The latest WaPo poll leaves no doubt - "it's the economy, stupid:"

Turmoil in the financial industry and growing pessimism about the economy have altered the shape of the presidential race, giving Democratic nominee Barack Obama the first clear lead of the general-election campaign over Republican John McCain, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News national poll.

. . . More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support. The poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. . . .

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Third party candidate Ralph Nader released this ad today showing similarities between McCain and Obama and then laying out his different positions. One big one: Nader is for "Across the board amnesty for all non-violent drug offenders."

Nader's time has passed, and I hope everyone will realize the choice between McCain and Obama is a choice between the failed Republican policies of the last 8 years and a chance to do things differently. I don't care to see either Bob Barr or Ralph Nader in the presidential debates.

That said...[More...]

42 FBI task forces around the country are investigating some of the top mortgage firms, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for fraud. AIG and Lehman Bros. are also subjects of the investigation.

The FBI says it has opened 36 investigations so far. As to what's under investigation:

Sources tell ABC News the investigations are looking into whether company officials systematically misled investors about the financial strength of their institutions.

FBI Director Robert Mueller testified about the investigations on Sept. 16 at a House Judiciary Committee meeting. One of the areas under investigation: whether the companies misstated their assets. From the transcript (available at Lexis.com)

Gov. Sarah Palin met with her first foreign leader today. Only one press member was allowed to attend -- and only for 29 seconds. Tomorrow she will meet with rock star Bono.

Joe Biden? [More...]

Troy Davis, who many believe is innocent and wrongly convicted, is hours away from execution in Georgia.

CNBC's Jim Cramer was on Tweety's show telling us how great a deal the Wall Street Bailout is. He went as far to say as he hopes he can get in on the action. I have two reactions. The first is why doesn't Cramer raise money and buy some of the Sh*tpile if he loves it so much? Why don't other Wall Street types buy some of the Sht*tpile?

My second reaction is to remind you of Cramer's "prescience" on the value of the Big Sh*tpile, via Atrios:

Jim Cramer told you to buy at $44. Countrywide will cease to exist... at $7.16.

Jim Cramer is the last person to listen to on the housing crisis and this Wall Street Bailout.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The Public Policy Project poll of Colorado voters I wrote about last night is out. Obama leads McCain, 51% to 44%. Gov. Sarah Palin is tanking his ticket.

Sarah Palin's popularity with Colorado voters over the last couple weeks has plummeted, and as it has Barack Obama has opened up his biggest lead yet in a PPP survey of the state.

Immediately after the Republican convention 41% of Coloradoans said John McCain's choice of Palin to join him on the ticket made them more likely to vote for him while 38% said it made them less likely to do so. Now the number of people saying Palin's selection makes them less likely to vote for McCain has climbed to 47% with the number of people viewing it favorably dropping to 38%.

Full poll results here (pdf). And good news for Rep. Mark Udall in the Senate race: He's leading Bob Shaffer 48 to 40. [More...]

I'll be out for several hours, TChris is in trial and I'm not sure about BTD, who wrote a lot of good posts this morning on the economy, just scroll down.

Here's an open thread for those of you with other topics to discuss.

After years of negotiating with human rights groups and the Red Cross, the U.S. this week allowed five detainees at Bagram AFB in Afghanistan to receive a family visit. There are 600 detainees in Bagram, some of whom have been held for years.

The decision to allow the visits followed years of discussions between American officers and the Red Cross, which says face-to-face visits between prisoners and relatives are a guaranteed right under international humanitarian law.

...The U.S. military in Iraq already allows visits to detainees by family members. Two detention centers, one in Baghdad and one on the Kuwait border, receive an average of 13,000 visitors a month, said Maj. Neal V. Fisher II, a U.S. spokesman in Iraq. Video conference visits are also available, he said.

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This is what you get when you work the refs the way the McCain camp has - Jay Carney capitulates (probably the first of many):

Summary: In a Swampland blog post headlined "McCain's Legitimate Attack," Jay Carney wrote that unlike previous McCain campaign ads that included "false and distorted assaults" on Sen. Barack Obama, McCain's "new ad ... attacking Obama 'and his liberal allies' for failing to lead in the midst of the current financial markets crisis" is "entirely within bounds." In fact, the new McCain ad contains falsehoods about Obama's response to the current economic situation and his tax proposals.

Carney could not take the heat from the McCain campaign and folded. What a hack.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

David Talbot in Salon today explores Gov. Sarah Palin's style of politics in Alaska.

According to some political observers in Alaska, this pattern -- exploiting "old-boy" mentors and then turning against them for her own advantage -- defines Sarah Palin's rise to power. Again and again, Palin has charmed powerful political patrons, and then rejected them when it suited her purposes. She has crafted a public image as a clean politics reformer, but in truth, she has only blown the whistle on political corruption when it was expedient for her to do so. Above all, Palin is a dynamo of ambition, shrewdly maneuvering her way through the notoriously compromised world of Alaska politics, making and breaking alliances along the way.

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Sen. Barack Obama has released a new Spanish language ad on the economy in Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico. You can view it below the fold. The photo is a screen shot from it.

A companion radio ad (click here for audio) plays the same McCain "fundamentals" clip and later asserts, in the Florida version of the spot: "John McCain and the Republicans have no clue about the struggles of the middle class and working people. We have the highest unemployment in Florida in 13 years. Forty-five million people are without health insurance. Nine thousand five hundred homes are being foreclosed every day. In Florida, 1,400 families lose their homes on a daily basis. But John McCain and Republicans want to continue George Bush's same failed policies that led us to this collapse. How can McCain and the Republicans fix our economy if they don't know it's broken?"