Shameless, clueless Sarah Palin, speaking at a Florida rally today, did her Obama the terrorist-sympathizer schtick, leading one supporter in the audience to yell "Kill Him!"

Palin's response? Nada.

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said. "Boooo!" said the crowd. "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated. "Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Palin went on to say that "Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers's living room, and they've worked together on various projects in Chicago."

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John McCain's strategy of the day tacitly accepts voter disapproval of his Bush-like positions on the important issues. Even if you think my ideas are bad, he seems to be saying, at least you know who I am. That Obama, we know nothing about him. Doesn't that scare you even more than I do?

The Arizona senator, a veteran of more than two decades in Congress, told his audience that while he is a known quantity the same cannot be said about Obama, who is midway through his first term as a senator from Illinois.

"You need to know who you're putting in the White House — where the candidate came from and what he or she believes," McCain said. "And you need to know now, before it is time to choose." Later, he added: "There are essential things that we don't know about Sen. Obama or the record he brings to this campaign."

Hey Sen. McCain, if you want to know something about Barack Obama, why not ask him tomorrow? Or you could listen to his debate answers. Or read his books, or look at his website. What are these "essential things" that are so mysterious to you about where he came from or what he believes?

The new Wall St. Journal/NBC poll has Barack Obama and Joe Biden ahead of McCain/Palin by 49% to 43%.

This is a pretty astonishing drop for McCain:

Sen. McCain's support in rural areas and small towns, where he led by 21 points after his convention, has steadily dropped and he now has just a three-point edge.

As for Palin:

Half of all voters still say she is not qualified to be president if the need were to arise; just 41% say she is.

By contrast, Sen. Biden saw his numbers shoot up, with three out of four voters saying he is qualified to take over if need be -- up 10 percentage points from two weeks ago. Even 62% percent of McCain voters think he's qualified for the top job.

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New CNN/Opinion Research poll:

A new national poll suggests Barack Obama is widening his edge over John McCain in the race for the White House. The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out Monday afternoon suggests that the country's financial crisis, record low approval ratings for President Bush, and a drop in the public's perception of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin all appear to be contributing factors in Obama’s gains among voters.

Fifty-three percent of likely voters questioned in the poll say they are backing Obama for president, with 45 percent supporting McCain. That 8 point edge is double the 4 point margin Obama held in the last CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, taken in mid-September.

(Emphasis supplied.) Erratic, angry and desperate. McCain is headed to a landslide loss.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Via TPM, McCain, up close and personal:

Is McCain too thin-skinned for presidency?

John McCain is angry.

You can feel it in the clenched muscles in his throat, the narrowing of his eyes, the controlled tone with which he handles a question he doesn't like, as if struggling to contain something that might spill out. We've seen that body language on TV. But around a Des Moines Register table Tuesday, the anger and tension were palpable. And unsettling.

McCain's volatility has been written and whispered about by staff and Senate colleagues: the mercurial temper, the quixotic outbursts of reproach, then jocularity. But those alleged episodes were behind the scenes. The combative, prickly McCain we saw was seeking the Register's endorsement. . . . [M]aybe, a more worrisome prospect, this is the real McCain - who can't deal with stressful situations without feeling attacked, who lashes out when he feels threatened.

McCain is not fit to be President. More . . .

The McCain campaign wants voters to believe "that Mr. Obama’s judgment about his associates [Rezko, Ayers, and Wright] shows that he cannot be trusted to pick justices for the Supreme Court." An ad to that effect will begin running this week. John McCain's association with Charles Keating, Phil Gramm, and a brigade of lobbyists is apparently irrelevant to McCain's judgment. At least it won't be mentioned in the advertising.

Conservatives are particularly exercised that Barack Obama described his ideal judge in human terms:

“What I do want is a judge who is sympathetic enough to those who are on the outside, those who are vulnerable, those who are powerless, those who can’t have access to political power and as a consequence can’t protect themselves from being — from being dealt with sometimes unfairly, that the courts become a refuge for justice,” said Mr. Obama, who taught constitutional law for years at the University of Chicago.

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I am watching John McCain delivering his new attack speech. And he is proving himself perhaps one of the most inept politicians we have ever seen. John McCain can not even deliver a good attack speech - a Republican specialty. He is really terrible at it. Palin really is ten times the political talent he is. The GOP needs to hide McCain, not Palin.

McCain just said the country is in its "worst financial crisis since the Great Depression." Two weeks ago "the fundamentals of the economy were strong." Now he is bragging about his "suspension" of his campaign. The man defines erratic. Not only is he a reckless, feckless, blithering idiot, he is perhaps the worst politician to run for President since Michael Dukakis. He is that bad at it.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

With the global stock markets getting slammed (the Dow is down 660 points as I write), it is clear that the Wall Street Bailout was not enough or really about the real problems we face. We need HOLC and we need a new New Deal.

Tomorrow night there will be a town hall/debate involving the two Presidential candidates. I hope the Democratic candidate for President, Barack Obama, realizes that we will need bold progressive leadership from our next President.

Barack Obama needs to promise the voters and the country that he will provide a new New Deal, a Square Deal for Main Street and for ordinary Americans. He should take the ideological battle on - John McCain represents the failed policies of Conservatism, Republicanism and Bushism. Obama should argue for and represent the proud Democratic progressive tradition of representing Main Street and ordinary Americans for the Common Good. Tomorrow night, Barack Obama can win a mandate - for progressivism and the Common Good. Tomorrow night will not decide the election, but it could establish the mandate of what a Barack Obama Presidency will be about.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Just another reason not to vote for McCain/Palin:

John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.....Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain's senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled. Medicare spending for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 is estimated at $457.5 billion.

The cuts are how the McCain campaign claims its proposal is budget neutral and wouldn't cost taxpayers more money: [More...]

Via Matt Yglesias, McCain surrogate Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM), argued on Face The Nation that Barack Obama is un-American because he criticizes President Bush.

We all know McCain and the Republicans are not un-American so they must be in agreement with the Bush Administration's actions of the past 8 years. So it is official, McCain and the Republicans are running on the accomplishments of the George W. Bush Administration. Rep. Wilson's clarity is refreshing.

DKos/R2000 (10/3-5) has Obama up 12, 52-40. Ras (10/3-5) has Obama up 8, 52-44. Battleground (9/30-10/2, 10/5) (PDF) has Obama up 7, 50-43. Gallup(10/2-4) has Obama up 7, 50-43. Hotline (10/2-4) has Obama up 7, 48-41.

Absent some miracle for McCain, this election is over. No national tracker has him closer than 7 points and there are 29 days to go in this election. What can McCain do? I know he will throw the kitchen sink at Obama but I can not imagine that being enough to turn this around. It's over.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

I am watching Sarah Palin's new stump speech (she is in Clearwater, Florida) and I go back to my comparison of her to Ronald Reagan. She is delivering the same hate filled Republican attacks on the patriotism of Democrats; on supposedly "tax loving" Democrats who argue for higher taxes for "ordinary Americans" (using Joe Biden's formulation of asking the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes as an act of patriotism); arguing that government is the evil in society; Democrats as "the Other," a classic Politics of Paranoia tactic, and so on. The difference is she spends the first 10 minutes of the speech doing her "hockey mom" Jane Six pack schtick. But to me it was pure Ronald Reagan.

I thought it was politically effective while I found it personally repugnant. For those who do not know, I have argued that Ronald Reagan was one of the most repugnant figures in political history. And here is my bottom line - Palin is ten times the politician John McCain is. If we can keep the voters' focus on McCain and not Palin, it is to the benefit of the Democrats. Karl Rove makes a good point in response to Jon Meacham: