The Friday Political Thread: Plumbing New Heights

"Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-El, to save the planet Earth."
– Sen. Barack Obama

The Week in Brief
– Obama. McCain. Debates. Over. Finally.
– The Democrats let themselves daydream about 60 Senate seats, and editorial boards trembled.
– Joe the Plumber got famous.
– Bloggers declared war on him.
– Frank Gaffney went insane.
– Newspapers broke for Barack.

Below the Fold
– RealClearPolitics has a great table of state-by-state polling. In short, Obama is outperforming Gore and Kerry everywhere except Massachusetts, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and Arizona. (He's behind the Gore 2000 number in New Jersey, but not by enough to make the state competitive.)
– One more thing from RCP: After all that summer hype about Obama underperforming the rest of his party, it's a pretty close call these days. Democrats lead the battle for Congress by nine points; Obama leads McCain by seven.
– Daniel Larison sighs at conservatives' argumentum ad Reaganum in defense of Palin.
– Jim Henley musses up Michael Gerson's hair.
– Peter Suderman misunderestimates W.

This week's Politics 'n' Prog is all about John McCain's new best friend, and his message of the week.