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The Commentariat -- Oct. 19, 2012
Presidential Race
Mike Isikoff of NBC News: "A campaign worker linked to a controversial Republican consulting firm, [Strategic Allied Consulting,] has been arrested in Virginia and charged with throwing voter registration forms into a dumpster. The suspect, Colin Small, 31, was described by a local law enforcement official as a "supervisor" in a Republican Party financed operation to register voters in Rockingham County in rural Virginia, a key swing state in the Nov. 6 election." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.
Nate Silver: "The Gallup national tracking poll now shows a very strong lead for Mitt Romney. However, its results are deeply inconsistent with the results that other polling firms are showing in the presidential race, and the Gallup poll has a history of performing very poorly when that is the case."
Stanching the Voter Drain? Mark Murray of NBC News: "... new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls show President Barack Obama maintaining his lead over ... Mitt Romney in the battleground states of Iowa and Wisconsin. According to the polls -- which were conducted from Monday through Wednesday, encompassing Tuesday's presidential debate in New York and after -- Obama receives the support of 51 percent of likely voters in Iowa to Romney's 43 percent.... And in Wisconsin, Obama is ahead by six points among likely voters, 51 percent to 45 percent...."
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama paid a call on 'The Daily Show' on Thursday.... [Jon] Stewart made Obama laugh several times, but he also pressed Obama on why his administration appeared 'confused' in its response to the terror attacks on American diplomatic personnel in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11." Update: here's the video, Parts 1 & 2:
... CW: what does Matt Drudge glean from the Stewart interview? Here's the headline: "WHEN FOUR AMERICANS GET KILLED, IT'S NOT OPTIMAL.” No link. I read this someplace else. I'm not going to Drudge.
Sharon Otterman of the New York Times: President Obama & Mitt Romney will both speak at the Al Smith Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City this evening. CW: And wouldn't you know it: "Angry e-mails from conservative Christian organizations flooded Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan's in-box in August, after he announced that he had invited President Obama, along with Mitt Romney, to speak at the New York Archdiocese's biggest charity gala of the year, despite the church's differences with the president over contraception, abortion and same-sex marriage." ...
... Update: President Obama was terrific:
... Mitt Romney was pretty funny:
... Here's the New York Times story, by Richard Oppel, of the event.
Helene Cooper of the New York Times: Bruce "Springsteen joined former President Bill Clinton on stage for [a campaign] event [in Parma, Ohio], as part of the Obama campaign's full-throated effort to scrounge up every single vote it can in Ohio." CW: Here's one of those entertaining guys:
... AND the other one:
... PLUS this guy says that he has cleaned up the mess. President Obama in New Hampshire Thursday:
Mike Allen of Politico: "From an Obama campaign aide: Wed., the day after the town-hall debate, 'was the biggest campaign fundraising day for the Obama campaign in history, including 2008.'" (CW: this is an item, not a story; there's no more to it. I'm not linking it because Allen only provides a generic link that will only hold till he makes an update.)
Tom Miles & Rachelle Younglai of Reuters: "The World Trade Organization barred China on Thursday from imposing duties on certain U.S. steel exports, siding with U.S. President Barack Obama in a dispute with Beijing over a type of steel made in two election battleground states. The case involved duties imposed by China on 'grain-oriented electrical steel,' which is used in the cores of high-efficiency transformers, electric motors and generators. The steel is made ... [in Ohio & Pennsylvania]. Although the specialty steel case is tiny compared with other trade disputes with Beijing, the WTO ruling gave Obama a timely win as he defends himself against accusations by his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, that he is soft on China."
Mike Elk of In These Times: "In a June 6, 2012 conference call posted on the anti-union National Federation of Independent Business's website..., Mitt Romney instructed employers to tell their employees how to vote in the upcoming election.... After making a lengthy case that President Obama's first term has been bad for business, Romney said:
I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections. And whether you agree with me or you agree with President Obama, or whatever your political view, I hope, I hope you pass those along to your employees.
"... Romney went on to reassure his audience that it is perfectly legal for them to talk to their employees about how to vote:
Nothing illegal about you talking to your employees about what you believe is best for the business, because I think that will figure into their election decision, their voting decision and of course doing that with your family and your kids as well.
"... He's correct that such speech is now legal for the first time ever, thanks to the Citizen United ruling, which overturned previous Federal Election Commission laws that prohibited employers from political campaigning among employees." Thanks to a friend for the heads-up. Here's the audio:
Greg Sargent: "As the presidential race hits the final stretch, you'll be seeing more and more under the radar communications -- unannounced or highly targeted ads, robocalls, mailers -- that will grow increasingly dishonest as Election Day approaches. Case in point: A new radio ad that the Rove-founded Crossroads GPS is running in Colorado that is almost comically misleading about the latest unemployment statistics and the trajectory of unemployment on Obama's watch."
** "Snow Job on Jobs." Paul Krugman: "... the true Romney [jobs] plan is to create an economic boom through the sheer power of Mr. Romney's personal awesomeness. But the campaign doesn't dare say that, for fear that voters would (rightly) consider it ridiculous. So what we're getting instead is an attempt to brazen it out with nakedly false claims. There's no jobs plan; just a plan for a snow job on the American people." CW: a masterful piece of writing. ...
... Greg Sargent sez, "this 12 million jobs plan is the main rationale for Romney's whole case for the presidency. Why isn't the fact that it has been revealed to be a sham a bigger media story?"
** Tim Egan: "The great mystery of the first presidential debate was what happened to the Barack Obama a slim majority of the country was poised to rehire for another four years.... But there was another missing man in the Mile High City that night, and on Tuesday, he reappeared -- the petulant, unlikable and bullying corporate persona that is Mitt Romney's default mode. With his feigned slights, his constant squabbling over the rules, and his arrogance that he alone has a trust-me-it'll-work business plan to right the country, Romney was the very picture of a C.E.O. used to getting his way."
AND now it's time to check in with octogenarians Margaret & Helen to see what they think of the Romney family & Mitt's serial lying to women & all. Thanks to Bonnie for the link.
Jason Cherkis of the Huffington Post: "In the wake of Rep. Paul Ryan's embarrassing soup kitchen photo-op last week, the organization that runs the facility tells The Huffington Post that donors have begun pulling their money out of the Youngstown, Ohio charity." After the local director of the St. Vincent de Paul charity told the Washington Post that the Ryan people had "'ramrodded their way in,' ... Ryan supporters have ... targeted [him] and his soup kitchen." CW: So backers of Mr. Slash-the-Social-Safety-Hammock, in a pretense of compassion, are withholding funds from a typical, privately-funded, church-affiliated charitable organization -- the kind these yahoos say they love. Thanks to Haley S. for the link.
Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party-aligned group part-funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, is building a state-of-the-art digital ground operation in Ohio and other vital battleground states to spread its anti-Obama message to voters.... The group hopes that by creating a local army of activists equipped with sophisticated online micro-targeting tools it will increase its impact on moderate voters, nudging them towards a staunchly conservative position opposed to President Obama's economic and healthcare policies. Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is spending tens of millions of dollars developing its local strategy, already employing more than 200 permanent staff in 32 states."
Congressional Races
"Doctor" Joe Walsh says abortion never saves the life of the mother, cements his earlier-won Misogynist of the Year prize. Rick Pearson & Duaa Eldeib of the Chicago Tribune: during a debate between Joe Walsh (RTP-Ill.) & Tammy Duckworth (D), who is challenging Walsh for his Congressional seat, Walsh said he opposed abortion "without exception." "Asked by reporters after the debate if he was saying that it's never medically necessary to conduct an abortion to save the life of a mother, Walsh responded, 'Absolutely. With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance.... There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing.'"
AP: "Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill cast herself as a moderate willing to work with Republicans while GOP challenger Todd Akin repeatedly linked her to the policies of President Barack Obama as they highlighted their differences Thursday night in the final debate of the Missouri Senate race."
Daniela Altimari of the Hartford Courant: Rep. Daniel Chris Murphy (D) & Linda McMahon (R) of Connecticut held their final debate Thursday afternoon. "A University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant poll released Thursday showed Murphy with a six point lead." CW: this is good news. The multimillionaire fake wrestling empress McMahon has led Murphy for much of the campaign season.
Other Stuff
CW: A number of contributors have been complaining about undecided & low-information voters. Marvin S. went out and found a truly low-information lady. Marvin has a suspicion of which way this woman will vote. The scary part to me is that the woman sounds like an adult, & she is relatively articulate. If you happened into a conversation with her -- as long as you kept to innocuous topics like the weather -- you might never guess what a dunderhead she was. Although -- come to think of it -- when she started complaining that the new local weatherman was constantly bringing on blizzards & droughts & such, you'd get a clue. This audio, BTW, has had nearly 2.5 million listeners:
Ah, Free Speech. AP: "An 80-year-old Connecticut woman has been charged with larceny and breach of peace after tearing down political signs that included an image of President Barack Obama with an Adolph Hitler-style mustache. Nancy Lack tells WVIT-TV she was offended by the picture and took down three posters that were being hung last Thursday near the post office on Main Street in Hebron, Conn. Workers for frequent presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, who were putting up the signs, called police. Lack says she knew she would get in trouble. But she says she lived through World War II and was angry that someone would portray the president as a Nazi."
Ah, Schadenfreude. AP: "The conservative scholar behind a high-grossing film that condemns President Barack Obama has resigned as head of an evangelical college. The King's College in New York announced Dinesh D'Souza's resignation Thursday. Its board had been meeting about the school president and his relationship with a woman who is not his wife." ...
... Ariel Kaminer of the New York Times has more.
News Ledes
New York Times: "A large bomb exploded in the heart of Beirut's Christian section on Friday, killing a top Lebanese security official and at least seven others, wounding dozens and spreading anxiety and dread in a city where memories of sectarian violence from Lebanon's long civil war have been resurrected by the conflict in neighboring Syria."
New York Times: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan, has recovered to the extent that she is now able to stand with assistance and communicate in writing, medical officials at the British hospital where she is being treated said on Friday."
Washington Post: "The CIA is urging the White House to approve a significant expansion of the agency's fleet of armed drones, a move that would extend the spy service's decade-long transformation into a paramilitary force.... The proposal by CIA Director David H. Petraeus would bolster the agency's ability to sustain its campaigns of lethal strikes in Pakistan and Yemen and enable it, if directed, to shift aircraft to emerging al-Qaeda threats in North Africa or other trouble spots...."
AP: "The CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington within 24 hours of last month's deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate that there was evidence it was carried out by militants, not a spontaneous mob upset about an American-made video ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad, U.S. officials have told The Associated Press."
New York Times: "European Union leaders said early Friday that legislation enabling rescue aid to be channeled directly to Spanish banks should be agreed by the end of the year, but they left open critical decisions on how soon it could go into effect." The Guardian has a liveblog on this as negotiations are continuing.
Washington Post: "BP said Thursday that an oil sheen detected in the Gulf of Mexico last month probably came from crude trapped in the giant coffer dam that the company used in a futile attempt to capture the oil that was spilling from a BP well in 2010."
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