US election at-a-glance: 8 Oct

DAY IN A NUTSHELL

John McCain and Barack Obama are back on the campaign trail, a day after their second TV debate. Pundits agree that Mr McCain did not do enough in the debate to swing the race his way. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, he fleshes out his plan for the government to buy up loans from troubled homeowners. Sarah Palin's husband submits an affadavit to an investigation into her conduct as Alaska governor.

KEY QUOTES

"If this was a best of five series, it would be over, it would be done."
Joe Biden, Mr Obama's running mate, claims three wins in the debates for the Democratic ticket

McCain needs the numbers to move, even a bit, the other way. He's like the stock markets. Lack of confidence breeds retreat

Dan Balz, Washington Post

US election at-a-glance: 7 Oct

"Last night... Barack Obama talked about why he would rather run against George Bush and that strategy is starting to wear pretty darn thin. John McCain didn't just come out of nowhere, the American people know John McCain, they know he's a maverick and that is what our opponents are afraid of."
Sarah Palin, Republican vice-presidential candidate

"The notion that somehow he has been involved in my campaign, that he is an adviser of mine, that he - I've palled around with a terrorist, all these statements are made simply to try to score cheap political points."
Barack Obama dismisses Sarah Palin's attempts to link him with former radical Bill Ayers

"McCain needs the numbers to move, even a bit, the other way. He's like the stock markets. Lack of confidence breeds retreat. He needs an injection of fresh political confidence in his presidential candidacy."
Dan Balz, writing for the Washington Post's politics blog, The Trail.

"Place the gravity of the moment next to the blah-blah-blah artifice of the rhetoric and overall insubstantiality of the evening, and this is what you get: The worst presidential debate ever."
John Harris and Jim VandeHei writing for the Politico website

"It was a status quo debate, in a solidifying contest, and McCain didn't win in a clash he needed to be all his." Rick Klein, writing for ABC's politics blog, The Note

NUMBER NEWS

The latest daily tracking poll from Gallup finds Barack Obama extending his national lead over John McCain to 11 points, with 52% support to his rival's 41%.

A Rasmussen daily tracking poll still has Mr Obama ahead, but by a smaller margin of 51% to 45% for Mr McCain.

A new monthly poll from Rasmussen also suggests that the Democrats are now more trusted than the Republicans on all 10 issues that the polling group has been tracking for the past year.

Tuesday night's debate between the two presidential candidates attracted 63.2m viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That was more than 10m more than watched their first debate but still fewer than the almost 70m who watched the vice-presidential head-to-head between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden last week.

DAILY PICTURE