The Commentariat -- Sept. 26, 2012

Voter Fraud, El Paso County, Colorado-Style. Thanks to contributor James S. for the link:

     ... Tom Roeder of the Colorado Springs Gazette, "County Clerk and Recorder Wayne Williams, a Republican..., said the woman ... doesn't work for his office, which oversees local elections and voter registration. Instead, he said, she's probably one of the scores of volunteers who are hitting the streets for both political parties to push voter registration ahead of the Nov. 6 election." CW: Nonetheless, I've registered people to vote during several election cycles, as a volunteer for the Democratic party or a Democratic candidate, and I never received an instruction -- expressed or implied -- to register only Democrats. Rather, we were told to register everyone. Clearly, that's not how the Colorado GOP does it.

Jon Chait of New York: The Boca tape "shows the degree to which Romney has joined the imaginary world of persecution inhabited by rich conservatives and undergirded by made-up facts.... The paranoia is very weird, not least because the rich have actually prospered under Obama while vast swaths of the populace have struggled.... Most of these myths take the form of wildly misleading statistics about the tax system." Chait has the charts to prove it.

Paul Krugman: "... protracted weakness is normal after a big financial crisis, and if anything we're doing better than average, probably thanks to fiscal and monetary stimulus." Chart included, of course.

Tim Egan: "Just look at who wants to get the union referees back on the job today: Scott Walker, the union-busting governor of Wisconsin, and Paul Ryan, Romney's union-dissing running mate.... The most popular entertainment commodity in the land is willing to seriously tarnish its name, its reputation and the validity of its games for the price of a single half-minute ad." ...

People end up thinking you can get good work for cheap, you can always find a cheaper way and it's going to be just as good a result. I would hope that Scott Walker is just as outraged about decreased quality of teachers that we're going to get as he is with replacement refs in the NFL. -- Chris Larson (D), a Wisconsin state senator

Kirk Johnson of the New York Times: "The Boy Scouts of America, facing what could be an avalanche of unfavorable attention in coming weeks from the court-ordered release of internal files about inappropriate sexual behavior by youth leaders, issued a report on Tuesday by a professor who reviewed the files and found what she called 'a good faith effort' to protect boys from harm."

Julia Preston of the New York Times has an interesting piece on the difficulties President Obama's mini-Dream Act presents to employers of undocumented workers. Eligible young people are asking employers & former employers to provide evidence they have been living in the U.S., but Homeland Security won't guarantee it won't prosecute the employers.

Abdi Guled & Jason Straziuso of the AP: The heyday of Somali piracy seems to have passed. "Armed guards aboard cargo ships and an international naval armada that carries out onshore raids have put a huge dent in piracy and might even be ending the scourge."

Very Diplomatic. BuzzFeed: "As the State Department's story about what happened in Benghazi crumbles, [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton's personal spokesperson, Philippe Reines, loses his temper. 'Have a good day. And by good day I mean Fuck Off.'" BuzzFeed reprints the full exchange between Reines & reporter Michael Hastings. Excerpt -- Reines to Hastings:

I now understand why the official investigation by the Department of the Defense as reported by The Army Times The Washington Post concluded beyond a doubt that you're an unmitigated asshole. How's that for a non-bullshit response? Now that we've gotten that out of our systems, have a good day. And by good day, I mean Fuck Off. ...

... Dana Milbank provides background about Reines & Clinton.

Presidential Race

Richard Oppel & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "The Republican ticket will start campaigning together more often, which suggests that aides fear that Mitt Romney, on his own, is not generating enough attention and excitement." ...

... Maybe that's because Ryan has reportedly "gone rogue" to "wash the stench of Romney off him," & stinky Romney wants to re-tie the leash. Thanks to contributor MAG for the link.

Maureen Dowd: "On foreign and domestic policy, Republicans have outsourced their brains to right-wing think tanks.... The Romney campaign has turned conservative theory into ideology and gone off the cliff with it. If you want to inspire, lead and unite people, it won't fly to take ideologically driven findings and present them unvarnished to voters." ...

... Dowd complains about the President's appearance on "The View." You can watch the show here -- if you don't mind sitting through some ads. Michelle Obama also appears.

A realistic assessment of the state of the presidential election:

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post finally notices that "there are fundamental flaws" in Romney's tax plan: "The first is the argument that cutting personal income tax rates would lead to economic growth robust enough to help pay for a big chunk of the cuts. The second, related, fallacy is the contention that raising rates on top earners would hurt growth. The third is that raising capital-gains rates would be even more harmful. There is scant reliable evidence for any of the above, yet Romney and fellow Republicans hitch their entire economic argument to them. And their rabid pursuit of lower taxes leads to two dangers: further ballooning the national debt and further increasing income inequality."

Steve Benen: "A surprising number of Republicans ... [are] arguing that all of the evidence pointing to Obama's advantage is wrong.... Every national poll released over the last several weeks -- literally, all of them -- show Obama leading Romney. Unsatisfied with these results, the right has decided to fiddle with the figures, and wouldn't you know it, the new-and-improved polls all show Romney leading Obama." ...

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "According to a growing number of conservatives, an accurate appraisal of polling data shows that President Obama isn't actually leading Mitt Romney by much -- if at all -- in the 2012 campaign.... One optimistic Republican even believes the polls show that Mitt Romney is leading President Obama.... When Obama wins, it won't be evidence that they were wrong: It'll be more evidence that they were right -- and that the pro-Obama polling conspiracy was successful." ...

Republicans won't believe this poll from the biased, radical leftist New York Times, the pinkos at CBS News & the eggheads at Quinnnipiac U.: "In Ohio — which no Republican has won the presidency without -- Mr. Obama is leading Mr. Romney 53 percent to 43 percent in the poll. In Florida, the president leads Mr. Romney 53 to 44 percent in the poll. The surveys ... also included a Pennsylvania poll, where Mr. Obama is leading Mr. Romney by 12 percentage points."

Boy Band! Via MoveOn.org. Thanks to contributor Forrest M. for the link:

CW: I can't emphasize enough the stupidity Romney's remark about emergency room care, a position which he clearly knows is stupid, but since he will say anything, do anything, to deride President Obama, stupid is A-Okay.

Congressional Races

Boston Globe: "The principal chief of the Cherokee Nation today denounced Senator Scott Brown's campaign staffers for what he called 'offensive and racist behavior' against Native Americans, calling on Brown to apologize." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "With the high-stakes Senate race still very close, Senator Scott P. Brown is seeking to convert almost everything into a character attack on Elizabeth Warren." Warren has had a hard time responding to claims, partly because the issues are complex.

Yesterday, we had a discussion in the Comments to the Commentariat on whether or not Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass) had "attacked Elizabeth Warren's family," as she claims in the ad embedded in the Commentariat. I said no, he had attacked only her, & not for her heritage but for her supposed attempts to capitalize on that heritage. Then contributor Kate M. weighed in with this:

WCVB: "Staffers for Sen. Scott Brown chanted Indian 'war whoops' and made 'tomahawk chops' during a rally for the Republican senator this week in Boston. In a video posted on YouTube, Brown's staffers are seen holding campaign signs near the Erie Pub, chanting and making tomahawk chops, presumably in reference to Elizabeth Warren's claims of Cherokee heritage." According to Blue Mass Group, which also posted the video, among those participating were Brown's constituent service counsel & a GOP operative. Standing by but not participating were Brown's deputy chief of staff, his state director & a special assistant. ...

... Michael Levenson of the Boston Globe writes that the state Democrat party ID'd the participants. "On Tuesday, Brown said he had not seen the video but 'if you're saying that, certainly that’s not something I condone. It's certainly something that, if I'm aware of it, I will tell that [staff] member never to do that again.' Still, [Brown] struck a defiant tone when asked if he would apologize for his staffers' behavior. 'The apologies that need to be made and the offensiveness here is the fact that professor Warren took advantage of a claim, to be somebody -- a Native American -- and using that for an advantage, a tactical advantage,' Brown said.... The video points to the political peril Brown faces as he steps up his attacks of Warren's claims to Native American ancestry. War whoops and tomahawk chops -- once prevalent among fans of Indian-named sports teams -- have become a flashpoint in the sports world because many consider them offensive to Native Americans." No kidding.

Here's the video:

ABC News: "Federal agents and local police are investigating an explosion outside Democratic congressional candidate Brendan Mullen's northern Indiana home.... ATF agents say the blast Monday afternoon in a newspaper box outside Mullen's home in Granger, Ind., is among four this week in the area eight miles northeast of South Bend."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday for what was likely to be the last time, denounced military threats against Tehran by 'uncivilized Zionists' and attacked Western leaders as handmaidens of the devil."

Al Jazeera: "Two explosions have struck the Damascus general headquarters of Syria's army..., the latest in a series of major bombings in the capital.... Rebel spokesmen for the Free Syrian Army released a statement claiming responsibility and saying that dozens had been killed, but Zoubi said the bombings caused 'only material damage'."

New York Times: "Widespread protests erupted across Greece on Wednesday as trade unions called a nationwide strike to contest billions of euros worth of new salary and pension cuts being discussed by the government and its international creditors."

Reuters: "Violent protests in Madrid and growing talk of secession in wealthy Catalonia are piling pressure on Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he moves closer to asking Europe for rescue money."

Al Jazeera: "China has claimed that islands at the centre of a territorial row with Japan are 'sacred territory' in talks between the two countries foreign ministers on the subject, the state Chinese news agency reports. Koichiro Gemba, Japan's foreign minister, met his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday."

AP: In New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks about the "new world order" he envisions. Hint: no Israel, the U.S. is a pipsqueak.

AP: "The federal probation violation investigation targeting the man behind the anti-Muslim video inflaming the Middle East is proceeding slowly and privately, reflecting the explosiveness of the case."

Guardian: "Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson have been told at the Old Bailey that they are not due face a full trial until a year from now, in a hearing that saw the former News of the World editors appear in the dock of the central criminal court."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 25, 2012

Profs. Suzanne Mettler & John Sides in a New York Times op-ed: "... nearly all Americans -- 96 percent -- have relied on the federal government to assist them. Young adults, who are not yet eligible for many policies, account for most of the remaining 4 percent.... Conservatives were less likely than liberals to respond affirmatively when asked if they had ever used a 'government social program,' even when both subsequently acknowledged using the same number of specific policies.... When Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey noted that his father, who 'grew up in poverty,' had used the G.I. Bill..., it was in the context of a speech criticizing our 'need to be coddled by big government.' ... Instead of dividing us, our experiences as both makers and takers ought to bind us in a community of shared sacrifice and mutual support."

Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times: "To say that the choice of [Tim] Pawlenty, [the former Republican governor of Minnesota,] to represent the banking industry is odd would be an understatement, but his appointment is the clearest sign yet of the flexible ethic that makes the revolving door in Washington spin faster."

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York on Monday rebuffed demands from Congressional Republicans to refrain from requesting tax returns and other information from tax-exempt groups that have spent heavily on campaign ads."

Presidential Race

David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times (in the Chicago Tribune): "... Mitt Romney faces a fundamental problem as the presidential campaign moves into its final phase: Voter attitudes about the state of the economy have begun to improve, and enthusiasm about voting has risen among key blocs of Democratic-leaning voters, particularly Latinos. Since the beginning of the campaign, one assumption has served as the foundation for Romney's campaign: that voters deeply upset over the state of the economy would want to fire the incumbent enough to push aside any concerns about his challenger."

Paul Waldman of American Prospect on the GOP's foreign policy problem: "Not Obama" + "America Strong!" is not much of a platform.

60 Minutes Man. Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "... now I know for sure why Mr. Romney avoids getting into specifics.... When he does get specific, he doesn't make much sense.... One particularly hilarious moment came when he criticized Mr. Obama for failing to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.... Mr. Romney does not actually favor closing the camp.... [When asked] 'What's your big idea? he responded: 'Freedom. I want to restore the kind of freedom that has always driven America's economy. And that's allowed us to be the shining city on the hill.' His Big Idea is freedom. And quoting Ronald Reagan." CW: okay, maybe Jim Fallows is wrong [see video & link below] about Romney's great debating skills.

Jim Fallows of the Atlantic writes an excellent piece on Romney as a debater. It should worry Obama supporters. And the President himself, along with his debate prep team, should read Fallows' analysis.

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "... conservative 'super PACs' and other outside entities working to defeat President Obama ... operate largely from the same playbook, sharing polling data and focus group research to develop many of the same lines of attack. And they are being careful to keep their efforts consistent with the themes being emphasized by Mitt Romney's campaign." AND it's all perfectly legal! ...

... You may remember this. Attorney Trevor Potter explains how it works:

Alec McGillis of The New Republic: "Romney's arrival [in Ohio] coincides with a new ad hitting Obama for being too soft in pushing back against China's trade violations. Romney says Obama should impose tariffs on products made in China. But way back in 2009, when Obama did impose a tariff on tires made in China, Romney said just the opposite -- that in the long run tariffs are never a good idea." ...

... "Let Them Go to the Emergency Room" -- the New RomneyCare & a stunning flip-flop:

... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: emergency rooms "will not provide basic, ongoing care.... Romney doesn't simply want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, effectively taking health insurance away from 30 million people who, starting in 2014, are likely to get it from the law. He also wants to end Medicaid, making cuts that would leave between 14 and 27 million additional people without insurance. And he wants to change the tax treatment of employer health benefits, in ways that could make coverage more expensive or harder to get." CW: and who pays for that ER care for the uninsured? Those of us who are insured. This was stupid when George W. Bush said it. It is even more stupid coming from Romney.

Paul Krugman Expresses "Sympathy for the Doofus: ... Yes, [Mitt Romney is] a pretty bad candidate -- but the core problem is with his party, not with him."...

... Even though Romney has no sympathy for most of us. David Corn says the most damning remark Romney made in Boca tapes was this: "I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Corn recounts a poignant encounter with a 47-percenter a/k/a moocher.

Why Won't the Windows Open on this Gosh-Darn Plane?

When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly. And you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem. -- Mitt Romney, explaining why his wife Ann's plane had to make an emergency landing

Can we finally accept that Willard is not too bright? -- Constant Weader

Update: Aw, shucks. Supposedly Romney was joking, which Ashley Parker (Maureen Dowd's acolyte) failed to mention in her pool report. The L.A. Times picked up the story & recounted the comments as if Romney were serious because there was nothing in Parker's report to indicate otherwise. ...

... Update Update. You be the judge:

Consolation Prize: Romney still believes in cold fusion & he thinks the University of Utah "solved" that as a way to generate power conduct electricity. CW: Must have been written up in The Journal of Magical Underwear. (I apologize -- don't bother to write to tell me I'm a blasphemous fool.)

Mitt Romney & Bill Clinton are really nice to each other. (Video here.)

Congressional Races

Jamie Novogrod of NBC News: "Today's final deadline for embattled Missouri Republican Senate nominee Todd Akin to withdraw from the race is just hours away, and he has scheduled a news conference at 3:00 pm ET. Is he potentially dropping out of the contest? Not a chance, his campaign says."

Greg Sargent: Sen. Sherrod "Brown's [D-Ohio] lead in the polls should not obscure the fact that in one key way, the contest remains the most important Senate race in the country. That's because the Ohio race is providing a clearer referendum than perhaps any other Senate race on the question of whether outside money can depose an incumbent ... largely irrespective of the candidates themselves.... No other race combining this level of spending with such a clear disparity in the quality of the contenders. Brown has been a popular figure in Ohio (though Dems say his numbers have eroded a bit under the ad onslaught), while [his RTP opponent, Josh] Mandel has committed a string of missteps." ...

... Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation, writing in the Washington Post, champions the Senate candidacy of Elizabeth Warren: "Warren will focus on the core issues, and ask Massachusetts' voters to decide who is on their side. And if she wins -- hopefully joined by Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio and perhaps Rep. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin -- she'll not only lead a new generation of progressive reformers into the Senate, but also begin to teach Democrats how to fight for working people once more." ...

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The most closely watched Senate race in the country has taken a sharp turn off the high road. As Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and challenger Elizabeth Warren (D) enter the final phase of their exceedingly tight race, each is seeking to undermine the other on the very traits that had been considered their greatest political strengths: his independence and her character." ...

... Warren takes on Brown's repeated attacks claiming "Professor Warren" is an Affimative Action hire who exploited her Amerindian heritage. CW: I think she finally got some good campaign advice:

Greg Sargent highlights the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "first ad of the cycle that ties a vulnerable Republican member of Congress — Chris Gibson, in New York’s 19th district — to Romney."

Local News

Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: Stephen M. Saland of Poughkeepsie, "one of the four Republican state senators who voted for same-sex marriage, claimed victory Monday in a close primary against an opponent critical of his vote, while another of the four [-- Roy J. McDonald of Saratoga --] appeared increasingly certain to lose his party's nomination over the issue.... One of the four Republican senators who voted for the Marriage Equality Act, James S. Alesi of Monroe County, had decided not to seek re-election. Two, Mr. Saland and Mark J. Grisanti of Buffalo, have now won competitive primaries...."

News Ledes

AP: "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to address a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly via a videolink from his hideout at Ecuador's London embassy, seeking to draw new attention to his efforts to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations. Ecuador's mission to the United Nations said Tuesday that Assange was scheduled to speak Wednesday alongside foreign minister Ricardo Patino at a specially convened event to discuss his asylum case."

New York Times: "The housing market continues to gather strength, and the biggest gains in price now appear to be among the least expensive homes, whose values fell the most in the downturn and have weighed against any would-be recovery."

New York Times: "Libyan militia fighters assaulted a hotel in Tripoli housing members of the newly elected General National Congress on Tuesday, dramatizing the challenge the government faces in enforcing its ultimatum that all unauthorized brigades must submit to its authority or disband by the start of the day.The attack came as an American team arrived in Tripoli to investigate the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens in an assault this month on the American Mission in Benghazi." ...

... AP: "One of the young Libyan rebels credited with capturing Moammar Gadhafi in a drainage ditch nearly a year ago died Tuesday of injuries after being kidnapped, beaten and slashed by the late dictator's supporters -- the latest victim of persistent violence and instability in the North African country. The death of Omran Shaaban, who had been hospitalized in France, raised the prospect of even more violence and score-settling."

AP: "Israel's defense minister [Ehud Barak] on Monday called for a broad unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank if talks with the Palestinians remain stalled, saying in published comments that 'practical steps' are needed to breathe life into the stalemated peace process."

AP: "A quiet day on Wall Street turned into the worst sell-off in three months after a Federal Reserve official said he doubted the bank's effort to boost economic growth would work. Charles Plosser, president of the Fed's Philadelphia branch, told an audience Tuesday that the Fed's effort to support the economy would likely fall short of its goals."

New York Times: "President Obama will tell the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that time for diplomacy to curb the looming Iranian nuclear crisis is running out, according to excerpts from Mr. Obama's planned speech provided by the White House." ...

     ... Update: here's the text of Obama's speech, as prepared for delivery. ...

     ... The Washington Post's report on the speech discusses its political implications.

The Commentariat -- Sept. 24, 2012

Elizabeth Drew in the New York Review of Books: "... the current voting rights issue is ... a coordinated attempt by a political party to fix the result of a presidential election by restricting the opportunities of members of the opposition party's constituency -- most notably blacks -- to exercise a Constitutional right. This is the worst thing that has happened to our democratic election system since the late nineteenth century, when legislatures in southern states systematically negated the voting rights blacks had won in the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution." Thanks to contributor Akhilleus for the link.

Patricia Zengerle of Reuters: "New voting laws in 23 of the 50 states could keep more than 10 million Hispanic U.S. citizens from registering and voting, a new study said on Sunday, a number so large it could affect the outcome of the November 6 election.... The new laws include purges of people suspected of not being citizens in 16 states that unfairly target Latinos, the civil rights group Advancement Project said in the study to be formally released on Monday."

Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "The attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans has dealt the Central Intelligence Agency a major setback in its intelligence-gathering efforts at a time of increasing instability in the North African nation. Among the more than two dozen American personnel evacuated from the city after the assault on the American mission and a nearby annex were about a dozen C.I.A. operatives and contractors, who played a crucial role in conducting surveillance and collecting information on an array of militant armed groups in and around the city."

Amy Goodnough of the New York Times: "Officials in a handful of ... Republican-led states say they are ... working to have a framework ready [for state-run health insurance exchanges] by Nov. 16, the deadline for states to commit to running an exchange [in compliance with the Affordable Care Act] or leave it to the federal government to run it for them."

Kathleen Geier of Washington Monthly: "An extremely disturbing new study published in the American Journal of Public Health finds that suicides have replaced car accidents as the leading cause of injury-related death in the U.S. This is partly because deaths from automobile accidents are down.... But ... the suicide rate has increased dramatically: between 2000 and 2009, according to data from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, deaths by suicide went up by 15%, and deaths from poisoning increased by a whopping 128%." Geier notes that suicides are underreported; she attributes the cause of the increase to the bad economy.

Presidential Race

John Broder of the New York Times: In separate "60 Minutes" interviews which aired Sunday, "the two presidential contenders carried out a shadow debate that offered a likely preview of the tone and substance of the first of their three face-to-face debates, which will be held in Denver on Oct. 3." ...

Steve Kroft interviews President Obama. You can watch the Romney interview, by Scott Pelley, here. There are brief unaired segments for both candidates here (cursor through). The full transcript begins here:

David Morgan of Reuters: "New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points." ...

John Cassidy of the New Yorker lists seven theories about why Romney is a loser. He finally concludes that Romney is a lousy politician who hasn't mastered the not-so-fine art of politicking that "most city councilmen have mastered." CW: I'd say it's something like this: people like Obama & don't hold him responsible for not entirely fixing the Bush economy. (See Bill Kristol's & Joseph Cera's remarks below.) Romney & the Missus are basically arguing that Romney is a better, smarter person than Obama, and their manner suggests that the evidence of that is the pile of money Romney made while the lowly Obamas were paying off their college loans. But most people aren't particularly impressed with "their betters" & don't fully trust somebody who made millions -- often at the expense of people like them. In addition, nobody -- including Romney -- can name one thing Romney will do to help ordinary Americans. People end up thinking, Obama hasn't helped me enough, but Romney's for the rich, so he won't help me at all.

In PolySciSpeak, Prof. Joseph Cera writes that the "Are you better off?" comparison isn't working: "Evidence is mounting that Republican efforts to frame economic retrospections leading up to and during the RNC ('Are you better off than you were four years ago?') has backfired. In the aftermath, voters do seem to be embracing 2008 as a point of economic reference. However, voters are not looking at their own pocketbooks as much as they are considering the state of the larger economy four years ago, when George W. Bush was still president and the prospect of a second great depression was staring us in the face. This sociotropic comparison was embraced by the Democrats at the DNC and in subsequent advertising." Via Greg Sargent.

Paul Krugman: "... Mr. Romney's five-point 'economic plan' is very nearly substance-free.... In his Boca Raton meeting with donors, however, Mr. Romney revealed his real plan, which is to rely on magic. 'My own view is,' he declared, 'if we win on November 6, there will be a great deal of optimism about the future of this country. We'll see capital come back, and we'll see -- without actually doing anything -- we'll actually get a boost in the economy.' Are you feeling reassured? ... Mr. Romney offered a testable proposition in his Boca remarks: 'If it looks like I'm going to win, the markets will be happy. If it looks like the president's going to win, the markets should not be terribly happy.' How's that going? ... Over the past month conventional wisdom has shifted from the view that the election could easily go either way to the view that Mr. Romney is very likely to lose; yet markets are up, not down...."

[During the debates,] the president will not be able to continue to mischaracterize my pathway. I'll continue to describe mine, he will describe his, and people will make a choice. That's the great thing about democracy. -- Mitt Romney, projecting again

"I'm not going to try to fool people into thinking he believes things he doesn't," Romney said. "He's trying to fool people into thinking that I think things that I don't. And that ends at the debates."

Here's a jaw-dropper. Conservative pundit Bill Kristol says "Bush was president during the financial meltdown & Obama has turned that around pretty well." Via Think Progress:

The Obama campaign uses video of Romney's "47 percent" remarks in this ad:

Seung Min Kim of Politico: A new 30-second ad by the Romney campaign "uses an anecdote from the new Bob Woodward book 'The Price of Politics' that shows [then House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi muting President Barack Obama while he was on a speaker phone during negotiations for the economic stimulus package in the early days of Obama's term. In a statement Sunday, Pelosi ... denied that she ever muted Obama. 'As speaker and as Democratic leader, any call from the president would be treated with great formality and respect,' Pelosi said. 'There was absolutely no situation in which either President Bush or President Obama were cut off from speaking. I respect the office of the President and the office of the Speaker, including the historic nature of any communication between these two offices.' ... Woodward has stood by his reporting...." Report includes the ad.

Muzzling Missus Mitt? Omaha.com: "Ann Romney ... made an appearance Friday at an Omaha-area fundraiser for her husband. She had scheduled interviews with The World-Herald and other reporters but canceled after controversy erupted this week over her comments to a public radio station in Iowa about her husband's Republican critics." ...

... Sarah Jones of Politicus USA: "Ann Romney was supposed to be Mitt's secret weapon, but apparently that isn't working out very well."

Teddy Patridge of Firedoglake has way too much fun cataloging Mitt's gaffes of last week -- and he doesn't even include the Missus Mitt Meltdown. Partridge reminds readers, "... this is not a list of Things That Happened to Mitt This Week. This is, instead, a list of Things Team Mitt Did."

Tom Edsall in the New York Times on why Romney has given up on Pennsylvania, which he thought would be a swing state he could win.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells has a long piece in New York magazine on Mitt Romney's 10-year stint as the Mormon Church bishop of Boston.

John Harkinson in Mother Jones: "Mitt Romney is richer than you think." Harkinson totals up some of the Romney assets that don't get reported in financial disclosure statements, & says the Romney are worth more like $378 million, or half again as much as is usually reported.

AND Bill Clinton hints of Hillary run in 2016.

Congressional Races

Mr. Nice Guy Goes Negative. David Catanese of Politico: "... after months of warm ads showcasing [Sen. Scott Brown {R-Mass.}] as a down-to-earth family man and consensus-seeking moderate, Brown debuted a more combative strategy during the debate [last week with Democrat Elizabeth Warren]. The senator's invective toward Warren only accelerated over the weekend during numerous campaign stops."

Local News

New York Times Editors: Republicans, including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal & former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, are openly working with other right-wing groups to oust David Wiggens, an able Iowa state supreme court judge who joined in a gay marriage decision several years ago. "This is a battle over the future of a fair and independent judiciary.... On Friday, the Iowa State Bar Association announced its own pro-retention 'Yes Iowa Justice Tour' that will shadow the 'No Wiggins' tour as part of a larger bar effort 'to respond to, and correct, misinformation about Iowa's judicial system.'"

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Israel is bullying the United States over the alleged threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon, using the prospect of an Israeli military attack on Iran to force the hand of its much larger ally, Iran's president [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] said Monday.... during an interview with American editors and reporters."

AP: "Scientists reported Sunday that they have completed a major analysis of the genetics of breast cancer, finding four major classes of the disease. They hope their work will lead to more effective treatments, perhaps with some drugs already in use."

AP: "The company that makes Apple's iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a dormitory injured 40 people."