Less than a month to go and the US election campaign’s devolving into mudslinging.

Election Watch: 4 more weeks. tigtog at Hoyden About Town does a comprehensive roundup of campaign activity and the devolution of the “straight talk express” as the campaign reaches the pointy end. Lots of links to interesting news and blog posts. — Hoyden About Town

Lowest Common Denominator. A YouTube video ‘John McCain: How low can you go?’ “I love the bit where Cindy McCain proudly proclaims that her husband won’t go negative, and would rather lose the election than go negative. How quaint in retrospect.” — Obsidian Wings

The Palins’ un-American activities. “My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.” This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week. Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that’s the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. (“Keep up the good work,” Palin told AIP members. “And God bless you.”) — David Talbot, Salon

Campaigns shift to attack mode on eve of debate. Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama entered their general election contest this summer denouncing American politics as trivial and negative, and vowing to run campaigns that would address the concerns of voters during a difficult time. But Mr. McCain made clear on Monday that he wanted to make the final month of the race a referendum on Mr. Obama’s character, background and leadership — a polite way of saying he intends to attack him on all fronts and create or reinforce doubts about him among as many voters as possible. And Mr. Obama’s campaign signaled that it would respond in kind, setting up an end game dominated by an invocation of events and characters from the lives of both candidates. — New York Times