It's a common adage in political campaigning that all other things being equal, the guy that works the hardest is going to win. With that in mind, I submit to you a story from today's Wall Street Journal noting that Obama's campaign has made nearly twice as many appearances in battleground states as McCain's has.

One of the surprises that came out of Tuesday's debate was a new plan by Arizona Senator John McCain to renegotiate all mortgages at current market value. The plan was greeted with general puzzlement, and now that puzzlement is turning into outright disapproval.

Daniel Gross had a scathing rebuke on Newsweek yesterday of those who would say that Freddie and Fannie are at fault for the credit crisis by way of Carter's Community Reinvestment Act — which would include not only the Wall Street Journal opinion pages that Gross cites, but also McCain in yesterday's debate — pointing out the factual errors in the logic as well as illuminating the racial undercurrents of the allegation.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton was quick to send out an email tonight pointing out a very unusual comment on McCain's part. When referring to a vote on an energy bill in the Senate, McCain said, "you know who voted for it?... That one."

After last Thursday's vice presidential debate beat the first presidential debate in viewership by about 40%, it will be interesting to see how many people will be watching today's town-hall style debate. If you don't feel like watching, of course, you can follow along with us here at the Blue as we bring you the blow-by-blow.

EDIT: I'd give you a post-debate analysis, but I think Chuck Todd did a fine job of it himself.

Paul Burka's got a humorous look at the successively weaker (yet seemingly endless) attempts by state Senator Kim Brimer to legislate his way into a victory over challenger Wendy Davis in Senate District 10.

Brimer's second appeal of his second lawsuit to that end failed to convince a Dallas appeals court on Monday to take Davis' name off the ballot once again, but as Burka notes, this (amazingly) doesn't mean he's giving up. Apparently Senator Brimer feels that even a hopeless court case has a better chance of getting him reelected than running on his record.

It's a rare presidential election year where the vice-presidential debate gets real media focus, let alone rivals the presidential debates for viewership. Yet many are saying that tonight's debate between VP candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin may actually be seen by more people than the presidential debate last week. If you're not one of the many watching, you can still follow the action with us here with our liveblog.

EDIT: And you can also click in for our post-debate analysis of the debate, and a collection of takes from other sources around the Internet.

In what Chris Cillizza is calling "the latest in a series of negative developments for the Republican ticket," Republican presidential candidate John McCain is bowing out of Michigan, and will not be running any more ads in the state that was once thought to be a key battleground and a bellwether for the nation as a whole.

Democratic and Republican leaders came together this morning to try and breathe new life into the financial market rescue bill that was voted down on the House floor yesterday.

In a continuation of the financial sector tumble, Citigroup will be buying out Wachovia's banking operations at approximately $1 per share. Upon the completion of the deal, the nation's three largest banks, Citigroup, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase, will hold nearly a third of the nation's deposits.