Washington Post 9/7
Republicans making gains ahead of midterm elections
Republicans are heading into the final weeks of the midterm campaign with the political climate highly in their favor, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Americans are increasingly frustrated by a lack of economic progress, deeply dissatisfied with the federal government and critical of President Obama's leadership. ...

Jim Kessler 9/5
The 2010 midterms: Democrats can learn from Reagan
... All in all, the president's party holds some pretty bad cards -- but even so, this year needn't be like 1994. If Democrats take a close look at what happened that year, they can avoid repeating it. And if they look to another election year, 1982, they might even find inspiration in an unlikely place: President Ronald Reagan's leadership. ...

Gallup 9/3
Anti-Democratic Sentiment Aids GOP Lead in 2010 Vote
The Republicans' lead in the congressional generic ballot over the past month may be due as much to voters' rejecting the Democrats as embracing the Republicans. ...

ABC News: Gary Langer 9/3
Optimism Holds in Afghanistan
Just-released polling data finds that optimism among Afghans remained surprisingly durable in the first half of 2010, but with significant changes in attitudes on two fronts: Greater support for negotiations with the Taliban, and a drop in already tepid public preference for a democratic form of government. ...

New York Times 9/3
Fewer Young Voters See Themselves as Democrats
The college vote is up for grabs this year -- to an extent that would have seemed unlikely two years ago, when a generation of young people seemed to swoon over Barack Obama. Though many students are liberals on social issues, the economic reality of a weak job market has taken a toll on their loyalties. ...

Charlie Cook 9/3
The Senate's In Play
... As recently as six weeks ago, I wrote in a CongressDailyAM column that a GOP win was "certainly possible" but "still fairly unlikely." Although the "fairly unlikely" part is still valid, the possibility of a GOP takeover is growing. ...