscal crisis threatens U.S. future — WASHINGTON — As presidential candidates largely ignore the issue, looming fiscal challenges threaten to swamp the U.S. economy and erode America's superpower status, several of the nation's foremost experts on the federal budget warned Wednesday.

Discussion: The Swamp and Prairie Weather

Robin Wright / Washington Post:

From the Desk of Donald Rumsfeld . . . In Sometimes-Brusque 'Snowflakes,' He Shared Worldview, Shaped Policy — In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and wrote of the need to …