Post-convention swing state polls are tipping toward Sen. John McCain, the TV pundits are waxing about "The Palin Factor," and Sen. Barack Obama's California supporters are freaking out about a race Democrats were uncommonly confident about only a month ago. SF Chronicle

It's more accurate to say that every thoughtful or liberal or intuitive or open-minded white woman I know worth her vagina monologue and her self-determination and two centuries of nonstop striving for equal rights and sexual freedom and exhaustive patriarchal unshackling is right now openly horrified, appalled at what the addition of shrill PTA hockey-mom Sarah Palin seems to have done for the soggy, comatose McCain campaign - that is, make it not merely remotely interesting and melodramatic, but aggressively hostile to, well, to all intelligent women everywhere. SF Chronicle Editorial

When Charlie Gibson asked Sarah Palin if questions about her ability to balance work and family were sexist, her response electrified female voters in both parties. "I'm part of a generation where that question is kind of irrelevant," she said. By dismissing the topic, Palin demonstrated the conservative values she brings to the McCain ticket, which have galvanized the Republican right. But many were infuriated by her remark, which appeared to slight family-friendly policies at a time when they could be getting significant attention. "I don't understand why liberals are apoplectic about Sarah Palin," said Walsh, who lives in San Francisco and describes herself as a former feminist. "Palin is the definitive role model for young women. She is a successful politician and a successful woman who has it all." SF Chronicle

Voters by the thousands will begin casting ballots for president this week in an early voting process that's expected to set records this year. Residents of Virginia, Kentucky and Georgia are among the first in the nation eligible to vote in person, as well as by mail. During the next few weeks, at least 34 states and the District of Columbia will allow early in-person voting for Nov. 4 elections. USA Today Who would this benefit this year?

To get in the debating mood, Republican John McCain will host a town-hall event and take a short nap. His rival, Democrat Barack Obama, will work out or shoot hoops. And to prepare, Sen. McCain will spar this week in mock debates with Michael Steele. Mr. Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and a prominent black Republican, will play Sen. Obama and use many of his speaking patterns, tactics and body language. Sen. Obama will practice with Greg Craig, a Washington lawyer and former official in the Clinton administration who is one of his few gray-haired advisers. Wall Street Journal

A week after a high-profile send-up of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live," the NBC comedy show returned to making fun of the Alaskan governor in a skit where New York Times reporters sought to probe the possibility Palin's husband, Todd, was having sex with the couple's own daughters. "What about the husband?" asked a Times reporter during a mock assignment meeting for the paper. "You know he's doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It's Alaska." WND There is always a little bit of truth in every joke; is this what some believe on the set?

Davis said the budget should need only a majority requirement to be approved unless it contains tax hikes, which would then continue to need the two-thirds vote. Also, he said, redistricting reform is needed so incumbents would know they face a challenge if constituents are upset with their actions. "In the last election, there were 52 congressmen and 120 legislators up for election, and only one was replaced," Davis said. LA Daily News He sounds like State Senator Tom McClintock, without the opinion on the recall as bad for the state and her people. (Some believe we should remove the ‘super majority’ budget vote and only enforce it when tax increases hit 5% or higher.)

California's new 8th-grade algebra rule gets some poor marks -- The new state policy of requiring algebra in the eighth grade will set up unprepared students for failure while holding back others with solid math skills, a new report has concluded. These predictions, based on national data, come in the wake of an algebra mandate that the state Board of Education, under pressure from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, adopted in July. Los Angeles Times

A church group from El Dorado County and a controversial minister from Los Angeles on Sunday protested outside mayoral candidate Kevin Johnson's church, saying he should be cast out of his congregation for opposing Proposition 8, the initiative to ban gay marriage. Sacramento Bee I don’t agree with this type of protest, it is disrespectful of a Sunday morning and worship. Not the time, nor the place for such a display - and Kevn was not even in town Sunday.

This is Kevin’s dilemma; Since he says that he is ‘personally against same-sex marriage’, what do you do as mayor, if you personally disagree with same-sex marriage (as he has stated), and you are asked to officiate weddings as the highest office in the city in the future? Will he say ‘no’ to officiating any marriages? He’ll have to, right…or it will be discrimination within his office. If he officiates heterosexual marriages only, will there be a lawsuit and possible recall? Is he playing toward the future?

As for the voters; what do you expect of Kevin Johnson, should he play the political fence on Prop 8, or should he come bold and strong with his personal convictions? If he becomes mayor, he will have to obey the will of the people as it relates to same-sex marriage…he may have to officiate a few too - as mayor of the city.

Frustrated by the longest budget impasse in California history, Democratic leaders are planning another ballot measure to end the two-thirds vote requirement in the Legislature to pass a state budget. Voters, by a 2-to-1 margin, defeated a similar effort in 2004 that would have also lowered the vote threshold to raise taxes from two-thirds to 55 percent.

But incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass say this year's budget - now 84 days late - underscores the need to re-visit the issue in 2010, or next year if there's a special election. Sacramento Bee Politics

"Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do About It" (Baker Books) is the new book by Julia Duin, assistant national editor (religion) at The Washington Times. In this excerpt, she details her personal experience and survey numbers showing the difficulties evangelical churches have with keeping their members. "You're not going to church?" I asked him. It was his birthday, so we had met for dinner at the Olive Garden, one of our favorite Italian restaurants. He shook his head. "Matt," I will call him, was legally blind and unable to drive. That and a few other handicaps had not prevented him from having a decent-paying job with the U.S. government, from amassing a world-class library in his home, and from being the go-to guy with answers to all my questions about Reformed theology. Washington Times Watch the video inside of this article.

I'm a liberal Democrat. And I do not favor same-sex marriage. Do those positions sound contradictory? To me, they fit together. Many seem to believe that marriage is simply a private love relationship between two people. They accept this view, in part, because Americans have increasingly emphasized and come to value the intimate, emotional side of marriage, and in part because almost all opinion leaders today, from journalists to judges, strongly embrace this position. That's certainly the idea that underpinned the California Supreme Court's legalization of same-sex marriage. But I spent a year studying the history and anthropology of marriage, and I've come to a different conclusion. LA Times Opinion

In the wake of Gov. Sarah Palin's selection as the Republican vice presidential nominee, there has been considerable "speculation" about why Evangelicals in general, and Southern Baptists in particular, have responded so favorably to her candidacy. As Sally Quinn reasoned in the Washington Post, if Southern Baptists are opposed to a woman being the pastor of a local church, why would they support a woman as vice president? Aren't they being inconsistent, if not hypocritical? Baptist Press

Over 100 Christian bookstores run by the Southern Baptist Convention have pulled from their shelves this month's issue of Gospel Today Magazine, which features a cover story about female pastors. The front cover of the latest issue of Gospel Today, an urban publication with a circulation of nearly a quarter of a million, features five smiling female pastors and was titled "Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Female Pastors." In the cover story, the five preachers talk about their roles and responsibilities, struggles and successes. The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's second largest Christian denomination, officially opposes females serving as pastors. In 2000, the denomination overwhelmingly adopted a revised statement of faith that said the pastoral role should be restricted to men. "We have removed the September/October issue of Gospel Today from our shelves because the cover story, featuring female pastors, clearly advocates a position contrary to our denomination's statement of faith, the Baptist Faith & Message," Chris Turner, a spokesman for Lifeway Resources, told The Christian Post. Christian Post News