By MICHAEL FALCONE ( @michaelpfalcone )

NOTABLES

• MIDTERM MESSAGING: "The bottom line is, though, these are … all folks who vote with me; they have supported my agenda in Congress." Those words from President Obama on Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show yesterday are going to make life more difficult for Democrats in tight races who are campaigning on their independence from the unpopular president, ABC's DEVIN DWYER reports. "So this isn't about my feelings being hurt. These are folks who are strong allies and supporters of me," Obama continued. "I tell them - I said, you do what you need to do to win. I will be responsible for making sure that our voters turn out."

• 'THERE'S NOTHING…THAT HE CAN DO': ABC's ARLETTE SAENZ notes that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, publicly said the president is of no help in red states to vulnerable Democrats in this election, telling the Washington Post, "there's nothing in these states that he can do" to help moderate, at-risk Democrats. "He has to do his job and that's the most important thing that he can do. People already have perceptions, so him coming to these states is not going to be productive for candidates. And it's a shame that we've gotten to that." http://wapo.st/1t8s0Ru

• MEET 2014's TOP MEGA-DONORS: The overwhelming number of Americans who will vote in the mid-term elections on Nov. 5 won't have contributed a penny to their candidates' campaigns. But a handful of people will have given more. A lot more. More than a quarter of the $6 billion contributed to campaigns in 2012 came from about 31,500 individual donors, according to the Sunlight Foundation, which found that not a single candidate won two years ago without the help of the group dubbed the "one percent of the one percent." As politics becomes more expensive with every election cycle, these super donors have never been more important. ABC's BEN SIEGEL takes a look at the top 10 individual donors of the 2014 election cycle, compiled for ABC News by the Center for Responsive Politics. http://abcn.ws/1zi6K0p

THE ROUNDTABLE

ABC's RICK KLEIN: His feelings will be the least of his worries, if the Senate winds up tipping. President Obama's latest comments linking endangered Democrats with his agenda - "these are all folks who vote with me" - was hardly a necessary link for 2014. His previous comments -not to mention the Democrats' own voting records - made that connection quite effectively. But the president's moves to hammer that point home, and taking personal responsibility for "making sure that our voters turn out," ensure that the comments will be remembered in 2015 and 2016, too. The quotes are teed up for post-election analyses. The president is putting himself, and his agenda, more explicitly on the line. If voters reject the candidates, it follows that they're rejecting his "agenda in Congress." Those judgments, of course, last two years - Obama's last in office.

ABC's JOHN PARKINSON: Wal-Mart Moms, identified as women who shop at the super chain at least once a month with a child under 18-years-old, believe Washington is out of touch. In two focus groups in battlegrounds in Charlotte, N.C. and New Orleans, La., none of the women, who largely considered themselves independents and undecided voters, knew much about the candidates - despite millions of dollars in advertising. They think it's a choice between the lesser of two evils. These swing voters make up between 14 to 17 percent of the electorate, according to Public Opinion Strategies. All expressed negative views of the direction the country is heading, particularly on foreign affairs and border security. The women had a lot of questions about Ebola. They think the government doesn't have it under control but don't believe Ebola will likely infect them. They aren't flying. They want the president to ban travel from the region. The CDC is behind the ball, and the government is playing catch up. While the women who participated in the focus groups have an overwhelmingly negative perception of Congress, none held such deep opinions about the candidates on the ballot in two weeks. Instead, they plan to cram for Election Day like a test, googling the information they need to make a decision the night before they head to the polls.

ABC's JEFF ZELENY: The National Republican Senatorial Committee believes it has found another way to tie Democrats to President Obama: Ebola. Their press releases today come with these screaming headlines: Grimes Defers to Obama on Ebola. Nunn Defers to Obama on Ebola. Hagan Defers to Obama on Ebola. And on and on, throughout the roster of top Senate races across the country. But is the GOP overplaying its hand? While Ebola may be the October surprise of the fall campaign - largely because it's October and there has yet to be another surprise - it's hard to imagine that the outbreak moves any voters. To fire up the base, sure, it's another way to hammer the president. But undecided voters, if there are truly any who remain, could surely be turned off by the crass political treatment of a deadly outbreak. If it's too soon to crack jokes about Ebola, is it too soon to blatantly politicize it?

THE MIDTERM MINUTE

-NORTH CAROLINA: DUCK TRAILS. Remember the RNC squirrel that hounded Hillary Clinton at the start of her book tour? Turns out he has a Southern friend. The North Carolina Republican Party has sent someone around the state in a yellow duck costume with a series of signs, questioning Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan's decision to "duck" a proposed fourth Senate debate Tuesday evening, as well as the classified Senate ISIS briefing she missed for a New York City fundraiser: http://bit.ly/1r4NZo6 -Ben Siegel

-KANSAS: MITT ROMNEY SLATED TO CAMPAIGN FOR ROBERTS. The 2012 GOP nominee for President already recorded a robocall for endangered Sen. Pat Roberts in September, but now Mitt Romney is set to make an appearance in the Sunflower State. According to the Associated Press, Romney will headline a rally with Roberts next Monday in Overland Park, just a week and a half after Romney's running mate Rep. Paul Ryan visited the state to stump for the three-term incumbent. Romney joins Sen. John McCain and former Sen. Bob Dole in the ranks of failed presidential contenders to come to Roberts rescue, though his popularity with Republicans is notable. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Romney atop all others in the GOP 2016 field were he to make a third run at the presidency. -Alexander Mallin

-MASSACHUSETTS: NEWS THAT ACTUALLY SURPRISES. What does it say about politics that the story that has shocked us the most with two weeks to go is a positive one? The Boston Globe's reporting that Seth Moulton in Massachusetts' sixth district race actually downplayed his military service, choosing not to embellish his career as so many politicians have done, but to keep the fact he was twice decorated for heroism a secret is a jaw dropper. A secret he even kept from his own parents. Yes, Massachusetts is a blue state, but remember Moulton was in a fierce primary with an incumbent, one he very well could have lost, and he's in a competitive race now with Republican Richard Tisei. In both instances these awards may have helped if they appeared in an ad or something similar. In the interview with the Globe, Moulton said bragging about his military career was unseemly. He asked the newspaper not to describe him as a hero, shocking for someone running for congress. "Look," he said, "we served our country, and we served the guys next to us. And it's not something to brag about." http://bit.ly/1y1vnKp - Shushannah Walshe

-COLORADO: CLINTON'S (BACK) FOR UDALL. Hillary Clinton will make her second stop in Colorado Tuesday for embattled Sen. Mark Udall in just over a week, anchoring a get-out-the-vote rally in Denver. Clinton's appearance-sandwiched between Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Friday visit, and First Lady Michelle Obama's stop this Thursday-is part of a highly choreographed effort to stimulate the Democratic base as early voting begins. While Democrats believe their storied ground game will find voters, and universal mail-in ballots will make voting more convenient than ever, Udall can't win without energized Democrats. Who better to deliver that jolt than the party's biggest stars? -Ben Siegel

-ARIZONA: EVER-SHIFTING HOT BUTTON ISSUES DOMINATE HOUSE RACE. Arizona's second district lends itself easily to political hot topics - it's a border state with a swing-like voting population, it houses a large military community, and was once the scene of a tragic and highly politicized shooting. With two weeks to go until Election Day, there's been a serious spike in shifting between hot-button issues. Yesterday morning Republican Martha McSally slammed Rep. Ron Barber for the mishandling of Ebola in America. By late afternoon, Barber's campaign fired back at McSally on a wholly unrelated issue - gay marriage - which Arizona ruled to allow last week. Without skipping a beat, the McSally campaign launched a new attack against the congressman this morning for failing Arizonans on jobs & the economy. -Ali Dukakis

-ARKANSAS: NEW RNC "ROAD TO SIX" VIDEO. Two weeks before the election, the Republican National Committee is targeting Democratic Senator Mark Pryor in its latest "Road To Six" video, arguing that he "does not represent Arkansas values." The video paints Pryor as a candidate who has voted and sided with President Obama and also features footage of Pryor saying Rep. Tom Cotton has a "sense of entitlement" because he served in the military. WATCH: http://bit.ly/1rpxylv

THE BUZZ with ABC's KIRSTEN APPLETON

'CITIZEN' OBAMA VOTES EARLY IN CHICAGO. A day after hitting the campaign trail to get out the vote, President Obama did just that, casting his ballot early in Chicago, ABC's MARY BRUCE reports. "The most important office in a democracy is the office of citizen," the president told reporters at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, as he took advantage of the first day of early voting in Illinois. "I'm so glad I can early vote. It's so exciting. I love voting," the president said, in a not-so-subtle sales pitch. "Everybody in Illinois, early vote. It's a wonderful opportunity." http://abcn.ws/10f6MH4

NOTED: WHAT THE PRESIDENT AND 2 MILLION EARLY VOTERS CAN TELL US ABOUT ELECTION DAY. President Barack Obama joined almost 2 million voters who have voted before Election Day as he cast his ballot early this morning at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Chicago. "I'm so glad I can early vote. It's so exciting. I love voting," Obama said. Both parties are hoping voters in the 35 states who have early voting heed Obama's words and either mail in a ballot or go to a polling station before November 4. Nineteen million voters did so in 2010, the last strictly midterm election, and University of Florida associate professor and elections guru Michael McDonald expects 2014's early vote total to surpass that. He spoke with ABC's ALI WEINBERG about some of the trends he's seen so far, and what they could mean for Election Day. http://abcn.ws/1sHQvU4

MONICA LEWINSKY TEARS UP DURING SPEECH ABOUT LIFE AFTER BILL CLINTON. Monica Lewinsky nearly broke down in tears yesterday as she recounted her experience as "patient zero, the first person to have their reputation completely destroyed worldwide via the Internet." ABC's ERIN DOOLEY and LIZ KREUTZ report that in her "first public talk," Lewinsky vowed to "give purpose to my past" by speaking publicly about life after her affair with then-President Bill Clinton. As her life unraveled in public, Lewinsky says, she heard "a relentless mantra in my head: I want to die." Paying tribute to Tyler Clementi, the 18-year-old Rutgers University student "humiliated to death" after classmates posted video of him kissing another man online, Lewinsky vowed to share her story despite the backlash. "Today, I think of myself as someone who - who the hell knows how - survived. … Having survived myself, what I want to do now is help other victims of the shame game survive, too." http://abcn.ws/1wr9ogs

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Embraces 'Notorious R.B.G.' Tees. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's rap name is the Notorious R.B.G. At least, that's what her fans on Tumblr call her. According to ABC's KIRSTEN APPLETON, Ginsburg recently praised the Tumblr page and admitted she owns a few Notorious R.B.G. t-shirts. "I think a law clerk told me about this Tumblr and also explained to me what Notorious R.B.G. was a parody on," Ginsburg said at a speaking engagement in New York over the weekend. "And now my grandchildren love it and I try to keep abreast of the latest that's on the Tumblr… I have quite a large supply [of t-shirts]." http://abcn.ws/1wkep8J

WHO'S TWEETING?

@bterris: Being a democrat in 2014 ain't great. Unless you're Hillary Clinton http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-is-a-bright-spot-on-a-gloomy-democratic-election-landscape/2014/10/20/f86cb1b6-5862-11e4-bd61-346aee66ba29_story.html …

@RollCallAbby: "If anybody is going to tell you what's going to happen in Staten Island, you should slap them in the mouth." http://atr.rollcall.com/house-races-2014-nrcc-dccc-wave/ …

@emilyrs: . @BloombergNews notes that the foreign policy/nat'l security ads have been focused on women candidates in particular http://goo.gl/jkVI6M

@SaraMurray: Three people with Ebola could board overseas flights every month, a new study shows http://on.wsj.com/1w2cSaB

@CoryBooker: 6 cups of joe, 3 Diet Mountain Dews & chocolate covered coffee beans MT @OhMissEvans U seem so perky & awake in the morn, what's ur secret?