Andrew Romano

The chattering classes may have declared last night's Nashville debate a draw, but the public seems to have disagreed. Every single scientific poll released since the curtain closed, in fact, has proclaimed Barack Obama the evening's overwhelming winner. (All of these surveys adhered to standard polling practice--phone calls, representative sampling--and none were conducted online.) There's CNN, which shows Obama clobbering McCain 54 percent] to 34 percent among viewers nationwide.

(Jim Bourg / AP)According to the nonpartisan researchers at Factcheck.org (a NEWSWEEK partner), Obama and McCain delivered a few "misleading statements and mangled facts" last night in Nashville, with McCain coming out on top in terms of untruths.

Originally posted Oct. 8, 12:31 a.m. (Jim Bourg / AP) Barack Obama and John McCain spent most of Tuesday's debate roaming aimlessly across an expanse of red carpet at Nashville's Belmont University.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.THE HARDEST VOTE(George Packer, New Yorker)When will the class war ever finally drown out the culture war, if not in 2008?

[youtube:buyVS9fRqkw] With only an hour to go, the question on the tip of every pundit's tongue is how John McCain can "win" tonight's town-hall debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

(Via RealClear Politics) There's no doubt--either among Republicans, Democrats, Independents or Martians--that if the 2008 presidential election were held today, Barack Obama would defeat John McCain.

[youtube:Y42RErUjfAc] When it comes to political narratives, actions speak louder than words. Yesterday, I outlined why John McCain's newly aggressive anti-Obama strategy--Question: "Who is Barack Obama?" Answer: Someone who's "palling around with terrorists"--isn't likely to work.

Perusing my copy of E.B. White's The Points of My Compass this morning on the subway--it's a terrific collection of the author's New Yorker "letters"; highly recommended--I stumbled on a passage that resonated nicely with the nation's attitude toward what it now calls the "mainstream media," especially in light of the report by Dana Milbank on Sarah Palin's recent rally in Clearwater, Fla.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.CAMPAIGNS SHIFT TO ATTACK MODE ON EVE OF DEBATE(Adam Nagourney, New York Times)Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama entered their general election contest this summer denouncing American politics as trivial and negative, and vowing to run campaigns that would address the concerns of voters during a difficult time.

Over at his new, must-read "Race to the Finish" blog--bookmark it if you haven't already--my NEWSWEEK colleague Howard Fineman has an excellent post up comparing Obama to Lincoln.

[youtube:buyVS9fRqkw] This may be October--but it's not much of a surprise. In the midst of a financial crisis that's boosted Barack Obama in nearly every key battleground state and cost McCain--according to his own advisers--about "five points" in the national polls, the Republican nominee over the weekend launched an "aggressive assault on...

Last month, atheist author Sam Harris and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson duked it out on this blog over the question of whether Sarah Palin is prepared for the presidency.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.ECONOMIC UNRESTS SHIFTS ELECTORAL BATTLEGROUNDS(Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny, New York Times)The turmoil on Wall Street and the weakening economy are changing the contours of the presidential campaign map, giving new force to Senator Barack Obama's ambitious strategy to make incursions into Republican territory, while leading Senator John McCain to scale back his efforts to capture Democratic states.

Earlier today, I reported that John McCain's campaign is withdrawing from Michigan--and planning to send staffers and resources to Maine as a result. The reason: the Pine Tree State awards two of its four electoral votes by congressional district--meaning that if Barack Obama adds Iowa, New Mexico and Colorado to John Kerry's 2004 states (which is likely), but loses New Hampshire (which is possible), a McCain victory in Maine's rugged, northern Second Congressional District could break a...

According to the nonpartisan researchers at Factcheck.org (a NEWSWEEK partner), Biden and Palin "were not 100 percent accurate [in St. Louis last night]--to say the least." Here's how the cookie crumbled: Palin mistakenly claimed that troop levels in Iraq had returned to "pre-surge" levels.

Spotted on American Airlines Flight 840 from St. Louis to New York-LaGuardia: Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. Fresh from representing close friend and favored presidential candidate John McCain last night at Washington University's "Spin Row"--he told reporters that Sarah Palin "did great"--the independent legislator was seated (gasp!) in the middle of the coach cabin. (Fox News's Alan Colmes, on the other hand, was in business class.

Last night's debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden may not have "altered the basic contours of the race." But that doesn't mean nothing important happened yesterday.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.IN DEBATE, REPUBLICAN TICKET SURVIVES ONE TEST(Adam Nagourney, New York Times)Gov. Sarah Palin made it through the vice-presidential debate on Thursday without doing any obvious damage to the Republican presidential ticket.

First things first: they both survived.For accuracy's sake, though, we should probably consider referring to tonight's "Showdown in St. Louis" as the "Showdowns in St.

NEWSWEEK editors Carl Sullivan, Mark Coatney, Arlyn Tobias Gajilan and Patrick Enright are liveblogging tonight's vice-presidential debate HERE.For my preview, click HERE. I'm in St. Louis, watching live--from the press file. I'll be back after the show with my analysis.  

ITEM! When Sen. Joe Biden's campaign plane landed at Signature Flight Support in St. Louis this afternoon around 4:00 p.m Eastern, Gov. Sarah Palin's plane was still on the tarmac.

Joe Biden and wife Jill arrive in St. LouisST. LOUIS--If you've never seen a presidential campaign manager hold an "availability" with a gaggle of national political reporters--they call it an "avail" for short--then you should ...

Spotted last night around 9:45 p.m... in Brooklyn, NY... on Bravo... during "Project Runway"... Obama's preemptively defensive new health care ad, which casts his plan as the moderate middle ground between "government run health care, higher taxes" on the left and "insurance companies without rules denying coverage" on the right:[youtube:jnk8minM3Qg]Who knew that Obama was targeting upscale, Bravo-watching Brooklyn fashionistas?

WILMINGTON, Del.--After climbing into a taxi outside Wilmington's Amtrak station just now--I'm flying out to St. Louis with the Obama campaign--the first thing I did, naturally, was ask my cab driver about the depot's most famous customer: Joe Biden.Have you ever seen the senator in person?

Palin preps at McCain's Sedona, Ariz. ranch Tonight's vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin promises to be great entertainment. In fact, I fully expect the Match-Up in Missouri to be the most riveting example of political theater since Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton appeared together in Unity, N.H.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.BIDEN VS. PALIN: PITFALLS GALORE(Jonathan Martin vs. Ben Smith, Politico)Between Sarah Palin, with her repeated missteps in a series of interviews with CBS anchor Katie Couric over the last week, and gaffe-prone Joe Biden, who also has made for some Maalox moments for Barack Obama's campaign recently, the two running mates have set the stage for what may be the most anticipated vice presidential debate in history.

[youtube:bsSo7sC9M2s]John McCain's latest ad is a marvel of modern political audacity. Called "Week"--and said to be airing nationally--the spot features McCain standing in someone's darkened living room, apparently late at night, and speaking directly to the camera about the current financial crisis. "What a week," he says, bemoaning the partisan rancor in Washington. "Democrats blamed Republicans.

[youtube:kHcPXfgD4jM]It's all the buzz this afternoon among Beltway types: video clips of John McCain speaking to the the Des Moines Register editorial board yesterday that objective observers are billing as "a hard-edged McCain that is rarely seen on film"--and that more partisan reviewers are calling "shocking...

Picture a swing state. Got it? Good. Chances are it looks peninsular, like Florida. Or triangular, like New Hampshire. Or maybe even amoeboid, like Ohio. But I'm willing to bet it doesn't look like Indiana.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.NEW VOTERS LIKE OBAMA, BUT MAY NOT SHOW UP AT POLLS(Sara Murray, Wall Street Journal)A nationwide poll of Americans who are eligible to vote for the first time, or who skipped the previous election but are registered now, found that they back Sen.