News Nuggets 1092

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Mong Kok district of Hong Kong.  From National Geographic.

The Nuggetsman will be involved in moving over the next several days so postings may be spotty -- as they have been earlier this week.  Normal posting will resume next monday at the latest.

Catholics Want More Focus on Poverty than Abortion, Survey Finds from the Chicago Tribune
"Most U.S. Catholics believe the church should focus more on social justice and the obligation to support the poor, even if it means focusing less on issues like abortion, according to a new poll released Monday by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute."

GOP Rep Says Strike On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Would Not Be An Act Of War (Ben Armbruster) from Think Progress
"Rogers said that he believed there are options “short of war” that could prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and, strangely, CNN host Erin Burnett wondered if bombing suspected nuclear weapons facilities would be an option that is “short of war.” While Rogers at first appeared taken aback by Burnett’s odd question, he then went a bit further, saying definitively that such an attack would indeed be “short of war” and the Iranians would see it that way too:..."
This GOP representative is on the House Intelligence Committee.  This guy seems dangerously lacking in a more basic type of intelligence!

How the Right Wing Lost in 2012 (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post 
"The right wing has lost the election of 2012. ... If conservatism were winning, does anyone doubt that Romney would be running as a conservative? Yet unlike Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, Romney is offering an echo, not a choice. His strategy at the end is to try to sneak into the White House on a chorus of me-too’s."

So, Who's Going to Win? (David Gergen) from CNN
" Coming off clear, back-to-back victories in the final two debates, President Obama has now shored up his campaign, and -- given what appears to be a superior ground game -- is again an odds-on favorite to win. ... Obama has proven once more that he is better when behind, in the clutch, looking for a three-point basket. He was too complacent going into the first debate and almost threw away the election."

First Thoughts: Battleground Blitz (Chuck Todd et al.) from MSNBC
"Obama could still lose Ohio and get to 270 electoral votes, and the path is not a nutty path. He does it by winning Wisconsin (a state that hasn't gone GOP since 84), Iowa (a state Gore carried), New Hampshire (a state Kerry carried), and Colorado. That gets him to 272. Sorta stunning that with all of our focus on FL-OH-VA that they all three could get rendered meaningless by the Rodney Dangerfield of the battleground: Colorado. And this is why, despite some national polls showing Romney either tied or slightly ahead, the narrative has never held that Obama is behind - due to all of his different paths to 270."

The Latest View from One Prudential Plaza: Why the Obama Campaign Is (Still) So Confident About Beating Romney (Mark Halperin) from Time Magazine
This item from a right-of-center pundit who has been consistently critical of Obama.  
"It doesn’t well serve either the incumbent or the challenger to sugarcoat the situation by producing poll results that overstate support (as some pollsters are famous for doing). The key differential between the Chicago and Boston methodologies appears to be assumptions about the final makeup of the electorate in the nine battleground contests. If the President’s internal data is correct, he is indeed likely to win, pushing off a floor above 47%..."

OUR ON-THE-MONEY PUNDIT OF THE DAY!!
They Can't Both Be Right: 'Savvy' Experts vs. Polls (James Fallows) from the Atlantic
"But about the state and the trend of the race, at this moment, they are in fundamental disagreement. The "pros" tell us that Romney is catching up, the quants say he is falling behind. "

From another conservative pundit:
Obama's Edge: The Ground Game That Could Put Him Over the Top (Molly Ball) from the Atlantic
"In a close election, the president's sophisticated organization -- which Republicans don't seem to have matched -- could make all the difference."

Richard Mourdock Rape Comment Reveals Stark Divide, Harsh Question For GOP from the Huffington Post
"Republicans scrambled Wednesday to respond to Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's assertion that even pregnancies caused by rape are intended by God, putting a harsh light on an issue that divides the party and has benefitted Democrats nationally and locally."

Romney Surrogate Trump Takes Another Swing at Proving his Party has Gone Completely Off the Rails (Hunter) from Daily Kos
This commentary on The Donald is quite hilarious!
"Trump was deeply engaged in the publicity stunt of pretending he might possibly run for the presidency himself—a pretense that, Lord help us all, a goodly number of Republicans were actually excited about. Because Bachmann, Santorum, Gingrich, Cain and Ron Paul were not nearly crazy enough, or were crazy, but not in the right way, or merely because in the current era Republicans seem to not be able to tell the difference between a political contest and a three-ring-circus filled from bleacher to crowning flag with nothing but clowns."

MIDDLE EAST PHOTO NUGGET!!
Extraordinary Photos Show Millions of Joyful Muslims Descending on Mecca's Grand Mosque for Start of Islam's Annual Haj Pilgrimage from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"These breathtaking pictures show how millions of pilgrims are arriving in Mecca for Islam's annual haj pilgrimage which starts tomorrow, as Saudi authorities warned they will stop any disruptive protests over the conflict in Syria."