National

If you want the inside scoop about what's happening with the Ebola outbreak, then just hangout at the Mamba Point Hotel in Monrovia. It's packed with scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, international reporters and a bunch of guys and gals in camouflage from the U.S. Army. They all like to hang out at the bar during lunch time. That's where I met Joel Montgomery, a top epidemiologist at the CDC. We head off to a quiet side room, and he starts telling me about all of his trips to Monrovia. "When I was here in August, not to sound like, making this too colorful but, I mean there were ... literally dead people on the streets," Montgomery says. "And the burial teams were picking up 50 to 60 bodies a day." At that point, the country had been on a devastating path. Clinics were stretched way past capacity. And even getting an Ebola test could take days, or weeks if you lived in the jungle. Samples had to be sent by a series of canoes and motorcycles to the only lab in the country. The epidemic was doubling every few weeks. Some computational biologists were predicting more than 20,000 cases by the end of October. But officials are seeing a very different situation on the ground now. The country has had about 6,500 cases. New cases are on a decline, dropping off by about a 100 a week, on average, since early October.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) indicated in an interview published Thursday that he is open to a presidential run, saying he does not see himself as a House "lifer." Ryan said he will make his decision next year. "I’m not in a rush," he told The Washington Post. "My way is to do the job at hand, do it well, and not worry about strategizing how I can do better than this guy or that guy in New Hampshire. I’m not in a place where I have to scratch and claw to get my name out there. Why do I need to blow money on that? I’ll line it all up next year and do my long list of pros and cons, this and that."

"One, after portraying Obama as either incompetent, ruthless, or both, how do Republicans sell any kind of deal with Obama back to their base? That's the problem when your message, especially on the campaign trail, is entirely against the president. It makes cutting deals with him AFTER the election more difficult. Two, to pass legislation in the Senate, Mitch McConnell and Republicans will need to get 60 votes -- and that means placating the GOP conservatives (including those running for president next year), the GOP moderates (Susan Collins and the folks up for re-election in 2016 like Mark Kirk, Kelly Ayotte, etc.), as well as centrist Democrats (Joe Manchin, Angus King, etc.). That won't be an easy task."

"How can the national polls look so bad for Democrats (see the NBC/WSJ/Annenberg and Washington Post/ABC polls), but the competitive Senate contests all be within the margin of error? Here's an answer for you: There are two different midterm environments taking place in the country a week before Election Day. The first is the nationwide one, where there does seem to be a wave building for Republicans and where the GOP has a huge enthusiasm advantage. The second election, however, is taking place in the top Senate and gubernatorial battlegrounds, where Democrats have spent a tremendous amount of money building field organizations and getting (as best they can) their side fired up." "This tale of two different midterm elections -- not too dissimilar from what we saw in 2012 where the national and battleground polls didn't match up -- also helps explain why House Democrats are in trouble in states not holding competitive races like in California, Minnesota and New York (after all, embattled GOP Rep. Michael Grimm could very well win)."