News Nuggets 1071

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Catamount area of the Adirondacks.  From National Geographic.

China Shows Off Carrier, but Experts Are Skeptical from the New York Times 
"Beijing put its first aircraft carrier into service Tuesday, a move intended to signal its growing military might. ... [D]espite the triumphant tone of the launching, which was watched by President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, and despite rousing assessments by Chinese military experts about the importance of the carrier, the vessel will be used only for training and testing for the foreseeable future."

OBAMA"S UNITED NATIONS SPEECH
If you haven't seen it -- check it out!!

Some reactions:
A Good Day (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine
"There have been so many dispiriting days during this campaign, but today was not one of them. In fact, it was a fine day of speech-making–two strong foreign policy speeches by President Obama and one by Mitt Romney. "

Why Obama Matters (Andrew Sullivan) from the Daily Beast
"The moments in the speech that identified with the democratic forces in the Middle East, that included them in the victims of Jihadist violence, were the ones that affected me the most - and have the most power."

More bad news for Romney:
Analysis: For Romney, Some Troubling Signs Among Older Voters from Reuters 
"New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points."
"Troubling"?! That's an understatement!

Latino Enthusiasm Bounces Back (Jamelle Bouie) from the American Prospect 
"Hispanics are now more excited for the 2012 election than they were for 2008.  ... Since the Democratic convention, however, all of this has changed. Not only has Obama increased his vote share among Latinos—according to the latest Latino Decisions survey, he leads Mitt Romney, 69 percent to 24 percent, with 7 percent undecided—but Latino enthusiasm has spiked."

Daily Kos Elections Polling Wrap: Republicans Cling to National Polls, Must Ignore Awful State Polls (Steve Singiser) from Daily Kos
"... the polls that really count in a presidential election (state polls) show Mitt Romney in an increasingly perilous position as the clock winds down to just six weeks before Election Day. To wit: Mitt Romney now trails by double digits in two of his must-win states. And that is according to Republican pollsters. Meanwhile, the last four polls in North Carolina, a state most pundits concede to the GOP nominee, have either had Mitt Romney tied or trailing."

Latest 2012 Polls Show Biggest Barack Obama Lead Yet (Mark Blumenthal) from the Huffington Post
"Monday's new polls produced no signs that President Barack Obama's recent polling "bounce" is fading. If anything, the latest surveys indicate that his lead over Republican nominee Mitt Romney may be expanding."

Pollsters Suggest Race Stabilizing in Obama’s Favor (Charlie Cook) from the National Journal
"The presidential race remains remarkably stable, which is good news for President Obama and Democrats and bad news for Mitt Romney and Republicans. ...  a change of the trajectory is exactly what would have to happen for Romney to win; his current one simply doesn’t intersect with Obama’s before Nov. 6."

Republicans to Pollsters: Too Many Democrats In Your Surveys from the Washington Post
"Party composition has become a conservative flashpoint, but pollsters say it reflects reality."

The Trap that has Ensnared Mitt Romney (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"That is putting pressure on Romney to be more specific about why his alternative, such as it is, would spark a faster recovery than is occurring under Obama. But Romney can’t be too much more specific about that alternative, because it risks reminding voters of the degree to which his policies resemble those of the aforementioned George W. Bush, under whom the meltdown happened in the first place."

The Sargent Theorem and Romney’s Troubles (E.J. Dionne Jr.) from the Washington Post
"The Romney team’s driving assumption remains that, once voters come to their senses about the depth of Obama’s failure, they will opt for the alternative without being too picky about the specifics he is offering.” In fact, as Greg has argued, voters take “a more nuanced and longer view of the situation” and “appear willing to factor the situation Obama inherited into their thinking.”"

Conservatives to Mitt: We Never Liked You Anyway (Paul Waldman) from Salon 
"As the Romney campaign falls apart in slow motion, the right begins preparing for the post-election recriminations."
AH! That's the ticket!  Why wait until after the elections to begin the post-mortems?  This is a good use of their time!

MO-SEN: Dems Release The Hounds As Deadline For Akin To Drop Out Expires from Talking Points Memo
"The McCaskill campaign confirmed to TPM that the ad began airing statewide Monday night. Immediately following Akin’s press conference, liberal super PAC American Bridge released a video and memo documenting the “top ten crazy Akin moments.”"

DOG RESCUE NUGGET!!
Another video of Eldad Hagar and Hope for Paws rescuing two abandoned dogs in a park in LA.