Five things you should know as you start the day:

• John McCain‘s campaign manager’s firm has been getting $15,000 a month from failed insurer Freddie Mac. John McCain lied about this. And McCain’s Senate chief of staff? (Yeah, the gay one.) He’s a former registered lobbyist for Freddie Mac.
• New WaPo/ABC poll gives Barack Obama a nine-point lead over McCain.
• Starbuck’s ad agency quit. Doesn’t that say something about your brand?
• The Prada Spring ready-to-wear show was half-genius, half-idiocy. Must love the frump-chic!
• No one in New York knows how finance works either. And they’re never going to care to figure it out.