TIME Staff

• It’s presidential debate week, the magical time when every candidate is a bumbling oaf in his own telling.
• Read Jim Fallows’ pregame program.
• And a story about polls and their forecasters.

• National Review writes Romney needs to address middle-class stagnation under George W. Bush.
• Bush is currently more popular than Romney.
• Nate Silver’s map looks almost like 2008.
• How Ben Bernanke steered the Fed toward easing.

• Romney’s turnaround skills tested in the stretch run.
• Presidential debate previewed in dueling interviews on 60 Minutes.
• The Obama campaign wraps Romney’s 47% remarks into a kitchen sink tax attack:

• Obama says he can’t change Washington from the inside, which is pretty much him saying that he thinks public pressure is more effective than backroom arm-twisting.
• A blow-by-blow of the first Warren-Brown debate. The Republican opened with the heritage issue.
• Tim Kaine misfires on the 47%.

• Mother Jones publishes the full Romney fundraiser video.
• Romney writes that Obama wants to create a “web of dependency” on the government, but doesn’t really address his charge that half of Americans want it to.
• Obama tells David Letterman Presidents shouldn’t be “writing off big chunks of the country.”

• Watch Mitt Romney talk about the 47% of Americans who pay no federal income taxes if you haven’t already.
• Before you declare endgame, consider our tendency to think gaffes that produce little change in a race are really big deals in the moment.
• The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has an excellent guide to this segment of

…

• The Chicago teachers strike enters week two.
• In response to bad polls, Romney’s campaign seeks choice/referendum election, goes positive/negative. It’s changing, anyway.
• Expectations setting: Will ad fatigue mitigate Romney’s coming barrage?
• The Boston Globe hunts for Elizabeth Warrens ancestors.

• New round of polls find Obama up five or more points in Florida, Ohio and Virginia.
• Romney adviser says Mideast protests wouldn’t have happened under Romney.
• White House scrambles to clean up Obama’s comment that Egypt isn’t an ally.
• The AP finds the real anti-Islamic filmmaker.

• American diplomats in the Mideast aren’t yet clear of danger.
• Inside the drama in Cairo.
• The cast of the anti-Islam video that set off protests says it was duped and dubbed.
• It’s an odd piece of film and its creator doesn’t exist.

• U.S. Ambassador to Libya killed in rocket attack.
• Romney yesterday called the Obama Administration “disgraceful” after the Cairo embassy condemned efforts “to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.”
• A history of Fed action in election years.

• Obama and Romney campaigns suspend bloodletting for 9/11 anniversary.
• Ad war update: who’s spending where.
• The Chicago teacher’s strike is further evidence of embattled unions.