100,000 in St. Louis, MO: “All I can say is, wow.”  —  Barack just concluded his speech underneath the Gatway Arch in St. Louis, in front of a record crowd of over 100,000 people.  “All I can say is, wow,” Barack said as he took the stage. … Read the full remarks of Barack's speech in St. Louis, as prepared for delivery . . .

Pfotenhauer Insults Virginians: ‘Real Virginia’ Is Only Where McCain Is Winning  —  On MSNBC this morning, McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer asserted that “real Virginia” does not include Northern Virginia: … MSNBC host Kevin Corke gave Pfotenhauer a chance to revise her answer, telling her …

Racists for Obama?  —  New polling and a trickle of stories from the battleground states suggest that Sen. Barack Obama's coalition includes one unlikely group: white voters with negative views of African-Americans.  —  Race has become the elephant in the room of the 2008 presidential campaign …

Fact check: Obama said he would ‘spread his wealth around’?  —  The Statement  —  Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, during a speech on October 16 outside Philadelphia, recounted the story of “Joe the Plumber,” a man who held a conversation with Democratic candidate Sen. Barack …

McCain's Cosmological Breakthrough: Unreality Is Expanding  —  The McCain campaign has broken through a heretofore impenetrable barrier in quantum physics, experimentally proving the existence of unseen dimensions and, in the process, setting three of its surrogates on a pathway towards winning …

“You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer”  —  Gloves are off ....Big Time!!!  Look for blood on the floor!!  Mrs. McCain's lawyer fires off a letter to the New York Times!  See the letter to Keller of the New York Times below:  —  Note from me: I am told we have this letter independently - see below.

(Update 4) Kossacks, Thank You and Michele Bachmann, $488,127.30 raised!  —  The last few hours have been nothing short of astounding.  Since Congresswoman Michele Bachmann appeared on MSNBC's Hardball earlier tonight, there's been a deluge of support unlike anything we have seen.  —  Kossacks:

Class Will Tell  —  Why is Bill Ayers a respectable member of the upper middle class and Sarah Palin contemptible?  —  Pour yourself a Johnnie Walker Black and remember.  The presidential campaign was going to be about sex—the sex of the inevitable winning candidate.  Then it was going to be about race.

Today's Polls, 10/18  —  John McCain has once again improved his position in the national tracking polls, having gained ground in 4 of the [5] 6 trackers that published today (Rasmussen and IBD/TIPP were the exceptions).  ** Our model now perceives that Obama has come somewhat off his peak numbers …

Lahde Quits Hedge Funds, Thanks ‘Idiots’ for Success  —  Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) — Andrew Lahde, the hedge-fund manager who quit after posting an 870 percent gain last year, said farewell to clients in a letter that thanks stupid traders for making him rich and ends with a plea to legalize marijuana.

A tale of two networks  —  Carl Cameron and Ed Henry are both top-flight reporters.  —  But they work for networks which are viewed in, shall we say, differing lights by Republican activists.  —  So when Fox's Cameron and CNN's Henry took to opposing risers today at a McCain rally in Woodbridge …

Michelle Bachmann gives voice to the right's darkest impulses  —  Chris Matthews just gave Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Outer Wingnuttia, all the rope she wanted yesterday on Hardball, and boy did she make a handy little noose with it.  —  First Matthews tried to get Bachmann to tell his audience …

Voters say they were duped into registering as Republicans  —  “I am not a Republican,” insisted Karen Ashcraft, 47, a pet clinic manager from Ventura who said she was duped by a signature gatherer into joining the GOP.  “I certainly . . . won't sign anything in front of a grocery store ever again.”