Last Call

Just for my own edification, here's what the Gallup registered voter poll for President looked like through mid September 2008:





And the 2012 version:

They're pretty damn similar.  By the way, it was about this time 4 years ago that after closing the gap, Obama then blew McCain out of the water and his campaign fell apart:



Candidate Obama was actually behind in early September, and went on to rip McCain up in the debates and win handily.  He was up 13 points among RVs on Oct 31, 2008, but they were tied as late as September 22 of that year.

Starting to look like that may be the case again.   The first debate was September 26 then, and it just got worse for McCain from there.  I'm betting we'll see a similar pattern this year.

Podcast Versus The Stupid!

Episode 11, Shoulda Tipped The Waiter, is up.  Bon and I talk about Mitt Romney's latest crash and burn from the secret tape from his May Florida fundraiser and what it means to be part of the 47%.

Listen to internet radio with Zandar Versus The Stupid on Blog Talk Radio

As always, you can check us out on iTunes or on the episode archive page.

Or, download the mp3 or Windows Media Player audio.

Always tip your waiters, folks.

Paul, A Little Presidenting Music If You Would

President Obama was on the Late Show with Dave Letterman on Tuesday, talking about his campaign and of course, Mitt Romney's really awful week.  Here's the video, courtesy of Raw Story.

Barack Obama warned Tuesday his Republican foe Mitt Romney was “writing off a big chunk of the country” following his remark that 47 percent of Americans were “victims” and therefore backed the president.

Obama offered his first response to Romney’s remarks, made in a secretly recorded meeting with rich donors, at a “Late Show with David Letterman” taping in New York on Tuesday, 50 days before the presidential election.

“One of the things I learned as president is you represent the entire country. If you want to be president, you have to work for everyone,” Obama said.

“What people want to know though is you’re not writing off a big chunk of the country because the way our democracy works … this is a big country.

“When I won in 2008, 47 percent of the American people voted for John McCain,” Obama said.

“They didn’t vote for me and what I said on election night was: ?Even though you didn’t vote for me, I hear your voices, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to be your president.’”

“There are not a lot of people out there who think they’re victims,” Obama said.

“There are not a lot of people who think they’re entitled to something.”

It was a pretty good appearance by the President, a good reminder that he's a father and husband as well as President of the United States.  Oh, and he got in a couple of good digs, give it a watch.

Pictures Say More Than Words Ever Could

Go ahead.  Click here and look at twenty-two pictures that tell an amazing story.  While you watch, keep in mind that Romney didn't consider this guy important enough to thank.  People like this brave man didn't rate a side mention on his laundry list.

He's also ready to cut his pay and benefits, even though Romney has never sacrificed a damn thing for this country.

Please look, and I hope you are as touched as I was.  I have no way to verify the photos, but if they are somehow retouched, this story has played out enough times that we know it happens.  Far too often.

Hero Kid Stops Kidnapping

QUESNEL, B.C. - A quick-thinking teenaged girl stopped an elderly woman from trying to abduct a seven-year-old boy in British Columbia's Cariboo region, say police.

RCMP Const. Krista Vrolyk said the boy was with other youth and a parent in Spirit Square in the downtown core of Quesnel, 672 kilometres north of Vancouver, when the incident occurred just before 10 p.m. Thursday.

The woman tried to shake the boy's hand, but grabbed him by the wrist and pull him towards a nearby pickup truck, said Vrolyk.

That's when the teenaged girl, the boy's 13-year-old friend, took action.

"It just so happened that the 13-year-old was a little bit closer and kind of quick to act," said Vrolyk.

She said the girl, who is of slight stature and thin, physically pulled the boy away from the woman.

"This seems to be an isolated incident with this female," she said, adding that police are investigating her motive.

Thanks to that little girl, we'll never know what would have happened.  I admit I'm curious as to what caused this to come about, but I'll trade that for relief any day, every time.

Good for you, kid.  

Strike? Out.

Chicago kids are back in school today as the Chicago Teachers Union has voted to suspend the strike and finish hashing out their deal with Mayor Rahmbo.

Chicago Teachers Union delegates voted on Tuesday to suspend their strike, several delegates said as they departed a meeting of union leaders.

The decision ends a confrontation with Mayor Rahm Emanuel over reform of the third largest U.S. school district.

The strike of 29,000 teachers and support staff at Chicago Public Schools kept 350,000 kindergarten, elementary and high school students out of class for seven school days.

"We are going back. All of our teachers are happy to be going back," said Jay Rehak, an English teacher at Whitney Young high school as he departed the closed meeting.

And all without a word from President Obama, who was politically very wise not to get involved.  Pretty much everyone wins in this scenario in fact except for Rahmbo:  POTUS, teachers, kids, schools, parents...but not the Mayor.  No way.

Rahm in fact looks like a complete ass over this, especially in light of Romney's 47% comments.  We'll see, but he's persona non grata as far as I'm concerned.

What Mitt Really Thinks About Americans, Part 2

It's somewhat less juicy than yesterday's outright dismissal of 47% of the electorate as parasitic moochers, unless you thought that Romney gave a damn about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Today, the role of the 47% will be played by the people of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mother Jones has obtained video of Romney at this intimate dinner and has confirmed its authenticity. The event was held at the home of controversial private equity manager Marc Leder in Boca Raton, Florida, with tickets costing $50,000 a plate. During the freewheeling conversation, a donor asked Romney how the "Palestinian problem" can be solved. Romney immediately launched into a detailed reply, asserting that the Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish." Romney spoke of "the Palestinians" as a united bloc of one mindset, and he said: "I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there's just no way."

Oh, it gets worse.

These are problems—these are very hard to solve, all right? And I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say, "There's just no way." And so what you do is you say, "You move things along the best way you can." You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem. We live with that in China and Taiwan. All right, we have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it. We don't go to war to try and resolve it imminently. On the other hand, I got a call from a former secretary of state. I won't mention which one it was, but this individual said to me, you know, I think there's a prospect for a settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis after the Palestinian elections. I said, "Really?" And, you know, his answer was, "Yes, I think there's some prospect." And I didn't delve into it.

Naah, because delving into it would require decision-making and leadership. Better to kick the ball down field. Ironically, Romney then goes on to attack the President for what he says is a lack of leadership and for kicking the ball down the field on Iran.

The president's foreign policy, in my opinion, is formed in part by a perception he has that his magnetism, and his charm, and his persuasiveness is so compelling that he can sit down with people like Putin and Chávez and Ahmadinejad, and that they'll find that we're such wonderful people that they'll go on with us, and they'll stop doing bad things. And it's an extraordinarily naive perception.

Mr. Kick The Ball Down Field here, Captain Leadership himself, thinks actually talking to people is naive. Wow, here's a guy who just fills me with hope. More specifics here in this video so far on Romney policy than months of his campaign rhetoric, too. He really wasn't kidding when he said specifics of his policy positions would make it harder to negotiate later on. Hats off to you David Corn, and to James Carter IV, the former President's grandson, for putting this together. I hope there's even more. We get to watch Romney implode in real time now.

StupidiNews!

• A joint operation by the US, UK, and Colombia has caught alleged crime boss and drug lord Daniel "El Loco" Barrera in Venezuela.
• Mexican police and army units are combing the border with Texas, looking for 131 convicts in a mass prison break possibly organized by the infamous Zetas drug cartel.
• As final details are worked out over the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, US manufacturers are worried about the possible loss of thousands of jobs.
• Bloomberg News reports 326 billion euros have been withdrawn from banks in the PIGS nations, threatening the stability of the common currency. 
• Millions of Virgin Mobile USA customers could find themselves at risk of brute force crackers as account passwords are limited to just six digits.