UP-FRONT GOP DELUSIONS NUGGET!!
On the GOP’s Self-Delusion Syndrome (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"With Obama’s lead in several swing states becoming insurmountable, the right has begun to panic—by denying reality altogether. ... There is no joy in the kingdom of man so great as the joy of seeing bullies and hucksters laid low, and watching people who have arrogantly spent years assuming they were right about the world living to see all those haughty assumptions die before their eyes."
This column is, at times, quite funny -- but the whole thing is very spot-on when looking at the GOP reaction to yesterday's polling.
UP-FRONT TOUGH OBAMA AD NUGGET!!
MAN!! Short ... and devastating!
New Obama Ad Lets Mitt Romney Destroy Himself in his Own Words (Jed Lewison) from Daily Kos
"The toughest ad of the 2012 election comes from the Obama campaign ... and it features nothing but Mitt Romney's own words... The ad will air in Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire."
UP-FRONT RESPONSE-TO-THE-AD NUGGET!!
The Poetic Justice of Romney’s Self-Immolation (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"I’ve been wrong before, and I’ll be wrong again, but I may never have been as wrong as I was when I initially predicted that Mitt Romney’s heinous diatribe against 47 percent of America would have little direct impact on the election. It’s an absolutely crushing blow.... the fact that he is currently running ads trying to make the case that he does care about all of America testifies to the grim position in which Romney finds himself. If you’re trying to clear the threshold of “does this candidate hate me” six weeks before the election, you’re probably not on the verge of closing the sale."
Read Chait's whole column -- he is completely on-the-money with every word!!
Netanyahu’s Iran Blunders (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
"No Israeli prime minister should seek to circumvent the president, bet on his losing an election, and attack him publicly."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/opinion/roger-cohen-Netanyahus-Iran-Blunders.html
Backlash to the Backlash (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"Muslim moderates have been fighting back. While it’s not clear whether the trend can be sustained, it’s certainly worth watching."
Fox News Climate Coverage 93% Wrong, Report Finds (Stephanie Pappas) from Yahoo News
"Primetime coverage of global warming at Fox News is overwhelmingly misleading, according to a new report that finds the same is true of climate change information in the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages. Both outlets are owned by Rupert Murdoch's media company News Corporation. The analysis by the science-policy nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) finds that 93 percent of primetime program discussions of global warming on Fox News are inaccurate, as are 81 percent of Wall Street Journal editorials on the subject."
The Party That Can't Shoot Straight (Robert Kuttner) from the American Prospect
"Obama’s lead keeps widening. It’s worth unpacking why. The most obvious reason, of course, is the sheer clumsiness of Mitt Romney, God’s gift to the Democrats. If a computer had been asked to generate a candidate guaranteed to alienate independents and divide his own base, it could not have done better."
Mitt Romney's 47 Percent Remark Hurts Him In Swing States from the Huffington Post
"Voters have a mostly negative reaction toward the 47-percent comments at a time when the president appears to be widening his lead across swing states. The latest findings are also consistent with other national surveys taken in the days immediately after the video was widely reported, but paint a more troubling picture of the impact those remarks may have had on Romney's standing with independent voters."
Here's the clincher:
Mitt Romney's '47%' Comment Alienated Undecided Voters: Poll from the Los Angeles Times
"Mitt Romney’s semantic misadventure with the “47%” helped alienate some of the narrow band of undecided voters whom the Republican needs to beat President Obama in November. That’s the single strongest sentiment registered this week by previously undecided voters interviewed by the Los Angeles Times. ... “I don’t want the presidential candidates to be average Americans,” he concluded, “but I at least want them to understand what exactly … I am going through so they don’t look like a ... in front of everyone.” Michael used a word to describe Romney we don’t publish at The Times."
Quotes from other interviewees are just as rich as this last one. Check out the whole article! Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos comments on this article HERE.
Sept. 26: Could 2012 Be Like 2008? (Nate Silver) from the New York Times
"There’s no point in putting it gently: Mitt Romney had one of his worst polling days of the year on Wednesday. ... The smart money is on an outcome somewhere in the middle – as it has been all year. But if you can conceive of a Romney comeback – and you should account for that
possibility – you should also allow for the chance that things could get really out of hand, and that Mr. Obama could win in a borderline
landslide."
Five Signs Mitt Romney’s Campaign Is Crumbling from the National Memo
"Reason #5: Inventing Gaffes, Ignoring Policies - ... All he can do is pull the president out of context and hope something sticks. Fortunately for Romney, his base will indulge in anything that makes the president look bad. But the outrage doesn't seem to interest anyone else."
Criticism of Romney's Campaign Grows; Six in 10 Rate His Efforts Negatively from ABC News
"Public criticism of Mitt Romney's race for the White House has risen sharply, with six in 10 Americans expressing a negative opinion of how he's handling his campaign and a majority responding unfavorably to his comments on people who don't pay income taxes."
Mitt Romney: This Year’s Michael Dukakis (Michael Kinsley) from Bloomberg News Service
"If, as seems possible, Mitt Romney is not elected U.S. president on Nov. 6, he will not be the first presidential candidate to run on the issue of competence and then lose because he ran an incompetent campaign. He will not even be the first governor of Massachusetts to do so."
David Corn, Romney-Slayer? (Josh Marshall) from Talking Points Memo
"... I thought the story was “devastating” and probably that rare story where the press actually understates the magnitude of the damage. I still do. ... Democrats painted a picture of Romney as an out-of-touch centi-millionaire, who played every rigged angle of the current system and had some mix of contempt and indifference for the lives of ordinary working and middle class families. Then those 47% comments came along and it turned out that cartoon caricature Mitt Romney was actually real Mitt Romney. I suspect that’s when he definitively lost the race."
I completely agree with Marshall's assessment here. The 47% video has been the big turning point in this campaign. Up to then, sane voters could look at Romney and still take his campaign messages seriously. The video, with it's hidden-camera, mega-buck fund-raiser atmospherics, and an astonishingly candid Romney, has caused significant numbers of sane voters to turn away. No matter what Romney says now, his public utterances will be dismissed as just more inauthentic election year blather. For many sane voters, the video captured the "real Romney." I cannot see how the Romney team can spin their way out of this dilemma.
Mitt Romney Pleads for Voters to ‘Come Through’ for Him in Ohio (David Freedlander) from the Daily Beast
"A second day of damaging polls in the state no Republican has ever clinched the White House without winning turned up the anxiety for the GOP ticket’s bus tour. David Freedlander reports on Romney’s new compassionate side."
Jobs Revision Show that Obama has Created Jobs Overall (Matthew Zeitlin) from the Daily Beast
"Government revises jobs totals, and finds an extra 380,000 at work."
Obama Surges Ahead Among Catholic Voters, Poll from the Religion News Service via the Huffington Post
"President Obama's support among Catholic voters has surged since June, according to a new poll, despite a summer that included the Catholic bishops' religious freedom campaign and the naming of Rep. Paul Ryan, a Catholic, as the GOP's vice-presidential candidate. On June 17, Obama held a slight edge over Mitt Romney among Catholics (49-47 percent), according to the Pew Research Center. Since then, Obama has surged ahead, and now leads 54-39 percent, according to a Pew poll conducted on Sept. 16."
Catholics Flee Romney-Ryan-Dolan (Andrew Sullivan) from the Daily Beast
"No actual Catholic could ever find anything but puerile cruelty in the works of Ayn Rand, or rally to the idea that home-care for the elderly should be sacrificed to reduce tax rates for the super-rich. Paul Ryan believes that the basic principles of Rand can be compatible with Catholicism. American Catholics are just not that dumb or confused about their faith."
Jewish Voters Favor Obama Over Romney By A Huge Margin from USA Today
"I am Jewish, and I care about Israel, but the most important question is jobs and the economy," Finkel, 94, said in an interview in this south Florida community. "I'm going with Obama." For all the efforts by the Romney campaign to court voters like Finkel, Obama's campaign is expressing growing confidence that they have been able to keep Jewish voters."
Conservative Media Warns Readers Not to Listen to 'The Media' (David Frum) from the Daily Beast
"This is pretty funny. The conservative Media Research Center has posted a public letter urging supporters not to listen to non-conservative media. Exposure to diverging views: no telling where that might lead. The risk is high and real that listeners may well find the New York Times more credible than Fox News."
Are the Polls Really Biased for Obama? (Schoen and Tarlov) from the Daily Beast
"That’s what conservatives are saying. Douglas Schoen and Jessica Tarlov weigh the evidence."
Friendly Reminder: The Polls Are Usually Right (Nate Cohn) from the New Republic
"With Romney trailing by a clear margin, a frontal assault on the accuracy of polling has begun. Some of the skepticism is understandable, but other elements are brazenly self-serving. I'll be assessing the critiques of the polls over the next few days, but any debate about the accuracy of the polls must start by remembering a central point: The polls are usually pretty good."
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