UP-FRONT FOREIGN POLICY NUGGET!!
The Foreign Policy Divide (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
A VERY RICH comparison of how Romney (and the GOP) view foreign policy compared to Obama!
"In the name of U.S. domination, America needs to throw its weight around, maintaining or increasing Pentagon budgets, refusing to talk to the Taliban, confronting China, giving Israel a green light to attack Iran, and generally being unabashed about U.S. might. It seems the devastating cost of America’s post-9/11 wars has not dawned on Romney ... Romney’s vision, like Putin’s, is pure nostalgia. It imagines a world that is gone."
Many States Not Prepared for Health-Care Law from the Washington Post
"If a state does not set up an exchange, the federal government will either partner with the state or be the sole operator in that state."
"Sole operator" means something far more akin to medicare or an outright single-payer scheme. Just what those red state obstructionists intend I'm sure!
Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Ruling: Judge Halts Enforcement Of Law For Election from the Associated Press via the Huffington Post
"A judge is postponing Pennsylvania's tough new voter identification requirement, ordering that it not be enforced in the presidential election. Tuesday's ruling comes just five weeks before the election. An appeal is possible. The 6-month-old law requires each voter to show a valid photo ID."
GOP Voter Laws Getting Walloped by the Courts (Jillian Rayfield) from Salon
"Eleven states have blocked voter suppression laws."
Why Obama Is Leading in the Polls (Ronald Brownstein) from the Atlantic
"The president's ad barrage seems to have succeeded in bringing blue-collar women into his coalition -- and boosting his chance at reelection."
Given the quality of the ads (see this one from yesterday), I am not surprised.
Presidential Polls Show Voters Trust Barack Obama To Favor Middle Class (Mark Blumenthal) from the Huffington Post
"Voters remain overwhelmingly pessimistic about a still sluggish economy, yet appear poised to reelect President Barack Obama because of perceptions that he understands their lives better than Republican nominee Mitt Romney and would do more to favor the middle class rather than the very wealthy."
Obama's Right: We Failed Black New Orleans After Katrina (David Frum) from the Daily Beast
"Is it really so outrageous that a black presidential candidate would want to talk about the displacement of black Americans in this way? Maybe a better question is: why isn't the condition of black America an important topic for all presidential candidates of all backgrounds and all races?"
Undecided Voters (Still) Don't Trust Mitt Romney (Hunter) from Daily Kos
This commentary is in response to the Up-Front Nugget we showcased yesterday on how voters simply don't believe the GOP and Romney as much as they do the Dems and Obama.
"So even if Mitt Romney comes out as Mr. Swell Guy in the debates, the kind of guy you'd like to have a hostile takeover of a beer company with, I'm not sure how much that helps him. His problem is that he has no policies that help the people he needs to woo, and that his time for convincing those people that his policies might help them through trickle-down magic has largely come and gone."
Romney Losing Ground with Latinos, Too (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos
"President Barack Obama won Latinos 67-31 in 2008, and it's clear that he'll significantly overperform those numbers. In fact, I once worked out what the 2008 elections might've looked like with an 80-20 Latino split (spoiler: bigger Obama victories plus a really tight Arizona). Given the current trendlines, that 60-point margin is now a very real possibility."
Why Debate is Crucial for Obama, Too (David Gergen) from CNN
"Contrary to much conventional wisdom, Obama may actually be able to bust open this race, sweeping almost every state he won four years ago and rolling up a victory margin of perhaps five points or more."
GOP’s October Surprise? (Craig Unger) from Salon
"“They are so excited about it,” he said. “Over and over again they talked about how it would be just like Jimmy Carter’s failed raid. They feel it is going to give them a last-minute landslide in the election.” The source, however, said he was dubious about the tactic. “To me, it is indicative that they have lost touch with a huge portion of the electorate,” he said."
Idiocracy: Seven in Ten Republicans Believe Wacky Conspiracy Theory that Pollsters Are Intentionally "Skewing" Their Results (Joshua Holland) from Alternet
"It's all about staving off cognitive dissonance."
Paul Ryan: 30 Percent 'Want Welfare State,' 70 Percent 'Want The American Dream' (VIDEO) (Ryan Grim) from the Huffington Post
"Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, share a similarly dim view of a very large portion of Americans, according to previously unreported remarks by Ryan. Both believe that many of their fellow citizens are dependent on government and have no motivation to improve their lives -- but they disagree over the precise number. Romney's estimate, famously, is 47 percent. For Ryan, it's 30 percent."
Mitt Romney Campaign Gets Negative Reviews From Republicans (David Espo) from the Associated Press via the Huffington Post
"On the eve of the first presidential debate, the early autumn Republican reviews are in for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, and they are not pretty. ... In some states, candidates who share the Nov. 6 ballot with the former Massachusetts governor already have taken steps to establish independence from him. Party strategists predict more will follow, perhaps as soon as next week ..."
How Romney Is Blowing It, According To Every Conservative Pundit from Talking Points Memo
"Monday morning quarterbacking is the lifeblood of the political industry. And now that Mitt Romney is struggling to break through in the polls, conservative pundits’ second guessing is louder than ever. The problem for Romney is figuring out which of his backseat drivers know where they’re going and which are just shouting “turn right!” at every intersection."
A Desperate Man in Search of Votes (Stanley Crouch) from the New York Daily News
"Mitt Romney has done his best to pretend that he's a true member of the far right, but it hasn't helped."
Romney Forced to Play Defense (Michael Gerson) from the Washington Post
"First, he must find a way to convince an economically struggling middle-age female voter in Akron, Ohio, that he is concerned in practical ways about her future. Second, and relatedly, he must outline a philosophy of government that isn’t libertarian and frightening. Attacks on redistribution and a theoretical defense of economic freedom will not suffice."
Yes, Mitt Romney Is Getting a Raw Deal From the Press (John Cook) from Gawker
"The press is doing to Romney the same thing it did to John Kerry, and to Al Gore before him: Covering him as a loser. A weird loser. A distant loser, who is "uncomfortable in his own skin" and "failing to connect" with "regular voters." The contempt and pity for him as a candidate is almost palpable, and each moment in the campaign is distorted imperceptibly, as if by magnetism, to reinforce the Romney caricature."
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