In the mail: The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden by Mark Bowden.
Bowden has an interesting piece in the Washington Post about the five myths surrounding the raid that ultimately got bin Laden.
Obama Super PAC Focuses on Bain
CBS News: “Priorities USA Action, the chief Democratic super PAC supporting President Obama, will close out the campaign season by reprising a television ad about a man who lost his job as a result of decisions made by Bain Capital while Republican nominee Mitt Romney ran it.”
Jackson Heads Back to Hospital
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) is heading back to Mayo Clinic — and was reportedly en route Friday evening, the Chicago Sun Times reports.
Jackson has been on a leave of absence from Congress since early last summer and is reportedly being treated for depression and bi-polar disorder.
Said a source who visited Jackson this week: “Jesse wanted you to know he is finding it difficult to continue his treatment because the press is staking out his home and making access to his doctor, who is within a short walking distance from his home, incredibly hard.”
Quote of the Day
“This shouldn’t be a race. The only reason it is, is because Americans are impatient on things not made before yesterday and they don’t understand why the economy is not totally hunky-dory again.”
— Bill Clinton, quoted by the AP.
Romney as a Manager
New York Times: “A serial chief executive, the Republican presidential nominee is steeped in management theory and eschews gut instincts. He is not so much a micromanager as a microprocessor, wading deeply into the raw data usually left to junior aides. He entrusts advisers with responsibility, but keeps them on a short leash, monitoring them through a flurry of progress reports and review sessions. Mr. Romney is, colleagues said, ‘conflict-avoidant.’ His decision-making process is unhurried and Socratic, his instinct to exhaustively debate and prod.”
Bloomberg: Do CEOs make good presidents?
Can Obama Cure Romnesia?
President Obama embraced the term “Romnesia” like it was a new toy, blasting Mitt Romney both for being a right-wing extremist and for holding no convictions at all, Politico reports.
“Obama’s use of Romnesia, borrowed from liberal blogs, is the campaign’s latest effort to create a shorthand to describe both Romney’s ideological flexibility and the ‘severely’ conservative views he espoused during the GOP primary contests. Romnesia covers both concepts with one word.”
“The two Obama attack lines could stir more distrust of Romney among persuadable voters — or they could muddle the Obama message in the campaign’s closing weeks.”
Latest Swing State Polls
Here are the latest polls from the battleground:
Florida: Romney 51%, Obama 46% (Rasmussen)
Florida: Romney 49%, Obama 48% (CNN/ORC)
Florida: Romney 48%, Obama 45% (Fox News)
Iowa: Romney 49%, Obama 48% (Public Policy Polling)
Nevada: Obama 51%, Romney 43% (Mellman)
New Hampshire: Romney 49%, Obama 48% (Public Policy Polling)
North Carolina: Obama 47%, Romney 44% (Grove Insight)
Ohio: Obama 46%, Romney 43% (Fox News)
Virginia: Romney 50%, Obama 47% (Rasmussen)
Wisconsin: Obama 50%, Romney 48% (Rasmussen)
The Onion Endorses John Edwards
The Onion bypassed Obama and Romney and endorsed former Sen. John Edwards instead.
“Mr. Edwards conducted a protracted extramarital affair with a younger
woman while his wife was dying of cancer, and we like that he did this.”
Salt Lake Tribune Endorses Obama
The Salt Lake Tribune endorses President Obama over Mitt Romney, the candidate “we knew, or thought we knew, as one of us.”
“Sadly, it is not the only Romney, as his campaign for the White House has made abundantly clear, first in his servile courtship of the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now as the party’s shape-shifting nominee. From his embrace of the party’s radical right wing, to subsequent portrayals of himself as a moderate champion of the middle class, Romney has raised the most frequently asked question of the campaign: ‘Who is this guy, really, and what in the world does he truly believe?'”
Candidate Tells Moderator He’s Prettier Than Candy Crowley
Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Richard Carmona (D) told moderator Brahm Resnik that he’s “prettier” than CNN’s Candy Crowley during a U.S. Senate debate with Rep. Jeff Flake (R), the Arizona Republic reports.
Romnesia
President Obama told a college crowd that when it comes to issues important to women’s health and jobs, Mitt Romney is distancing himself from past stances and suffers from a case of “Romnesia,” the AP reports.
Said Obama: “If you come down with a case of Romnesia… here’s the good news: Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions. We can fix you up. We’ve got a cure.”
Political Donor Thrives With No Limits
The New York Times profiles Rex Sinquefield, “who in recent years has emerged as the biggest political donor in Missouri and one of the most prolific anywhere in the country.”
“Since 2008, when Missouri abolished contribution limits, Mr. Sinquefield has donated more than $20 million to local candidates and political action committees, driving the political debate on issues like education, upending the political world here and making him perhaps the most influential private citizen in the state. More than half of that money has gone to advance his signature cause: eliminating state and local income taxes in Missouri, a major source of government revenue, and replacing them with sales taxes.”
Voter Intimidation Fears Renewed
ABC News/Univision: “A series of billboards placed in poor, minority neighborhoods in Cleveland telling people that voter fraud is a felony have reignited concerns over voter intimidation and suppression tactics in key battleground states.”
Nightmare Election Scenarios
The Associated Press looks at the possibility of an Electoral College tie between President Obama and Mitt Romney which “would throw the decision to the House of Representatives, currently controlled by Republicans but up for grabs in this election.”
But the “most nightmarish outcomes of all might cause millions of Americans and foreigners to question the fairness of presidential elections. Suppose, for instance, Obama wins more popular votes than Romney, but the two men are tied in the Electoral College. The Constitution gives each state delegation to the U.S. House one vote, meaning a small state such as Idaho has vastly more proportional clout than a big state like California. If the post-2012 House looks like the current one, the Republicans in control would almost surely name Romney president.”
“It’s one thing to have the Supreme Court rule on one state’s recount practices, resulting in an Electoral College win for the person who finished second in nationwide ballots. It’s another thing to have the sharply partisan House of Representatives break an Electoral College tie in the runner up’s favor.”
Meanwhile, Salena Zito notes an election decided by the House of Representatives could pair Romney with Vice President Joe Biden.
Obama Has Many More Field Offices
“Field operatives have been undervalued in recent years, as the focus of campaigns has shifted to big-money ad-bombs, compounded by the super-PAC economy. But this presidential campaign is going to come down to a few percentage points in a half dozen states, and suddenly ground game is about to get a lot of respect.”
“So The Daily Beast decided to map out the Obama and Romney local headquarters across the country as one way of gauging the strength of each campaign’s ground game. And what we found was an overwhelming advantage–755 to 283–by the Obama campaign on at least this one metric.”
Chance of Split Electoral, Popular Vote Very Real
Charlie Cook: “I am now reconciled to the fact that this will be a race to the wire. I am watching Ohio and a handful of other swing states that are right at, or near, the 270-electoral-vote tipping point. In the end, the odds still favor the popular and electoral vote heading in the same direction, but the chances of a split like the one in 2000 are very real, along with the distinct possibility of ambiguity and vote-counting issues once again putting the outcome in question. Ugh.”
Latest National Polls
Here are the latest national polls of the presidential race:
Gallup: Romney 51%, Obama 45%
Hartford Courant/UConn: Obama 48%, Romney 45%
Public Policy Polling: Obama 48%, Romney 47%
Rasmussen: Obama 48%, Romney 48%
RNC Official Arrested for Trashing Registration Forms
A man who was being paid to register voters by the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested after he was seen dumping registration forms into a dumpster, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Colin Small “was working as a supervisor as part of a registration operation in eight swing states financed by the Republican National Committee.”
Though the report says Small “was first hired by Strategic Allied Consulting, a firm that was fired by the party after suspect voter forms surfaced in Florida and other states,” his LinkedIn profile says he’s the RNC’s Grassroots Field Director.
