Essential

Obama Keeps on Surging

Latest Times poll has him up 53-39.

Hardly a day passes without another survey favoring Barack Obama, but The New York Times' latest poll is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it shows Obama with his biggest lead yet—a whopping 14 points. Second, it suggests that McCain's negative attacks have backfired, with six in ten voters saying McCain spends more time attacking Obama than explaining his positions; "voters who said that their views of Mr. McCain had changed were three times more likely to say that they had worsened than to say they had improved." Those numbers have to give McCain second thoughts about his pledge to bring up Bill Ayers at tonight's debate.