DAY’S END ROUNDUP

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) assertion that John McCain supports the GOP’s platform on life and marriage earns her criticism from bloggers today, while conservatives are encouraged by an Associated Press (AP) poll showing the presidential race statistically tied.

Palin contradicted McCain’s stated stances on abortion and same-sex marriage in an interview today with Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson, writes Steve Benen at Political Animal. Palin said McCain supports the GOP platform’s “planks” on life and marriage–which include McCain-opposed bans on all abortions (including in cases of rape and incest) and on same-sex marriage, Benen notes–and the blogger wonders if Palin misled Dobson, or perhaps doesn’t know McCain’s actual stances. Marc Ambinder, meanwhile, wonders if McCain has privately changed his mind.

It ain’t over ’til it’s over, RedState’s streetwise proclaims after reading AP’s latest survey. While most national polls show Barack Obama with a five to ten percentage point lead over McCain, AP’s poll should encourage the McCain camp according to Mary Katharine Ham at The Weekly Standard. AP’s survey shows Obama leading by one percentage point, and Ham notes that it includes cell phone users–a group that pollsters have assumed to lean left.

Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-N.Y.), meanwhile, has become the latest House Republican to attack Democrats’ motives and patriotism, Think Progress notes. Kuhl accused Democrats of wanting