Today, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports:

Watch Sen. Biden as he makes one of the most important points of last night's debate - John McCain's health care plan is the ultimate bridge to nowhere.

After last night's debate between Congresswoman Nancy Boyda and Lynn Jenkins, one thing is now VERY clear:

Only Lynn Jenkins can back Lynn Jenkins into a corner!

On minimum wage, Lynn Jenkins said, "I don't think that we need to mandate that. I'm a free-market girl. Let the free market decide."

Yet after the debate, she scrambled to clarify herself:

Jenkins clarified her answer. Asked if she opposed the minimum wage law itself -- a part of federal policy since the Great Depression -- she said she was referring during the debate only to last year's increase.

Oh, but wait! Jenkins has consistently been against having any minimum wage - at all! Check out this video from the campaign trail:

Another question for the candidate in the corner: Are you a champion for the taxpayer or for Big Oil billionaires?

So far, Jenkins has effectively dodged the issue without taking a position. Last night? Different story.

Boyda: "Lynn, I would ask, I don't think you've taken a position and I would very much appreciate it if you would. Do you think they should be paying royalties and will you break with your party?"

Jenkins: "She's talking about raising taxes, no, I oppose any tax increase."

WHAT?! Kansas taxpayers are paying for billions of dollars in subsidies for Big Oil despite month after month of record-shattering profits and she wouldn't correct it?

Advice to Jenkins: With this attitude, you might just want to stay in that corner.

Check out the new ad from the Slattery campaign. It’s called ‘Uncovered’ and it’s about Pat Roberts' failure to give Kansans access to quality, affordable health care coverage.

The following is a column by Lieutenant Governor Mark Parkinson:

With just over a month until Election Day I can honestly say that this is one of the most exciting elections I’ve experienced.

Throughout our homes, offices and daily errands people are talking – people are engaged in the political process like never before.

Exercising your right to vote this election and every election is important. Voter registration applications can be obtained at your county election office, the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office as well as hundreds of places statewide including banks, grocery stores, and libraries. The deadline to register to vote for the 2008 General Election is October 20th.

Today, more people can vote than at any time in our nation's history - the importance of your vote cannot be underestimated.

There are a number of historical examples circulating on the internet about races where one vote truly made the difference. Some of those are valid and some have been found to be a little far-fetched but at the end of the day, all those examples do the same thing—reinforce how much every American’s voice and vote matters. They make us think about how important fulfilling our civic duty, participating in our democracy is.

In Kansas this past August primary season, two statehouse races were decided by a handful of votes. In the 118th Kansas House District, the race was decided by seventeen votes and in a Johnson County race, only three votes separated the contenders.

Every vote counts, so make your voice heard. Cast your ballot on Tuesday, November 4 or through advance voting. Information can be found on voter registration and advance voting at: http://www.kssos.org/elections/elections_registration_voting.html. 

Always hilarious McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds confronted rumors that a John McCain administration might have Phil "Americans are just

Question: Which of these proves John McCain is out of touch with Kansas families?

1. The seven houses?
2. The 13 cars?
3. The countless Bush cronies he hired to run his presidential campaign, despite Bush's record disapproval ratings among Kansans?

As reported in the New York Times today:

When Gov. Sarah Palin flew home to Alaska for the first time since being named the Republican vice presidential nominee, she brought along at least half a dozen new advisers to conduct briefings, stage-manage her first television interview and help her prepare for a critical debate next month. And virtually every member of the team shared a common credential: years of service to President Bush.

The clutch of Bush veterans helping to coach Palin reflects a larger reality about Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign: Far from being a group of outsiders to the Republican Party power structure, it is now run largely by skilled operatives who learned their crafts in successive Bush campaigns and various jobs across the Bush government over the past eight years.

The personnel shift has become a cause of distress for some Republicans, who had hoped for a new brand of Republicanism to take hold, fueled by players who had experience outside Washington. "It's insane to me that at the same time that it's running saying it's not going to be the Bush administration, this campaign looks like the Bush campaign on steroids," said one Republican strategist.

No parallel exists on the Democratic side -- where the last White House team dissolved with President Bill Clinton's departure in 2001. And in a Democratic Party that has long been divided between Clinton people and non-Clinton people -- with most of the old Clinton hands working on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid until three months ago -- Obama has wound up with an inner circle whose members have never worked in the West Wing.

A nice juxtaposition to our Buffalo Blog post

Some good insight from the floor of the Senate on Monday:

On the morning of October 30, 1929, President Herbert Hoover awoke the day after the biggest one-day stock market crash in American history, surveyed the state of the U.S. economy and declared, 'The fundamental business of the country, that is production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis.’

In the coming weeks and months, President Hoover remained in an economic bubble, unaware of the extreme suffering of ordinary Americans – even declaring that anyone who questioned the state of the economy was a ‘fool.’ For Herbert Hoover, ignorance was bliss. And it wasn’t until the American people replaced this out of touch Republican president with a Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, that our nation’s economic recovery began...

...John McCain woke up yesterday, surveyed the state of the U.S. economy, summoned the ghost of his fellow Republican Herbert Hoover and declared — and I quote — ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong.