Mitt Romney is preparing for his second debate with President Obama “but taking time to tell voters in Ohio that enthusiasm for him is surging both in this critical state and across the country,” the AP reports.

“Obama was hunkering down Saturday in Virginia to go over the game plan for the town-hall debate with Romney. But his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday spoke of an industry that’s critical to Ohio, another battleground state and perhaps the most important to his Republican opponent’s White House hopes.”

They face off on Tuesday night.

Even though recent swing state polling shows President Obama maintaining a lead over Mitt Romney, Nate Silver says the president’s Electoral College advantage is build on a shaky foundation.

“Even if one grants Ohio to Mr. Obama, however, that would not seal victory for him. He would still need to win some other combination of states; his path of least resistance probably flows through Wisconsin, and then either Iowa or Nevada.”

“Iowa, in particular, is a crucial state that has been thinly polled all year. (The FiveThirtyEight model, in fact, calculates that Iowa is slightly more essential to the Electoral College than Florida, despite having many fewer electoral votes.) There has been just one poll of Iowa since the debates, and while it gave Mr. Obama the lead, it was an automated poll that probably does not merit too much weight.”

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), the pro-life lawmaker who recorded a phone conversation urging his mistress to get an abortion, now says in his first public comments that the woman turned out not to be pregnant, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.

A transcript of the phone call shows DesJarlais saying, “You told me you’d have an abortion, and now we’re getting too far along without one.”

He then appeared to blame the woman for becoming pregnant: “You lied to me about something that caused us to be in this situation, and that’s not my fault, that’s yours.

The woman responded: “Well, it’s your fault for sleeping with your patient.”

DesJarlais blamed “a disgruntled, defeated ex-congressman, a vindictive ex-wife, and a desperate Democratic candidate” for dredging up details from his past.

Here are the latest polls from the battleground states:

Colorado: Romney 48%, Obama 47% (Denver Post)

Florida: Romney 49%, Obama 46% (American Research Group)

Florida: Romney 51%, Obama 47% (Rasmussen)

Michigan: Obama 52%, Romney 45% (Rasmussen)

New Hampshire: Romney 50%, Obama 46% (American Research Group)

North Carolina: Obama 46%, Romney 45% (High Point University)

Virginia: Romney 49%, Obama 47% (Rasmussen)

Peter Berg, the writer-director of the Friday Night Lights movie and television series, is not pleased that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has co-opted a phrase from the show for his campaign appearances.

In a letter to the Romney campaign obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, Berg calls the use of “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose” an act of stealing.

Writes Berg: “Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series. The only relevant comparison that I see between your campaign and Friday Night Lights is in the character of Buddy Garrity — who turned his back on American car manufacturers selling imported cars from Japan.”

“Well, I’ve taken a look at both sides of the thing. And it seems to me that evolution takes a tremendous amount of faith. To have all of a sudden all of the different things that have to be lined up, to create something as sophisticated as life, it takes a lot of faith. I don’t see it as even as a matter of science, because I don’t know if you can prove one or the other.”

— Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), from a recording obtained by Think Progress at a Tea Party meeting this week.

Jonathan Chait: “The contrast with Obama lies not merely in their very — very, very — different energy levels. Obama approaches debates with the same intellectual method he uses in his books, his speeches, and his policy discussions. He instinctively tries to find common ground first, trying to work within the framework his opponent has established and acknowledge what he agrees with before delineating his disagreements.”

“Biden does not bother. He simply casts aside his opponent’s frame and works within his own. He did not ignore Ryan’s arguments, but he barreled over them like an enraged truck driver plowing over orange cones, before moving on to his own intellectual turf. Sometimes he barreled so fast his points were wrong or incomprehensible… But it was a highly effective way to handle the smarmy evasions that Ryan predictably served up.”

Associated Press: Love him or hate him, it was all Joe.

John Sides: “Here’s some breaking news: the kind of people who choose to watch a vice-presidential debate instead of baseball or football or a cooking show are not sensitive
souls who curl up into a ball at the first sign of disagreement between
politicians.  People who choose to watch political conflict can deal
with it.  Those who can’t — or just aren’t interested in the first
place — are watching something else.  Research by political scientists Kevin Arceneaux and Martin Johnson shows this.”

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) released a brutal ad featuring a former boss of challenger Richard Carmona (D) saying she once found him angrily pounding on her door in the middle of the night and accusing him of “issues with anger, with ethics, and with women.”

[Read more…]

A bitter congressional race in California “took a bizarre turn” when Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) got into a near-altercation during a forum at a local college, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Video of the event shows the candidates exchanging words and Sherman at one point putting his arm around Berman, saying: “Do you want to get into this?”

“A uniformed officer then came onto the stage and appeared to ask that they move away from each other.”

[Read more…]

First Read: “The pressure is still on Obama in next week’s town hall-style debate in New York. But make no mistake: Biden — by turning his volume to 11 last night — takes some of that pressure off the president. If you’ve followed Obama over the past six years, you know it’s not his style to be overly aggressive. Well, Biden last night both gave Obama a roadmap for how to attack Romney-Ryan (on abortion, tax fairness, foreign policy), and he gave him room to do it in the way he feels most comfortable. The question is: Can he deliver? And can Romney deliver another solid performance? Obama is looking for a Goldilocks’ performance. Obama in Denver was too cold, Biden in Danville might have been too hot, and Obama, the sequel, has to figure out how to be just the right combination of assertive without being condescending.”

“It’s impossible for us to be at 44 in Florida.”

— Obama adviser David Plouffe, quoted by the Tampa Bay Times, on a new Mason-Dixon poll shows Mitt Romney leading in Florida, 51% to 44%.

A CBS instant poll of uncommitted voters found Joe Biden the winner over Paul Ryan in last night’s vice presidential debate, 50% to 31%. A CNN/ORC poll of registered voters saw a closer debate but slightly in favor a Ryan, 48% to 44%.

I thought Biden was the clear winner.

Josh Marshall: “Biden made the whole Democratic argument — on policy and values and he hit Romney really everywhere Democrats wanted him to. He left nothing unsaid. You can agree with those points or not. But this was exceedingly important for recovering the damage from last week’s debate when many Obama supporters simply felt that Obama wasn’t willing or able or something to make the case Democrats around the country are hyped up to make. Why didn’t you say this? Why’d you let him get away with that? Biden said it all. And for Democrats around the country that was extremely important.”

Andrew Sullivan: “Ryan was hampered by an insurmountable problem on the impossible mathematics of the Romney budget. I think his inability to answer that question – how do you pay for it? – has to be the driving question now.”

Dave Weigel: “Reading this transcript is going to be like scanning a David Mamet play. Biden never gave up the momentum he won in the first five minutes — he seems physically unable to let Ryan finish an answer, interrupting him as if he’s livetweeting to correct every factoid he dislikes. Whether or not this Biden performance helps Obama, you could sell bootleg DVDs of it to Dems for $20.”

Peggy Noonan: “In terms of content–the seriousness and strength of one’s positions
and the ability to argue for them–the debate was probably a draw, with
both candidates having strong moments. But in terms of style, Mr. Biden
was so childishly manipulative that it will be surprising if
independents and undecideds liked what they saw.”

Ben Smith: “The Vice Presidential debate appears unlikely to have the effect on the presidential campaign that Barack Obama’s stumbles last week did, and the performances were far more even. Ryan held his own where Obama failed. But Biden’s performance gave Democrats hungry for energy, punch, and emotional connection what they needed to end a week that had veered at times near panic.”

John Fund: “Joe Biden’s biggest fault is that he doesn’t know when to stop talking.
Tonight, he added to that another problem — he doesn’t know when to stop
smirking.”

The vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan was one of the best debates I can remember. It was a great service to all Americans.

Biden had the primary goal of firing up Democrats after President Obama’s lackluster performance last week. He did that and more. He literally responded to every single assertion of Ryan’s and didn’t let a single thing go unchallenged. Democrats have to be very happy.

Biden was especially strong on foreign policy but one of his best moments was taking Ryan to task for criticizing the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package while at the same time asking for stimulus funds for his own congressional district.

Ryan’s goal was to build on Romney’s strong performance last week and continue to reassure undecided voters. In the end, however, he found his toughest opponent wasn’t Biden, it was his own record and the Romney campaign platform. He had trouble playing defense under Biden’s withering attacks. Ryan was exceptionally weak on the proposed Romney tax plan — “not mathematically possible”, according to Biden — while once again refusing to give specifics.

In terms of style, Ryan didn’t take kindly to being interrupted. It was almost as if Biden was coached to interrupt him.

Biden was more prepared, more experienced and the clear winner.

Finally, Martha Raddatz was a wonderfully effective moderator. She continuously pushed for specifics and forced followups to nonsense. She should be commended by both campaigns.