Andrew Romano

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories. BLAME GAME: GOP FORMS CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD(Jonathan Martin, Mike Allen and John F. Harris, Politico)With despair rising even among many of John McCain's own advisors, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering—-much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely...The candidate's strategists in recent days have become increasingly vocal in interviews...

(Stephan Savoia / AP Photo)Via Jonathan Martin, I see that John McCain floated a rather curious criticism of Barack Obama this afternoon in Florida: "Barack Obama's only answer is to double-down on the Bush Administration's legacy of out-of-control spending." The attack on the president is predictable.

[youtube:OwARpaKHx_w] When we weighed in Tuesday on reports that McCain insiders now consider Colorado "gone"--that is, breaking for Barack Obama--there was considerable pushback from the campaign's Crystal City headquarters.

Next week, Barack Obama will engineer the last big set piece of the extraordinary 2008 presidential campaign--a 30-minute infomercial scheduled to air on the major broadcast networks and three cable news networks.

Do you believe that the evangelical share of the electorate will skyrocket from 23 percent in 2004 to 44 percent on Nov. 4? Or that John McCain will clobber Barack Obama by 52 points among voters under 25?

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.MCCAIN LAMBASTES BUSH YEARS(Joseph Curl and Stephan Dinan, Washington Times)Sen. John McCain on Wednesday blasted President Bush...

If Barack Obama swipes the Sunshine State's 27 electoral votes from the Republican column, the 2008 election is over. Can he swing it? Right now, the Illinois senator (who finished a two-day visit Tuesday) is doing his best—but John McCain (who arrives tomorrow) has signaled that he's willing to fight to the finish.

I'm a "young voter"--as are many of Stumper's most avid readers. So I thought it'd be worthwhile to direct your attention to the latest opus from NEWSWEEK's brilliant financial columnist Robert Samuelson: a cogent, impassioned explanation for why those of us under 35 should forget about "hope" and "change" and start demanding that the next president overhaul government retirement programs.

(Stephan Savoia / AP Photo) As the old saying goes, "Clothes make the man"--or woman. But can they unmake her as well? Despite a war in Iraq, another in Afghanistan and a world economic system teetering on the brink of collapse, the good people of Washington D.C. are chattering this afternoon about one thing and one thing only: Sarah Palin's wardrobe.

[youtube:l40nrw3V3GA] Is Palin making plans for 2012? I ask because she's contradicted John McCain on a number of subjects in recent weeks--and every contradiction seems calibrated to preserve (or even enhance) her standing with the Republican base should the Arizona senator lose on Nov. 4.

George Rose / Getty Images Or so says FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver--who, as I reported earlier this cycle, has a pretty impressive track record when it comes to predicting election outcomes.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories. IN ENDGAME, METRICS ARE ADDING UP FOR OBAMA(Charlie Cook, National Journal)Today it seems very unlikely that the focal point of this election is going to shift away from the economy.

The headline posted on CNN.com last night was crystal clear: "McCain Camp Looking for Way to Win Without Colorado." Unfortunately for McCain, how he'd actually go about winning without Colorado is not.According to CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, "two top [McCain] strategists and advisers" now say "that situation in [Iowa, New Mexico and Colorado] looks increasingly bleak" and that Crystal City is examining "an Electoral College strategy heading into the final two weeks that has...

Call it the Masochistic Maneuver. Each day, political reporters like, say, Stumper are inundated with messages from each campaign's "rapid response" squad--a group of operatives who rebut attacks, forward fact-checks and and flag reports that could damage their boss's rival, all for the benefit of the "overworked" national press corps.

Nov. 20, 2007 Rudy Giuliani applauds Obama for being open about his teenage drug use: "I respect his honesty in doing that. I think that one of the things we need from our people who are running for office is not this pretense of perfection.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.SURVEY SAYS...(Michael Crowley, New Republic)Leve and his ilk are proliferating because an unprecedented demand exists for the information they peddle.

When Republicans say that Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists," they've clearly crossed the line. But what about when a Democrat implies that John McCain is an incontinent old codger?

When Barack Obama recently announced that he'd shattered the single-month money record by raising $66 million in August, we said we were "impressed." But we also noted that to keep pace with John McCain and the Republican National Committee, "Obama and the DNC must rake in another $200 million or so before Nov. 4, which divies up as $100 million per month--or $17 million more than the $83 million they raised together in August." Our conclusion?

[youtube:9LbLxja4UHY] As you've probably heard, former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, a Republican, endorsed Barack Obama for president yesterday on "Meet the Press." I'm a little late on this--alas, I spent the weekend without my trusty laptop--but I still thought it'd be worthwhile to post a few quick thoughts on what the announcement accomplishes.

In this week's dead-tree NEWSWEEK, editor Jon Meacham and columnist Jonathan Alter butt heads over the ideological direction of America. It's a fascinating debate.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.THE POWELL ENDORSEMENT: HURTS MCCAIN, HELPS OBAMA(Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic) In that order, I think. (1) It deprives McCain of a day to win the news cycle.

UPDATE: It's a yes. Here's Powell speaking to reporters after his appearance this morning on "Meet the Press," where the former Secretary of State and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a Republican, declared his support for Barack Obama and chided John McCain for the negative tone of his campaign:[youtube:9LbLxja4UHY] Original item follows: My fellow NEWSWEEK blogger Howard Fineman says...

During a fundraising breakfast at Manhattan's swanky Metropolitan Club yesterday morning, Barack Obama delivered an unusually dour message to some of his top contributors. "For those of you who are feeling giddy or cocky or think this is all set, I just have two words for you: New Hampshire," he said. "I've been in these positions before when we were favored and the press starts getting carried away and we end up getting spanked." Obama was referring to his nearly three-point loss to Hillary...

UPDATE, Oct. 18: So I see that MSNBC has linked to this item under the headline "Is the Old McCain Back?" For the record, I don't have anything to do with MSNBC's editorial decisions, and if you read the piece, you'll see that I never actually pose that question.

Expertinent is a regular Stumper column featuring interviews with experts on the news of the day. There are 19 days until Nov. 4. Barack Obama is leading by nearly 200 votes in estimates of the Electoral College.

I hereby request that you divert your attention from Stumper--difficult, I know--and check out three excellent articles that have cropped up on NEWSWEEK.com in the past 24 hours.

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.POLLS CAUSE CAMPAIGNS TO CHANGE THEIR ITINERARIES(Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenberg, New York Times)Confronting an increasingly bleak electoral map, top aides to Senator John McCain said Thursday that they were searching for a "narrow-victory scenario" and would focus in the final weeks on a dwindling number of states, using mailings, telephone calls and television advertisements to try to tear away support from Senator Barack Obama.

Wurzelbacher fields questions from the press outside his Holland, Ohio, home (Madalyn Ruggiero / AP Photo) As you've probably ascertained by now, the real star of last night's debate wasn't Barack Obama, or John McCain, or Bob Schieffer.

Pop quiz, hotshot: Whose peepers are peeking out at us over the words "America Must Look Evil in the Eye" on this new mailer from the Republican Party of Virginia?

Given all the talk about acorns, plumbers and washed-up terrorists, we here at Stumper headquarters thought that you, our beloved readers, could use a little comic relief.