McCain Wins Debate  —  Although the fate of tonight's presidential debate in Mississippi remains very much up in the air, John McCain has apparently already won it — if you believe an Internet ad an astute reader spotted next to this piece in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal this morning.

Palin Problem  —  If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.  —  To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Gallup Daily: Obama 48%, McCain 45%  —  Obama's slight edge consistent with his positioning over the past week  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama has regained the edge over John McCain in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Sept. 23-25, 48% to 45%.  —  Today's three-day rolling average includes interviewing …

Thinking About McCain  —  I've been covering John McCain steadily for a decade.  A few years ago, I worked on a book, which I foolishly never completed, on the U.S. Senate with McCain as the central character.  So when I step back and think of McCain, even in the heat of this campaign …

MAD ABOUT LETTERMAN  —  MCCAIN VIDEO 'JACKED FROM KATIE  —  CBS News executives were red- faced yesterday trying to explain how David Letterman used unaired news footage of Sen. John McCain with Katie Couric to embarrass the Republican presidential candidate.

SLATE PREDICTS MCCAIN'S NEXT 10 HAIL MARY STUNTS.  —  1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.  —  2. Offers the post of “vice vice president” to Warren Buffett.  —  3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.  —  4. Learns to use computer.

What Caused The Economic Crisis?  Watch This!  —  Senator DeMint wanted to share this video on the federal bailout with you.  Thanks for your support.

Barack Obama vs. Free Speech  —  Here's an ad the National Rifle Association is running in Pennsylvania:  —  The Obama campaign disputes the accuracy of the advertisement, which is fine.  It has also threatened regulatory retaliation against outlets that show it, which isn't fine.

A Paulson-Cantor Plan Is a Win-Win for Taxpayers  —  The single-biggest mistake in the Paulson bank-rescue-plan marketing effort has been the failure to explain clearly how taxpayers are going to recoup $700 billion used to buy toxic assets at auction in order to unfreeze the banking system.

National Review asks: Did WaMu fail because it employed minorities?  —  (updated below)  —  National Review's Mark Krikorian notes that (1) Washington Mutual became the largest bank to fail in American history yesterday and (2) its last press release touted the fact that it was named …