QUINNIPIAC POLL: No one has been elected President since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states in the Electoral College. Results from the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe- ack) University polls conducted before and after the debate show:
* Florida: Obama up 49 – 43 percent pre-debate and 51 – 43 percent post-debate;
* Ohio: Obama up 49 – 42 percent pre-debate and 50 – 42 percent post-debate;
* Pennsylvania: Obama ahead 49 – 43 percent pre-debate and 54 – 39 percent post-debate.
Pre-debate surveys ended at 8 p.m. Friday with post-debate surveys Saturday-Monday. More than 84 percent of voters in each state say the debate did not change their mind. But by margins of 13 to 17 percent, voters in each state say Obama did a better job in the debate. And by margins of 15 to 27 percent, independent voters in each state say Obama won.
“It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign. In the last 20 days, Sen. Barack Obama has gone from seven points down to eight points up in Florida, while widening his leads to eight points in Ohio and 15 points in Pennsylvania,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Sen. John McCain has his work cut out for him if he is to win the presidency and there does not appear to be a role model for such a comeback in the last half century,” Brown added. “Sen. McCain’s problem is not with this or that demographic group. Although he still leads among white men, albeit by a smaller margin, his problems are across the electorate.” MORE
AQUALUNG: Sarah Palin Blows
Hmm. That’s some baby-making music!
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago — about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct — the teacher said. Palin told him that “dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time,” Munger said. When he asked her about prehistoric fossils and tracks dating back millions of years, Palin said “she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks,” recalled Munger, who teaches music at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and has regularly criticized Palin in recent years on his liberal political blog, called Progressive Alaska. MORE
OFF THE BUS: In hopes of organizing a robust demonstration for the vice presidential debate this Thursday in St. Louis, the pro-Iraq War (and ostensibly pro-McCain) organization, Vets for Freedom, is resorting to offering 
local college fraternities hundreds of dollars if their members come and hold signs. In an email obtained by the Huffington Post, Vets for Freedom field staffer Laura Meyer offered a fraternity at St. Louis University a “sizable donation” – plus free lunch – if it could use their pledges to demonstrate outside the VP debate. “I was emailing you today,” wrote Meyer, “because I am trying to find people who would be willing to hold up signs for a few hours in the afternoon this Thursday outside the VP debate site. It’s only for a few hours and you can gain a lot from it…. first off, lunch for any guys who agree to volunteer will be on me. Secondly, they will get lots of media attention! My organization did a similar thing in Mississippi last week and a ton of them were on TV. Meaning, the guys could wear their [REDACTED] gear while holding up our signs and get attention for their frat. Also, they will get to hang out with a bunch of really cool Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. MORE
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: FORT MILL, S.C. — Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk says he was “just curious” when he forwarded a chain e-mail suggesting Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is the biblical antichrist. “I was just curious if there was any validity to it,” Funderburk said in a telephone interview. “I was trying to get documentation if there was any scripture to back it up.” Funderburk apparently sent the e-mail from his business account at Gastonia Sheet Metal where he works as a business agent. The e-mail, which has circulated in the last six months since Obama secured the Democratic nomination, claims the biblical book of Revelation says the antichrist will be in his 40s and of Muslim ancestry. There is no such scripture. And Obama is not a Muslim. But that hasn’t stopped the e-mail. The urban legend Web site Snopes.com first exploded the myth in March. Funderburk forwarded the e-mail this month. When asked if he believed Obama was the antichrist, Funderburk replied, “I’ve got absolutely no way of knowing that.” Funderburk said it “probably does give that impression” that he believed the e-mail was true “but that was not my intent.” The mayor said it was a mistake not to include a subject line when he forwarded the chain e-mail. “I am curious about current events and their connection to the Bible,” he said. MORE
PHAWKER: His email is Mayor@DannyFunderburk.com please distribute to anyone and everyone you think might have some ‘documentation’ on this.
[via BOTHERVOTING.org]