New York Times: “President Obama’s campaign is working feverishly to restore its momentum after a lackluster debate performance last week, an effort that began with a conference call 10 minutes before the debate even ended and led to new advertisements, a rewritten stump speech, a carefully timed leak and a reversal of months-old strategy.”
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Obama Counterattacks
With Mitt Romney giving a major foreign policy speech today, the Obama campaign puts out a brutal new ad focusing on his summer trip abroad and erratic foreign policy statements.
Romney Remains Vague on Foreign Policy Details
Mitt Romney plans a major foreign policy speech today where he is expected to criticize President Obama by saying that “hope is not a strategy,” the New York Times reports.
“But beyond his critique of Mr. Obama as failing to project American strength abroad, Mr. Romney has yet to fill in many of the details of how he would conduct policy toward the rest of the world, or to resolve deep ideological rifts within the Republican Party and his own foreign policy team. It is a disparate and politely fractious team of advisers that includes warring tribes of neoconservatives, traditional strong-defense conservatives and a band of self-described ‘realists’ who believe there are limits to the degree the United States can impose its will.”
In fact, several Romney advisers say “they have engaged with him so little on issues of national security that they are uncertain what camp he would fall into, and are uncertain themselves about how he would govern.”
However, New York magazine notes that “talking tough even if he doesn’t have the specifics worked out could be an effective strategy, as long as Romney advisers can restrain themselves from venting to reporters for the next month.”
Thompson Forgets How Many Homes He Owns
Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson (R) apparently has a hard time keeping track of how many homes he owns, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.
“Three,” the former governor responded last week at a campaign event. When pressed if there was another one, he answered “No” without hesitation.
“Only later did a correction come from his campaign staff: He actually has one more place he calls home.”
Obama Leads Despite Growing Enthusiasm Problem
A new Politico/George Washington University Tracking Poll shows President Obama just ahead of Mitt Romney nationally among likely voters, 49% to 48%.
Key findings: “The head-to-head numbers have held remarkably steady through the past three weeks, but there’s been a notable shift of intensity from the Democrats to the Republicans since the party conventions over a month ago… Among those extremely likely to vote, Romney actually leads Obama 52% to 46%. That’s up from a 2-point lead last week.”
Most of the survey’s calls were made before Romney’s strong performance at the first presidential debate in Denver.
Quote of the Day
“They’re going to be pouring Jolt Cola down his throat. He’ll have a bayonet in his teeth.”
— GOP strategist Mike Murphy, on Meet the Press, saying Vice President Joe Biden will be in “attack mode” for the vice presidential debate this week.
Military Favors Romney by Large Margin
A new Military Times poll finds the professional core of the U.S. military overwhelmingly favors Mitt Romney over President Obama in the upcoming election, 66% to 26%.
Campaigns Use Social Media to Reach Young Voters
New York Times: “In 2012, it is not enough for candidates to shake some hands, kiss a baby or two and run some TV ads. They also need to be posting funny little animations on the blogging site Tumblr.”
“If the presidential campaigns of 2008 were dipping a toe into social media like Facebook and Twitter, their 2012 versions are well into the deep end. They are taking to fields of online battle that might seem obscure to the non-Internet-obsessed — sharing song playlists on Spotify, adding frosted pumpkin bread recipes to Pinterest and posting the candidates’ moments at home with the children on Instagram.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I can’t always say the same.”
— President Obama, quoted by the AP, noting how celebrities at a campaign fundraiser were able to perform flawlessly night after night while taking a shot at his own lackluster debate showing last week.
Latest Swing State Polls
Here are the latest polls from the battleground states, updated as needed:
Colorado: Obama 47%, Romney 43% (Selzer)
Virginia: Obama 50%, Romney 47% (Public Policy Polling)
Tracking Polls Show Debate Bounce for Romney
Nate Silver: “On average, the four tracking polls showed Mr. Obama with a 3.7 percentage point lead between the convention and the debate… Based on the numbers that the tracking polls published on Sunday, however, Mr. Obama’s lead was down to just 1.7 percentage points on average — a net shift of 2 points toward Mr. Romney since the debate.”
“But that calculation potentially underestimates Mr. Romney’s gains since only about two-thirds of the interviews in these polls were conducted after the debate. If Mr. Romney gained 2 points based on two-thirds of the interviews being conducted after the debate, that would imply a 3-point gain for him based on the post-debate interviews alone.”
Venezuelans Vote in a Landmark Election
New York Times: “Large numbers of Venezuelans turned out to vote on Sunday in a landmark election that could give President Hugo Chávez a new term to extend and deepen his socialist revolution or replace him with a youthful, more moderate challenger, Henrique Capriles Radonski.”
“For the first time since Mr. Chávez took office in 1999, the outcome of a presidential election was in doubt. His long hold on power and his autocratic grip over all branches of government have led some in the opposition to question whether he would accept a defeat.”
Washington Post: “The wild card in the contest between two markedly different men that
began eight months ago is Chavez’s health. The 58-year-old former army
paratrooper, famous for his seemingly boundless energy and his
hours-long speeches, had until the past three months been mostly out of
sight, as doctors here and in Cuba treated him for a cancerous tumor.
Chavez said he is cured, but details of his illness are a state secret.”
Update: The Venezuela electoral council says Chavez won re-election, the AP reports.
Quote of the Day
“I was so excited to see that because I was thinking to myself, finally people are seeing the guy we know. Finally — I mean didn’t you kind of think of Ronald Reagan when you were watching that?”
— Rep. Paul Ryan, quoted by ABC News, on Mitt Romney’s performance in the first presidential debate.
Fundamentals Still Favor Obama
Amy Walter: “Despite earlier predictions by the Romney campaign that they would be competitive in traditionally blue states like Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania, they are putting no serious effort into any of them. Moreover, the Paul Ryan pick gave Romney only a short-lived bounce in Wisconsin. The latest polls in the Badger State show Obama with a healthy advantage in the state. This has left Romney has a very narrow path to 270, and no room for error. If Romney loses Ohio and Wisconsin, he would have no choice but to win almost every single other battleground state to win.”
SNL Nails the First Debate
The Saturday Night Live portrayal of the first presidential debate was dead on.
Fitting the Facts to Your Own Reality
Ben Smith: “More of the 2012 cycle’s descents into fantasyland — the unskewing of polls and BLS paranoia most obvious among them — have featured Republicans than Democrats, prompting some on the left to argue that American conservatives have a particular hostility to reality. And certainly, the conservative movement has long nourished more skepticism of the mainstream media and of some forms of government authority than has the left.”
“But there’s probably a simpler explanation for at least some of this: Mitt Romney has spent most of the year losing, and so the Republicans are the ones feeling compelled to re-imagine the polls. That Democrats share, at least, the impulse became clear Wednesday night when a CNN snap poll showed Romney winning overwhelmingly. The liberal twittersphere erupted with skepticism over a sample that, an easy misread suggested, was tilted toward Southern Whites.”
Warren Keeps Lead in Massachusetts
A new Western New England University poll finds Elizabeth Warren (D) is leading Sen. Scott Brown (R) in their U.S. Senate race by five points, 50% to 45%.
Getting Richer in Washington
A Washington Post investigation finds that, contrary to many popular perceptions, lawmakers don’t get rich by merely being in Congress. Rich people who go to Congress, though, keep getting richer while they’re there.
The report also found that “the wealthiest one-third of lawmakers were largely immune from the Great Recession, taking the fewest financial hits and watching their investments quickly recover and rise to new heights. But more than 20 percent of the members of the current Congress — 121 lawmakers — appeared to be worse off in 2010 than they had been six years earlier, and 24 saw their reported wealth slide into negative territory.”
