By MICHAEL FALCONE ( @michaelpfalcone )

NOTABLES

• ANALYSIS FROM ABC'S JEFF ZELENY: It's clear that President Obama is unpopular on the campaign trail, which explains why he's been spending more time in New York and California than in any of the states with competitive contests that will determine control of the Senate. But by this late stage of the race, it would seem Democratic candidates would no longer be getting tripped up in Obama-related questions. The latest episode comes in Kentucky, where Alison Lundergan Grimes appeared yesterday before the editorial board of the Louisville Courier-Journal and repeatedly refused to say whether she voted for Obama in 2008 or 2012. Yes, you can argue how relevant the question is to what type of Senator she would be, but you can't argue that she botched the answer and comes across as being less than forthcoming, straight-forward or honest. Isn't that worse than simply saying she voted for him and is disappointed by how some things have turned out? Every Democratic campaign should watch this and ask their candidate if they have a better answer to an obvious question: http://bit.ly/1q7vAqa

• ABOUT LAST NIGHT: It was the kind of fawning praise President Obama hasn't gotten much of this campaign season - and might have left first lady Michelle Obama a bit jealous, ABC's DEVIN DWYER notes. "You're so handsome that I can't speak properly," actress Gwyneth Paltrow told Obama before a crowd of several dozen deep-pocket Democratic donors at a glitzy fundraiser inside her Brentwood, Calif., estate. "I'm one of your biggest fans, if not the biggest," she said. "The life that you brought to this country and the passion will historically be the most looked at and scrutinized presidencies of all time." The 42-year-old star lavished Obama with compliments at a time when a majority of Americans - 52 percent - see his presidency as a failure, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. http://abcn.ws/1tgwMya

• IN PERSPECTIVE: Yesterday the White House announced that President Obama will travel to Bridgeport, Conn., next Wednesday to attend a campaign rally for Gov. Dan Malloy. This will be only the third time the president has campaigned for a specific candidate this cycle - he attended a campaign event with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in Chicago on Oct. 2 and also stopped by the headquarters of California state Sen. Ted Lieu in Los Angeles last night according to ABC's MARY BRUCE.

• HAPPENING TODAY: President Obama wakes up in Los Angeles. This afternoon he travels to the Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park to deliver remarks on the San Gabriel Mountains national monument designation. Later, he travels to San Francisco, where he attends another fundraiser.

THIS WEEK ON 'THIS WEEK': On Sunday, "This Week" reports the latest on the race to contain Ebola and the threat from ISIS. And the powerhouse roundtable debates all the week's politics, with ABC News contributor and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, and ABC News contributor and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol. See the "This Week" page for full guest listings. Be sure to use #ThisWeek when you tweet about the program. TUNE IN SUNDAY: http://abcnews.go.com/thisweek

THE ROUNDTABLE

ABC's RICK KLEIN: Did you hear the one about ISIS terrorists, armed with weaponized Ebola, skipping north over the Mexican border so they can vault themselves onto the White House lawn? OK, we're not there yet - but we still have three-plus weeks left of increasingly urgent appeals to voters. The Republican playbook has long been to nationalize this election. Now, though, it's to internationalize it - and to mix things up into a toxic, scary mess they can blame Democrats for. Campaign ads are linking disparate crises and concerns - Ebola and ISIS and the border and Secret Service scandals, just to grab the most recent headlines - to cast President Obama and his allies as incompetent. All elections are about the economy, and this election was at one point going to be about health care. But then … the news came on. The big challenge for Republicans in making this case will be to present themselves as credible alternatives. Unlike Obamacare, no politicians favor Ebola, ISIS, a porous border, or a bumbling Secret Service.

14 FOR 14: THE MIDTERM MINUTE

LOUISIANA: MARY LANDRIEU FINDS HER RHYTHM: Can Sen. Mary Landrieu "wobble" her way to victory in November? A photo of Landrieu assisting a young man drinking from a keg at an LSU tailgate party went viral a few weeks ago. And now, there's a video of Landrieu breaking it down - doing a type of dance called "the wobble" - at a recent Southern University tailgate party. WATCH: http://bit.ly/1Emnl38 -Jordyn Phelps

IOWA: JONI ERNST SCORES HUGE FUNDRAISING HAUL. An announcement from the Ernst Campaign: "Today, the Joni Ernst for Senate campaign announced that it raised approximately $6 million in the third quarter, more than doubling the total raised by her opponent, Congressman Bruce Braley, and setting an all-time Iowa record for the amount raised by a statewide candidate in one quarter. … The Ernst campaign began October with over $3 million cash on hand. Her third quarter fundraising includes donations from all 99 of Iowa's counties with 85% raised from small donors." -Michael Falcone

THE BUZZ with ABC's KIRSTEN APPLETON

HILLARY CLINTON TALKS ABOUT THE NIGHT CHELSEA GAVE BIRTH. New grandmother Hillary Clinton made her first public campaign appearance of the year last night for Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf, giving passionate and personal remarks that if not for the "Wolf for Governor" signs prominently behind her could easily have been mistaken for a presidential stump speech, ABC's LIZ KREUTZ report. Clinton's speech was uniquely personal, with a number of her own anecdotes and Pennsylvania connections woven throughout. When she talked about the importance of family values, she gave a shout-out to Marjorie Margolies, her son-in-law's mother who was in the audience, joking they both have the same "grandmother glow." When she stressed the importance of helping women get work, she told a story about how when she and her husband, Bill Clinton, were waiting at the hospital for Chelsea Clinton to give birth last month, a nurse came up to her and thanked her for all she's done in the fight for paid leave. And when she spoke about the future, she spoke about little baby Charlotte: how, most importantly, she wants all children in the country to have the same opportunities she knows her new granddaughter will have. "You should not have to be the granddaughter of a president to get a good education and good health care," she said. http://abcn.ws/1CZxFMH

THE COMPLICATED POLITICS OF GABBY GIFFORDS. The temperature is rising to an all-time high in the midterm race for Arizona's second district seat, the same southern Arizona area Giffords represented while in Congress prior to the state's redistricting, ABC's ALI DUKAKIS reports. The seat is now held by endangered Democrat Rep. Ron Barber, Giffords' former district director, who is locked in a tight race with two-time Republican challenger Martha McSally, a former Air Force colonel. First, the NRCC rolled out a controversial ad for McSally featuring photos and language about Giffords on Tuesday, then later that evening a heated exchange between the two candidates about a recent ad by Giffords' PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), "Stalker Gap," which attacked McSally for opposing closing a background check loophole that allows individuals convicted of a misdemeanor for stalking to purchase guns. Then, Wednesday evening, ARS rolled out their first ad for the congressman featuring Giffords speaking in his support straight to camera. But that surely won't be the last we see in the complicated politics of Gabby Giffords in the few short weeks until election day.

PALIN FAMILY BRAWL DETAILED IN POLICE REPORTS. The drunken brawl involving Sarah Palin and her family last month was a wild one, according to police reports released Thursday. According to ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE, at the center of the report is a Palin daughter repeatedly punching a man in the face, being pounced on by a group of women and then dragged by her legs across the lawn. Prosecutors won't proceed with charges in fight, Anchorage police said, but they released a report with several witness accounts of the brawl. The police were called to a birthday party for twin brothers Matthew and Marc McKenna at the home of Korey Klingenmeyer in South Anchorage on Sept. 6. Klingenmeyer gave a witness account in the report and said Bristol Palin, eldest daughter of Sarah and Todd Palin, punched him five to six times in the face and that she was "hitting pretty hard." An officer wrote that both Sarah and Todd Palin "appeared upset and and in a verbal argument with other individuals at the scene." There is no interview with the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee included in the report. http://abcn.ws/1yR7vNM

A SOUTH DAKOTA SENATE CANDIDATE IS MAKING MUSIC VIDEOS - AND THEY'RE AMAZING. Rick Weiland is trying to sing his way to the Senate. As national Democrats finalize plans to pour $1 million into South Dakota to help Weiland, the Democrat is flooding television airwaves with country song parodies, ABC's BEN SIEGEL reports. Since April, his campaign has aired three music videos in the state that put an election-year spin on songs like Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" and Roger Miller's "King of the Road." "It's been good for the campaign and a good thing for politics," Weiland told ABC News. "I've gotten a lot of great feedback." While the videos may be a breath of fresh air to voters who have grown tired of traditional campaign ads, Weiland has been writing and performing parody songs for years. http://abcn.ws/1w4pFWm

GEORGE TAKEI TALKS GAY MARRIAGE. ABC's BENJAMIN BELL talked to "Star Trek" actor George Takei about his new documentary "To be Takei," the move by the Supreme Court that will bring legal same-sex marriage to more states, his time in an internment camp during World War II and the key to his success on Facebook. http://abcn.ws/1vPTmf9

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

JOE BIDEN EATS HIPSTER ICE CREAM LIKE A BOSS. Amid all the crises and blunders, there are moments when Joe Biden makes being vice president look like it's downright fun, and that's exactly what happened when the VP popped into a hipster ice cream shop in Portland, Oregon. Donning his signature Rayban aviators, Biden, who was campaigning for Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, on Wednesday, walked into the Salt and Straw to enjoy a frozen treat, ABC's ARLETTE SAENZ reports. "Jeff has been bragging about this place for the last 20 minutes," Biden said. The vice president went big and ordered up two scoops - Chocolate Woodblock and Double-Fold Vanilla. Merkley asked for the Marionberry ice cream, but they were out. Instead, he chose the same chocolate flavor as Biden and another scoop of Stumptown Coffee and Bourbon. Biden picked up the tab for both, handing over two $10 bills for an $8 tab and calling himself "the last of the big time spenders." http://abcn.ws/1w3RmP6

WHO'S TWEETING?

@tackettdc: Take a ride on the National Road w/ @ashleyrparker America the frustrated http://nyti.ms/1xxrTPx

@amyewalter: Will this be 3rd cycle in a row where weak/bad GOP SEN cands cost GOP control of SEN? http://cookpolitical.com/story/7892

@markknoller: Some area residents oppose the San Gabriel monument designation, unsure of how it will impact their lives and businesses.

@DMRegister: What you need to know about Saturday's #IASenate debate: http://dmreg.co/1vTBb79 #IApolitics

@HotlineJosh: Hasn't L-Grimes been dodging Qs about support for Obama throughout the campaign? But now it's a game-changer?