The Commentariat -- Nov. 5, 2012

Presidential Race

Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Monday, in the final hours of their 17-month, nearly $3 billion marathon, the two candidates and their running mates are scheduled to hold 14 events across eight states. For Republican challenger Mitt Romney, this last full day of campaigning is aimed at achieving what he has seemingly been unable to do over the first 522 days: overcome President Obama's razor-thin but steady leads in the states where the election will be decided. On Sunday, it appeared that Romney's task was getting a little harder."

Michael Shear of the New York Times on what the candidates did on the longest day. ...

... Here's a clip of President Obama speaking in Concord, New Hampshire:

... AND here's the Hon. Paul Ryan to remind us all that we have a Kenyan Muslim president. Shushannah Walshe of ABC News: "Paul Ryan squeezed in time on a four-stop, five-state day for a conference call with evangelical voters Sunday evening, issuing a warning about a second Obama term saying the president is putting the country on a 'dangerous path' that compromises 'Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values.' Evangelical leader Ralph Reed's influential group, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, hosted the call and Reed said 'tens of thousands' of Evangelical Christians were listening in." ...

... Julie Pace of the AP: "President Barack Obama's campaign is mobilizing a massive get-out-the-vote effort aimed at carrying the Democrat to victory, as Republican Mitt Romney makes a late play for votes in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania. Obama was closing out the campaign with an apparent edge in some key battleground states, including Ohio. But both campaigns were predicting wins in Tuesday's election." ...

... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Aboard Air Force One from Concord, Mass., to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Obama called Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts." ...

... "Obama Should Resign!" Josh Voorhees of Slate: Meanwhile, with Chris Christie sidelined by his bromance with Barack, Mitt Romney has found a new attack dog in Rudy Nineleven Giuliani.

Felicia Sonmez & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "A new poll from the Pew Research Center found Obama with a three-point lead over Romney nationwide. Less than a week earlier, the same poll had the two candidates tied at 47 percent. But, by Sunday, Obama was ahead, 48 percent to 45 percent." (The multi-page feature at the WashPo still isn't working.) ...

... Reuters has the candidates in a dead heat: Obama 48, Romney 47. The poll also shows Obama with slim leads or ties in battleground states. ...

... Nancy Cordes of CBS News: "... as early voting figures pour in from half a dozen crucial battleground states, Obama campaign officials are exuding increasing confidence, even for them."

... Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun: "It would be very difficult for Obama to lose Nevada, especially because I think more than two-thirds of the vote is in, so whatever turnout advantage the GOP has on Tuesday won't be enough. Obama, 50 percent; Romney, 46 percent; others and 'none of the above,' 4 percent."

... Think Nate Silver is an Obama supporter? Think again:

... Nate Silver: "It appears that President Obama is likely to go into Election Day with a very modest lead in the average of national polls." There Silver goes again, padding the numbers of the candidate who would be, at best, his third choice for president. What is a conspiracy theorist to do? ...

... Maggie Haberman & Emily Schultheis of Politico: "If [Romney pollster Neil] Newhouse is right, the majority of public pollsters will have egg on their faces."

Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "... the Florida Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit early Sunday to force the state government to extend early voting hours in South Florida." Read the whole post. What a mess! ...

... CW: here's what I'm talkin' about. Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Last night, voters in Miami-Dade County, [Florida,] were forced to wait in line up to six hours to vote. In some precincts voters who arrived at 7PM were not able to cast their ballots until 1AM. In response, Republican-affiliated election officials in Miami-Dade have effectively extended early voting from 1PM to 5PM today by allowing 'in-person' absentee voting. But this accommodation will only be available in a single location in the most Republican area of the county." (Italics mine.)

... Andre Tartar of New York: "'Let the people vote' former Florida governor -- and former Republican -- Charlie Crist tweeted, presumably to current governor Rick Scott, who ignored pleas from Democrats and even members of his own party to extend the early voting window." ...

... Adam Estes Clark of the Atlantic has a good post on the Florida early voting fiasco, too. One thing: the three counties where the mess is worst comprise 32 percent of all the state's Democratic voters. ...

... More from Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post. ...

... Here's the Miami Herald story on "The Debacle in Doral."

Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "In labor's last-minute campaign efforts, canvassers in Eau Claire, Kenosha, La Crosse, Racine, Green Bay and other [Wisconsin] communities carried the same message: Do not forget to vote, and when you do, cast ballots for President Obama and Tammy Baldwin, the Democratic candidate for senator."

Monica Davey & Michael Wines of the New York Times on the get-out-the-vote efforts in Ohio.

A Fox Detroit poll, reported Sunday, shows Romney & Obama in a dead heat in Michigan. CW: Nate Silver has Obama with a 98.8% chance of winning Michigan. (Click on Michigan on the map on the right side of the page.)

Bill Clinton writes an op-ed for the Des Moines Register, countering the paper's endorsement of Rmoney. Paul Ryan endorses himself in the same paper.

Mark Leibovich of the New York Times on Bill Clinton's latest resurrection: "Whoever wins Tuesday, the 2012 campaign has solidified (or restored) Mr. Clinton's status as the hardest-working man in a game he loves and plays like no one else."

Paul Krugman expands on an earlier blogpost about Republican incompetence & Democratic competence to handle disaster relief: "For the response to Sandy, like the success of the auto bailout, is a demonstration that Mr. Obama's philosophy of government -- which holds that the government can and should provide crucial aid in times of crisis -- works. And conversely, the contrast between Sandy and Katrina demonstrates that leaders who hold government in contempt cannot provide that aid when it is needed." ...

... CW: I just watched "Seal Team 6." I hope a lot of undecided voters did, too. It certainly reinforces Krugman's point. Maybe Romney has it on the TiVo for playback Wednesday when we can all hope he has nothing else to do.

** David Corn of Mother Jones: "... the 2012 campaign has been profoundly shaped by Romney's willingness to obfuscate and dissemble far beyond the admittedly low norm of modern American politics.... The Republican presidential candidate built much of his campaign on basic untruths about the president. Romney blasted Obama for breaking a 'promise' to keep unemployment below 8 percent. He claimed the president was 'apologizing for America abroad.' He accused Obama of adding 'nearly as much debt as all the previous presidents combined' and of cutting $500 million from Medicare. None of this was true. (See here, here, here, and here.) ... As significant as Tuesday's outcome will be for this much-divided nation in determining future policies regarding the economy, present and future wars, abortion rights, climate change, the social safety net, and much more, it will also provide an answer to a critical bottom-line question: In politics, does reality matter?"

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "The gap between what Obama and Romney believe -- and between what each man proposes to do -- is larger than it has been for any election I can remember." CW: If you're not happy about voting for Obama, read Cohn on "The Most Important Election of Our Lives."

Peter Wallsten & Jason Horowitz of the Washington Post: "Mitt Romney has largely avoided discussing the details of his Mormon faith throughout this year's presidential race.... But the revival this week of a testy 2007 interview caught on video offers a reminder of the struggles Romney has confronted as a politician wary of being defined, or confined, by his faith. The video, which has become an Internet sensation in the closing days of his campaign..., shows Romney sparring off-air with an Iowa radio talk show host over the tenets and beliefs of Mormonism -- including a discussion of abortion and the second coming of Jesus Christ -- and scolding the interviewer for bringing it up." ...

... Here's the video. It has almost a million-&-a-half hits. When I looked at it the other day -- after a reader called it to my attention -- it had about half that number of hits. Romney does seem somewhat unglued:

Dave Weigel of Slate: Obama's super PAC ads are better than Romney's super PAC ads. CW: wonder if that's because billionaires & multimillionaires like Karl Rove aren't all that good at relating to real people. They figure it's just as good to plug in an actress pretending to be a Real Housewife of White America & saying she's worried about scary Republican talking points. ...

... Byron Tau of Politico: "The Obama campaign has purchased banner ad space at almost twenty national and local websites on the eve of Tuesday's election.... The campaign has also targeted swing state newspaper websites and Latino-specific sites."

Remember Seamus. Kerry Lauerman, writing in Salon, asks animal experts how the Romneys' dog felt about his infamous trip to Canada in a crate atop the family station wagon. The story also includes details about the Life of Seamus which I didn't know: like, for some odd reason, he ran away from home a lot.

Will Farrell will do anything to get you to vote -- for Obama:

Congressional Races

Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: the campaign of Connecticut's U.S. Senate GOP candidate Linda Wrestling Lady McMahon has been distributing "doorhangers that Democrats say they've discovered in minority neighborhoods this weekend ... [which read] 'Vote Barack Obama For President and Vote Linda McMahon For U.S. Senate.' ... It's a surprising suggestion from a Republican who, along with her husband, has given $150,000 to help make Romney the next president of the United States." A spokesperson for McMahon "alleged that [Democratic candidate Chris] Murphy's campaign 'is telling people that it's illegal to split their ticket,' and that was the reason for the McMahon doorhangers. The Murphy campaign called the claim 'ridiculous' and 'desperate.'" Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. Obama cut this ad for Murphy:

Some brief testimonials for Elizabeth Warren:

Other Stuff

What Did He Know & When Did He Know It? Matthew Purdy of the New York Times examines the role of former BBC chief Mark Thompson in squelching the BBC's Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. Thompson will become New York Times CEO next Monday.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The gas shortage that has strained the New York region seemed to ease on Monday as lines at many pumps shrank, more gas stations reopened and mandatory rationing was enforced in some areas."

New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday reiterated his willingness to attack the Iranian nuclear program without support from Washington or the world, returning to an aggressive posture that he had largely abandoned since his United Nations speech in September."

Reuters: "The average U.S. price for a gallon of regular gasoline took its biggest drop since 2008 in the past two weeks, due to lower crude oil prices, a big price drop in pump prices in California and Hurricane Sandy, according to a widely followed survey released on Sunday." CW: looks like an Obama plot to me.

Reuters: "Five bombs exploded in the heart of the Bahraini capital Manama on Monday, killing two people, officials said, in rare attacks targeting civilians during the 21-month-old uprising against the kingdom's U.S.-backed rulers."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 4, 2012

This is the end of daylight savings time tonight. It’s Mitt Romney’s favorite time of year because he gets to turn the clock back. -- Joe Biden, at a campaign stop in Colorado yesterday

Presidential Race

CW: For poll-o-phobes, here are two of my least favorite political "analysts," Dan Balz & Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, reading popular polls: "... President Obama holds a narrow advantage over Mitt Romney in the crucial contest for the electoral votes needed to win the White House, even as national polls continue to show the candidates in a virtual tie for the popular vote. In Congress, despite record levels of disapproval with the institution, voters seem likely to opt for the status quo -- Democrats in charge of the Senate and Republicans in the House." This bit is interesting: "Almost half of all Americans said Obama's hurricane response would be a factor in their vote.... An earlier survey found that 79 percent rated his handling of the situation excellent or good." This, too: "For the first time in the Post-ABC poll, independent voters are evenly split between the two candidates, at 46 percent each. Until now, Romney has held an advantage ranging from three to 20 points." ...

... Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP: "President Barack Obama heads toward Election Day with an apparent lead over Republican Mitt Romney among early voters in key states that could decide the election.... More than 27 million people already have voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia. No votes will be counted until Election Day but several battleground states are releasing the party affiliation of people who have voted early. So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.... Republicans have the edge in Colorado, which Obama won in 2008.... Romney's campaign aides say they are doing so much better than [John] McCain did four years ago that Romney is in great shape to overtake Obama in many of the most competitive states.... About 35 percent of voters are expected to cast ballots before Tuesday, either by mail or in person."

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's final polls of the 2012 election cycle in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find Barack Obama favored to win both states, although by margins a good deal closer than he won them by in 2008. In Pennsylvania Obama leads 52-46, while in Wisconsin his advantage is 51-48." ...

... Then there's this from Dustin Hawkins of the despicable Breitbart News: "The final Susquehanna Polling & Research Poll [of Pennsylvania voters] shows a 47-47% tie heading into the Tuesday election. Romney is seen slightly more favorable (+4) than Obama (+1). Adding to Romney's advantage is that an overwhelming 71% place economic and fiscal issues as their top concern, and 56% believe the nation is headed on the wrong track. Romney campaigns in Pennsylvania Sunday afternoon." CW: posts like this, which mislead readers, are why -- if Obama wins -- the wingnut populace will be working overtime to cook up & distribute election-stealing stories. ...

... Jensen of PPP: "PPP's final Minnesota poll of the 2012 election cycle finds Barack Obama leading comfortably, 53-45. We've conducted four surveys of the state since Labor Day and found Obama leading by a margin in the 7-10 point range on each of them." ...

... Then there's this from Alexander Burns of Politico: "Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are separated by just 1 point in Minnesota, effectively making the race there a toss-up, according to polling taken for the conservative American Future Fund." Romney - 46%; Obama -- 45%.

Chris Rock urges white people to vote for the white president. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link to this very funny bit:

     ... CW: when I was canvassing for Obama in 2008 & came upon a typical redneck voter who wasn't sure it was a good idea to vote for the black guy, I used Chris Rock's tack -- only I wasn't as funny. I think it may have worked in some cases. ...

... Kyle Leighton of TPM: "Since Oct. 28, a national tracking poll by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling has shown Obama's job approval making a net gain of 6 percentage points.... During the same period, Romney's favorability has dropped by a net 7 points."

Today's Horror Story. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Representative Paul D. Ryan may have largely disappeared from the national spotlight down the campaign homestretch, ceding attention to Mitt Romney. But if the Republican ticket prevails, Mr. Ryan plans to come back roaring, establishing an activist vice presidency that he said would look like Dick Cheney's under President George W. Bush."

Miss Andrist, a/k/a Maureen Dowd, lets all the boys have it again this week.

Vice President Biden explains the Romney-Ryan plan for seniors. Show this to your Republican friends & relatives in the 50-plus age group:

Nicholas Kristof is worth reading because he lists some of Mitt Romney's anti-woman policies, but this is by no means a catalog. Romney is worse than Kristof lets on.

Seth Meyers interviews Mitt Romney:

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The shrinking electoral battleground has altered the nature of American self-governance. There is evidence that the current system is depressing turnout, distorting policy, weakening accountability and effectively disenfranchising the vast majority of Americans."

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "... as perhaps the best-known Mormon after the Republican presidential candidate and a major influence on evangelical Christians, [Glenn] Beck has emerged as an unlikely theological bridge between the first Mormon presidential nominee and a critical electorate."

Voter Suppression

Outlaw Rules. Andrew Cohen of the Atlantic: Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) is ignoring a court order that the state count provisional ballots which pollworkers fail to ensure are properly completed. Cohen writes, "Folks, the legal fight for Ohio's votes is already here and here to stay." (Italics original.) Andrew Welsh-Huggins of the AP has more.

... Even more detail from Joy-Ann Reid of the Grio. CW: this isn't just voter suppression. It's racist voter suppression.

... CW: as I've said before, Obama needs a big advantage in Ohio to beat the criminals who are determined to discard legal votes. According to the polls, Obama's lead is narrow, perhaps too narrow to overcome the illegal shenanigans of state officials. ...

... As Darrel Rowland of the Columbus Dispatch reports, "The final Dispatch Poll shows Obama leading 50 percent to 48 percent in the Buckeye State. However, that 2-point edge is within the survey’s margin of sampling error, plus or minus 2.2 percentage points." (The good news: "Sen. Sherrod Brown is besting GOP state Treasurer Josh Mandel by 6 points, 51percent to 45 percent.") ...

... Rosalind Helderman & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Democrats fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won to keep Ohio polls open to all voters this weekend, and they were making the most of it in this Democratic stronghold Saturday.... The Ohio secretary of state's office said Saturday that, statewide, 1.6 million people had voted by mail or in person as of Friday, a figure that puts the state on track to top 2008 early-vote tallies.... A study released last month by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law ... found that black voters -- who overwhelmingly favor Obama -- used early in-person voting at approximately 26 times the rate of white voters." ...

... BY CONTRAST -- AP: "New Jersey will allow residents displaced by Superstorm Sandy to vote by email or fax. Officials announced Saturday that registered voters can vote electronically. A resident must submit a mail-in ballot application by fax or email to the local county clerk." CW: New Jersey is a Democratic-leaning state with a Republican secretary of state/lieutenant governor. Keep making New Jersey jokes, people. It's a lot more civilized than the tyrannical State of Ohio. Middle American virtues? My ass.

New York Times Editors: "This year, voting is more than just the core responsibility of citizenship; it is an act of defiance against malicious political forces determined to reduce access to democracy.... Even now, many Republicans are assembling teams to intimidate voters at polling places, to demand photo ID where none is required, and to cast doubt on voting machines or counting systems whose results do not go their way." ...

... Virginia Election Protection Coalition: "... today [we] released new training materials obtained from Texas-based True the Vote that reveal the organization has been misleading Virginia volunteers on state election law and voting procedures." Via the NYT editors.

... Dara Kam & John Lantigua of the Palm Beach Post: "The Republican attorney who engineered the 2000 Florida felons list, which African American leaders said purged thousands of eligible blacks from voter rolls in the state and helped swing that election to the GOP, also wrote the first draft of Florida's controversial House Bill 1355 that has restricted early voting and voter registration campaigns in 2012. [He is] Emmett 'Bucky' Mitchell IV, former senior attorney for the Florida Division of Elections, now in private practice in Tallahassee and serving as general counsel for the Florida GOP.... Mitchell left the Division of Elections -- where he worked under Secretary of State Katherine Harris -- shortly after the 2000 election." CW: The whole story is disgusting. Via the NYT editors.

Other Stuff

Mayor Bloomberg & Gov. Christie update residents on storm cleanup:

Corporate Welfare on a Grand Scale. Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: "Dodd-Frank actually widened the federal safety net for big institutions. Under that law, eight more giants were granted the right to tap the Federal Reserve for funding when the next crisis hits. At the same time, those eight may avoid Dodd-Frank measures that govern how we're supposed to wind down institutions that get into trouble."

Hope Mitt Romney gets a cameo in this, where he says he didn't think it was worth devoting a lot of effort to nabbing bin Laden. The film premieres on the National Geographic Channel tonight at 8 pm ET:

Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "'Massive open online courses,' or MOOCs, have caught fire in academia. They offer, at no charge to anyone with Internet access, what was until now exclusive to those who earn college admission and pay tuition. Thirty-three prominent schools, including the universities of Virginia and Maryland, have enlisted to provide classes via Coursera.... And higher education's elite is in the vanguard.... MOOC students, for the most part, aren't earning credit toward degrees.... Exactly how MOOC platforms will make money without charging tuition remains to be seen."

News Ledes

New York Times: "An Israeli news channel reported Sunday night that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked the Israeli military in 2010 to prepare for an imminent attack on the Iranian nuclear program, but that their efforts were blocked by concerns over whether the military could do so and whether the men had the authority to give such an order."

New York Times: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg "said at least 20,000 people live in homes that were so severely damaged by the storm surge that they were uninhabitable. Relocating those residents, he said, will be a daunting task."

New York Times: "Several hundred of the Chinese Communist Party's top leaders decided Sunday on a raft of measures that pave the way for a once-in-a-decade leadership transition scheduled to start this week. Among its decisions, the party's Central Committee endorsed the expulsion of the disgraced politician Bo Xilai from the party and promoted two military leaders." CW: this is how "elections" work in China.

Washington Post: "Gun battles shut down a neighborhood of central Tripoli on Sunday, as militias loyal to the government battled another militia that they said had gone rogue. The clashes, which included the exchange of machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades, underscored the shakiness of Libya's security even within the confines of the capital, where the country's security forces are headquartered." CW: hey, so far no gun battles between the candidates' supporters, either. Who says the U.S. isn't exceptional?

Washington Post: "New Jersey imposed a form of gas rationing Saturday and New Yorkers overwhelmed temporary gas stations set up by the military as exasperated residents of the storm-damaged metropolitan region formed long lines to get gas for their cars and generators. Officials in New York offered 10 gallons of free gas per person, but so many people showed up they had to plead with the public to hold off until first responders could refill their tanks."

Reuters: "Victims of superstorm Sandy on the East Coast struggled against the cold on Sunday amid fuel shortages and power outages.... Fuel supplies were rumbling toward disaster zones and a million customers regained electricity as near-freezing temperatures descended on the U.S. Northeast overnight. But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned the city that it would be days before power was fully restored and fuel shortages ended."

Reuters: "Hundreds of runners in New York City are refusing to let a canceled marathon spoil their Sunday plans and are channeling months of preparation into informal runs intended to benefit victims of superstorm Sandy."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 3, 2012

The President's Weekly Address:

... The transcript is here.

Presidential Race

Mark Murray of NBC News: "... President Barack Obama maintains his lead in the key battleground state of Ohio and is locked in a close contest with ... Mitt Romney in Florida, according to new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls. In Ohio, Obama holds a six-point advantage over Romney among likely voters, 51 percent to 45 percent, which is unchanged from last month's poll in the Buckeye State. And in Florida, the president gets support from 49 percent of likely voters, while his GOP challenger gets 47 percent. Those numbers are virtually identical to the ones from October, when it was Obama 48 percent, Romney 47 percent." ...

... Nate Silver: "There were 22 polls of swing states published Friday. Of these, Mr. Obama led in 19 polls, and two showed a tie. Mitt Romney led in just one of the surveys, a Mason-Dixon poll of Florida.... Although the fact that Mr. Obama held the lead in so many polls is partly coincidental -- there weren't any polls of North Carolina on Friday, for instance, which is Mr. Romney's strongest battleground state -- they nevertheless represent powerful evidence against the idea that the race is a 'tossup.'"

What Might Have Been. Mike Allen & Jim Vanderhei of Politico: "One of the most tantalizing subplots of the 2012 campaign has been the curious and sometimes controversial performances of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Now, campaign insiders tell Politico that Christie was Mitt Romney's first choice for the Republican ticket, lending an intriguing new context to the continuing drama around the Garden State governor. The strong internal push for Christie, and Romney's initial instinct to pick him as his running mate, reflects how conflicted the nominee remained about choosing a running mate until the very end of the process." CW: Kinda explains some of Christie's recent behavior, doesn't it?

The New York Review of Books has a special election edition. Read these four essays, starting with the one by Frank Rich. They're all terrific. Thanks to reader Doug C. for pointing me to the NYRB. ...

... Speaking of terrific writers, here's Rick Hertzberg of the New Yorker on God & presidential politics. Hertzberg, BTW, is an atheist. Or at least he was till the storm hit; maybe that kernel of conventional wisdom -- "There are no atheists in foxholes" (variously attributed, most often to Ernie Pyle) -- is at work on Hertzberg! ...

... Jonathan Chait of New York magazine, makes "the case against Romney: at heart he's a delusional one-percenter." A very good piece, too. ...

... Now read Chait on why Obama "is a great president. Yes, great."

Washington Post Editors: "Through all the flip-flops, there has been one consistency in the campaign of ... Mitt Romney: a contempt for the electorate. How else to explain his refusal to disclose essential information? Defying recent bipartisan tradition, he failed to release the names of his bundlers.... He never provided sufficient tax returns to show voters how he became rich. How, other than an assumption that voters are too dim to remember what Mr. Romney has said across the years and months, to account for his breathtaking ideological shifts? ... The same presumption of gullibility has infused his misleading commercials ... and his refusal to lay out an agenda.... And then there has been his chronic, baldly dishonest defense of mathematically impossible budget proposals." CW: too bad most people thing the Post is a liberal paper.

John Cassidy & Rick Hertzberg speak with Dorothy Wickenden about how Sandy might affect the presidential election:

... Cassidy has a good post on the implications of the October jobs numbers: "For the first time, Obama can now say that more Americans are working than when he took office. Doubtless, it's a point he'll be making over the next few days."

Charles Pierce takes up the same theme Paul Krugman illuminated in his Friday column: "As part of his 'closing argument,' Willard Romney, who has tried on every argument for making him our president that can be conceived by the mind of mortal man, seems to have settled on simple blackmail." Read to the end; Pierce doesn't waste words. ...

... More from Jonathan Chait, who explains why the blackmail argument is appealing to know-nothing voters -- they have no idea what the issues are, but the don't like the Bickersons of Capitol Hill. Chait also provides a little history lesson to show how Romney's promise would work out in the Real World of said Bickersons. (Think Bush III.) Oh, and catch Chait's point on Romney's clever use of the passive voice. ...

... Here's Romney making his blackmail threat. Watch that smirk creep across Romney's face as he pauses after making the threat. I think it might be the same expression a goulish murderer assumes when denying the crime -- as blood drips from his hands:

Steve Benen in the last of his long-running series, "Mitt's Mendacity": "I've published 40 installments in this series, which, before today, featured 884 falsehoods. (If you include today's edition, the new total is 917 falsehoods for the year.)"

"You don't scare hard-working Americans just to scare up some votes. That's not what being President is all about":

CW: I don't usually put much stock in what celebrities say, & Stephen Stills, in this Rolling Stone endorsement of President Obama doesn't say much that the editors at the New Yorker & the New York Times haven't said in their endorsements, but there is a certain something to the vernacular that makes Stills' piece compelling: "At the second debate, somebody asked how Bush and Romney differ. I'll give you the answer: Romney's taller, Mormon and a little smarter and meaner. That's about it. I couldn't believe how he acted at that debate. He's a churlish little prick. At least Bush was affable.... It's not right to be that rude to the President of the United States, let alone anybody else." Coincidentally, I was also just thinking this, too: "I never in my lifetime thought I would see a creepier politician than Richard Nixon, but in the last few days, it became clear that Willard Mitt Romney is really, really creepy." Thanks to contributor Ken W. for the link.

Charles Blow on why Romney appears to be losing.

Even Fox "News" Is Sick of Fox "News." Terry Krepel of Media Matters: "Fox News' argument that the Obama administration deliberately abandoned Americans in Libya to let them die in the Benghazi terrorist attack is apparently so odious that even Fox's own experts and commentators are rebelling against the narrative." Krepel cites examples & includes video. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Jon Ortved of the New York Times: "There's always Canada." With some caveats.

Other Stuff

NEW. Paul Krugman fingers Karl Rove as a con-man -- someone who is not just conning voters but also his clients: "We've been seeing him as a man dedicated to helping angry right-wing billionaires take over America. But maybe he's best thought of instead as an entrepreneur in the business of selling his services to angry right-wing billionaires, who believe that he can help them take over America."

NEW. Carol Leonnig & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "The investigation into the arrest of a man on charges of dumping voter registration forms last month in Harrisonburg, Va., has widened, with state officials probing whether a company tied to top Republican leaders had engaged in voter registration fraud in the key battleground state, according to two persons close to the case."

Jayne Mayer of the New Yorker rebuts a rebuttal to her recent article on Hans von Spakovsky, a self-described legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation & "a prominent alarmist about election fraud in America." Bottom line: "...there is virtually no modern record of individual voters trying to steal elections by impersonating others at the polls."

<[>Michael Cooper of the New York Times: "The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy is threatening to create Election Day chaos in some storm-racked sections of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- and some effects may also be felt in other states, including Pennsylvania, where some polling sites still lacked power on Friday morning. Disrupted postal delivery will probably slow the return of absentee ballots. And with some polling sites likely to be moved, elections officials were bracing for a big influx of provisional paper ballots -- which could delay the vote count in places."

Craig Child in a New York Times op-ed: "Hurricane Sandy showed us how sea-level rise actually works. It comes up in spikes that top historic highs and then fall back to normal.... We talk about life slowly returning to normal along the Eastern Seaboard, but ultimately, it never will. A new high-water mark has been set. In the aftermath, one fact stands out above all: seas are rising, and we are in the way."

Eric Lipton & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "The first trickle of federal funds has started to go out after Hurricane Sandy -- $29 million to rebuild highways, $30 million to hire temporary workers to help with the cleanup. But lawmakers are just beginning to tally what is certain to be a multibillion-dollar bill for the federal government at a time of fiscal restraint."

Charles Pierce also has something to say about Senate Republicans' killing a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service which concluded, "essentially, that almost 35 years of Republican economic policy was sheer lunatic moonshine.... Republicans in the Senate have the same problem with numbers and with math that they have with science in general -- namely, that numbers and -- math were invented by Democrats, probably in Nate Silver's Carpathian la-BOR-a-tory, in order to help Republicans look foolish." Pierce characterizes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell thusly: "... [his] presence in a position of influence is an embarrassment to every democracy back to Pericles." (CW: I linked the underlying story, by New York Times writer Jonathan Weisman, in yesterday's Commentariat.

News Ledes

NBC News: "A jury on Friday ordered an American military contractor to pay $85 million after finding it guilty of negligence for illnesses suffered by a dozen Oregon soldiers who guarded an oilfield water plant during the Iraq War. After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for just two days before reaching a decision against the contractor, Kellogg Brown and Root."

New York Times: "As long lines persisted at gas stations in the New York metropolitan area, federal authorities moved on Friday to restore supplies, instructing the Defense Department to send 24 million gallons of fuel to the region and lifting restrictions on deliveries by foreign-flagged ships." ...

     ... Update: "The lights flickered on in Manhattan neighborhoods that had been dark for days, and New York's subways rumbled and screeched through East River tunnels again. But in shorefront stretches of Staten Island and Queens that were all but demolished, and in broad sections of New Jersey and Long Island, gasoline was still almost impossible to come by, electricity was still lacking, temperatures were dropping and worried homeowners wondered when help would finally arrive."

New York Times: "Four dark days after Hurricane Sandy blew through the New York region, residents and businesses in the lower end of Manhattan began to get power back on Friday.... In other boroughs and in the suburbs, the prognosis for full restoration was grimmer. In many parts of the region, utility companies forecast that people might be without power until the middle of November."

AP: once more, Staten Islanders feel they live in the forgotten borough. The New York City borough hardest-hit by Hurricane Sandy, help was slow to arrive, partly because the Verrazano bridge was closed until Friday. CW: the bridge story sounds like an excuse to me: according to this report, on Tuesday the Port Authority re-opened the three bridges that connect Staten Island to New Jersey.

New York Times: "Just when they might have thought they were in the clear, people recovering from meningitis in an outbreak caused by a contaminated steroid drug have been struck by a second illness. The new problem, called an epidural abscess, is an infection near the spine at the site where the drug -- contaminated by a fungus -- was injected to treat back or neck pain. The abscesses are a localized infection, different from meningitis, which affects the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. But in some cases, an untreated abscess can cause meningitis."

AP: "Some documents sealed in the 1970s as part of the court case against seven men involved in the Watergate burglary must be released, a federal judge ... says. U.S. District Chief Judge Royce Lamberth said in a two-page order Friday that some materials being sought by a Texas history professor should be released. He gave the National Archives and Records Administration a month to review and release the materials."