US Election at a glance: 7 Oct 2010
Day in a Nutshell
Barack Obama visited his hometown of Chicago in a bid to help Illinois Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in his knife-edge campaign against Mark Kirk to win Mr Obama's former Senate seat.
Earlier in the day, Mr Obama asked young voters on the campus of Bowie State University in the US state of Maryland to embrace his sense of urgency in the upcoming elections.
Veteran Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, whose re-election hopes were dashed in the state's Democratic primary earlier this year, announced he would headline a fundraiser in Philadelphia on Monday for the man who defeated him - Congressman Joe Sestak.
Meanwhile, David Plouffe, architect of President Obama's 2008 election campaign, said Republicans would struggle to retain moderate and independent voters because the Tea Party was moving the party too far to the right.
Quote - Unquote
"We are going for a 'Hicky' Blue Collar look. These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miner/trucker looks." Politico reveals the casting call for a TV advertisement paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, in support of West Virginia Senate candidate John Raese. Mr Raese has described the ad as "ridiculous", AP reports.
"You don't understand business. It's not your fault. You've been in government all your life," Connecticut Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon takes a swipe at Democratic rival Richard Blumenthal in their second debate.
"Come out and debate like a man," Republican candidate to become governor of New York, Carl Paladino, challenges his Democratic rival Andrew Cuomo.
"They put it out with great fanfare, but now, nobody's really talking about it," President Obama knocks Republicans' Pledge to America manifesto during a speech in Maryland.
Nate Silver concludes - as Pew's Carroll Doherty did in a piece for the BBC on Tuesday - that the enthusiasm gap between Democratic and Republican parties has more to do with an unusually high degree of enthusiasm on the part of Republican voters, than a lack of enthusiasm on the part of Democrats.
He also shows that, in terms of donations from individuals, the Democratic Party was doing no worse, in fact slightly better, than the Republican Party up until the last Federal Election Commission filing deadline on 15 July.