Herman Cain jabbed Mitt Romney while talking to the Gainesville Sun saying that he would have been doing better if he was the Republican presidential nominee, claiming he’d probably have a “substantial lead” on President Obama at this point.
Said Cain: “The reason is quite simple: I have some depth to my ideas.”
Jonathan Chait: “Mitt Romney’s campaign has been notable for its reliance on President Obama’s gaffes. It built its entire convention theme around Obama’s slightly disjointed disquisition about infrastructure (‘You didn’t build that’) and has, at other points, seized gleefully on such lines as ‘the private sector is doing fine’ and ‘our plan worked,’ Joe Biden’s ‘chains’ metaphor, among others.”
“Yesterday, two gaffe-exploitation attempts collided somewhat awkwardly, when Romney had to interrupt his message about Obama’s 1998 gaffe endorsing neoliberal redistribution to seize upon a fresh new gaffe in which Obama said change has to come from outside Washington.”
“Has a presidential campaign been more reliant upon seizing on its opponent’s words (and wrenching them out of context)? This appears to be the hallmark of the Romney 2012 campaign method.”
Eli Lake: “In the days following the killing of the U.S. ambassador and two ex-Navy SEALs, President Obama and top State Department officials portrayed the attack as a spontaneous reaction to an Internet video depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammad as a lascivious brute…”
“Now there is mounting evidence that the White House’s initial portrayal of the attacks as a mere outgrowth of protest was incorrect — or, at the very least, incomplete. The administration’s story itself has recently begun to shift… telling Congress on Wednesday that the attackers may have had links to al Qaeda and Carney characterizing the incident as a ‘terrorist attack.'”
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Here are the today’s swing state polls, updated as needed throughout the day:
Colorado: Obama 48%, Romney 45% (Purple Strategies)
Florida: Romney 48%, Obama 47% (Purple Strategies)
Michigan: Obama 39%, Romney 30% (Michigan State)
North Carolina: Obama 46%, Romney 43% (HPU/Fox)
North Carolina: Obama 48%, Romney 46% (Purple Strategies)
Ohio: Obama 48%, Romney 44% (Purple Strategies)
Pennsylvania: Obama 48%, Romney 47% (Susquehanna)
Virginia: Obama 46%, Romney 43% (Purple Strategies)
Finally, a poll from Arizona suggests it might be a swing state as well.
Arizona: Romney 48%, Obama 45% (Purple Strategies)
Politico: “Mitt Romney was expected to use a billionaire-fueled fundraising juggernaut to crush President Barack Obama’s once vaunted small-donor army. But things haven’t gone according to plan.”
“Headed into the home stretch of the 2012 presidential race, it is Obama who looks to have an edge, thanks to an awakening donor base, aggressive summer spending on ads and ground game, and a Romney hoarding strategy that left him with plenty of cash in the bank, but not much to show for it.”
New York Times: “Mitt Romney entered the final months of the presidential campaign with a cash balance of just $35 million, racing to find new large donors and rally low-dollar contributors in August even while he raised tens of millions of dollars for the Republican Party.”
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign “gave out about $200,000 in bonuses to senior employees just after the Republican National Convention, which ended with the candidate not getting much of a bounce in the polls,” Politico reports.
“Social Security right now is a collectivist system, it’s a welfare transfer system.”
— Rep. Paul Ryan in a 2005 audio recording talking about privatizing the “socialist-based system” of social security — or as he jokingly said he preferred, “personalizing” it.
Jon Karl reports that at one recent Texas fundraiser for Mitt Romney, a donor told the GOP nominee, “I am happy to write a check, but why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in Ohio?”
Nate Silver points out that a simple average of the four national tracking polls put President Obama 3.4 points ahead of Mitt Romney, essentially no different than a week ago, when the same technique gave him a 3.5-point lead.
“It’s at least possible that Mr. Obama’s bounce was fading — but that the attention to Mr. Romney’s ’47 percent’ comments has since given Mr. Obama renewed momentum. It will take a few more days before we can come to any sort of conclusion about this, however, especially since some of the tracking polls use long field periods and have only conducted a fraction of their interviews since Mr. Romney’s remarks were uncovered.”
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is expected to be cleared of charges in an ethics investigation that has spanned three years, Roll Call reports.
The verdict would clear the way for Waters “to pursue the title of top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee as ranking member Barney Frank (D-MA) prepares to retire at the end of this Congress.”
If you want to map out the various Electoral College scenarios, the best interactive map available is 270 to Win for the iPad. Highly recommended.
First Read: “Idaho and South Dakota today are the first states to begin early-in-person voting. Also today, absentee voting begins in Minnesota, West Virginia, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Georgia, Arkansas, Idaho, and Maryland. This brings the total number of states already accepting ballots to 12. Thirteen additional states (South Carolina, New Jersey, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Delaware, Virginia, Louisiana, and Missouri) will begin absentee or early voting on Saturday.”
So by tomorrow, half the country will be casting votes.
Jon Stewart asks Bill Clinton: “So, give any good speeches lately?”
John Avlon points out that “no one who has ever run against Mitt Romney walks away liking the guy.”
“I’ve come to believe this disconnect is rooted in Mitt Romney’s essentially businesslike approach to politics… This businesslike approach to politics also explains Mitt’s willingness to go negative. On the surface, the ‘death star’ approach of burying opponents in an avalanche of negative ads, as Romney did in Iowa and Florida, seems inconsistent with a man of deep morals and religious faith.”
“But if you believe that politics is essentially a dirty business — a necessary evil to get ahead and eventually do good, then you make a mental division: you render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. And so going negative is simply the coin of the realm. Honor in politics is misplaced.”
Peggy Noonan: “It is true that a good debate, especially a good first one, can invigorate a candidate and lead to increased confidence, which can prompt good decisions and sensible statements. There is more than a month between the first debate and the voting: That’s enough time for a healthy spiral to begin.”
“But: The Romney campaign has to get turned around. This week I called it incompetent, but only because I was being polite. I really meant ‘rolling calamity.'”
Ann Romney complained to Radio Iowa about the Republican critics of her husband’s presidential campaign last night.
Said Romney: “Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring. This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.”
New York Daily News: “Nielsen has finished compiling the ratings from all the networks that covered the conventions, right down to C-Span, and a higher percentage of the total TV universe tuned in to Biden than to anyone else. Specifically, Nielsen figures show Biden was watched by 14.7% of the 289.7 million people who live in U.S. television homes. That’s about 43.6 million people.”
In contrast, President Obama was second with 13.7%, or about 39.7 million, while Mitt Romney was third with 12.5%, or 36.2 million.
A new Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney nationally, 50% to 43%.
Key finding: When asked if they were better off than you were four years ago, likely voters responded “almost exactly in thirds: in the poll, 31% say they are better off than four years ago, while 34% say they are worse off and 34% say they are about the same.”
Also important: “Overall, 48% say they believe the country is better off because Obama won in 2008, while 41% say the nation would be in a stronger position today if another candidate had won.”
Meanwhile, a Reason-Rupe/Princeton Survey shows Obama leading 52% to 45%.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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