Last Call

My snap score on this?  10 questions, 9-1 Obama.  And that's giving Mitt Romney generous half-point splits on the first question (jobs) and the third question (taxes.)  The real Romney loss in this debate came here:



Romney crashed in several cases, but none so awful as here.

Obama won, hands down.  And this time, I'm actually in the majority.

Today In Village Idiocy, Pre-Debate Edition

While you're waiting for the second debate tonight, remember that 90% of the problem is people like CNN's Julian Zelizer asking questions like this of the 2012 election:

"Do facts matter?"

With the presidential and vice presidential debates fully under way, and both parties claiming that their opponents are liars, websites and news shows are inundated with experts and reporters who inform voters about whether candidates are making claims that have little basis in fact.

Like the card game "B.S," in which players call fellow players when they lie about what card has been put into the collective pile, the fact-checkers shout out to Americans when they find that politicians are injecting falsehood into the news cycle.

But it is not clear what impact the fact checkers are having on the public at large or, nearly as important, on the politicians. They keep laying out the facts and the politicians keep stretching the truth. There is little evidence that the public is outraged by any of the revelations nor that it has any real influence on how the politicians conduct themselves, other than to provide more campaign fodder for attacks on their opponents.

Shorter answer:  no.  What we tell you matters here at CNN, matters.  And we say facts don't mean sheeeeeeeeeeeeit. He ends thusly:

The public lives in a world where it seems impossible to know what is fact and what is partisan fiction. Fact checkers, many of whom have legitimate and virtuous objectives to get Americans to really understand the choices before them, have trouble gaining much traction. When one of the players calls "B.S." during the political cycle, people might be listening, but it's not clear that there are lasting consequences.

Facts are hard.  Critical thought is hard.  The Village makes it easy.  We'll tell you what you should believe, right after this break.

Breaking Biden

Joe Biden couldn't have actually won the debate against Paul Ryan.  Joe must be insane or something.

No, really.  Joe Biden is insane, according to FOX.



Of course, that's ridiculous.  The notion that Biden's not fully in control of his mental faculties is, well, crazy.  You see, Joe Biden's really a coke fiend, according to FOX.



No, the notion that Joe Biden's high as an 80's Wall Street boiler room stock jockey is nuts.  He's really a Kenyan anti-colonialist.

Right?

Failed Joke Causes Airport Evacuation

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A man who prompted an evacuation of the main terminal at Anchorage's largest airport by making comments about a bomb, which he later said were jokes, has been charged with making terroristic threats and disorderly conduct.

Peter Friesema was arrested early Sunday by police at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

Airport manager John Parrott says Friesema was jailed at the Anchorage Correctional Complex with bail set at $5,000.

There are some things one should know not to joke about.  This is one of them.  It's hard to feel sorry for someone so thick, because "it was a joke" is a standard from the lying handbook.

Dude.  Be glad it wasn't worse, and next time use your brain.

Girl Reports Suspected Predator On School Premises, Told To Just Deal With It

ACLU Nebraska is calling for action from Crete High School after the school allegedly took no action to help a student that reported a problem with a school volunteer.

The school permitted a 52-year-old man, currently awaiting trial for first degree sexual assault of a Crete High School student, to volunteer at the school. It was at the school when his alleged victim saw him.

She says she immediately reported the problem to the school's principal, Tim Conway. She says the principal told her she would just have to deal with it.

"ACLU Nebraska is extremely concerned that a school administrator would be so insensitive to the concerns of a young woman reporting a crime," said ACLU Nebraska Legal Director Amy Miller. "Crete failed to help this young woman. When she reported to the principal, the law says the school should have immediately taken her report seriously and helped her."

Their inaction is beyond explanation, but for me their dismissal is the real issue.  This man has not been cleared for sexually assaulting a student at that school.  While I understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty I think safety of the students should be the priority.  That means until cleared a suspected predator is forbidden from access to students.  How in the world could someone possibly make an argument against that?  I tried to play devil's advocate and I got nothing.

The ACLU is being fair, just asking for a policy change so that alerts of this nature would be given a certain amount of attention.  This girl was surely uncomfortable being involved, and when she did the right thing the person she was taught to trust blew her off.  This is inexcusable.  She deserves an apology, and the policy change would make sense.  Stop being stupid and do it already, and teach how to correct and move on.

Kids have to be safe at school.  This is a no-brainer.

Whoopi Goldberg Rearing Her Head In Mitt's Airspace

CNN media critic Howard Kurtz asks the obvious question:  How can Mitt Romney stand up to foreign leaders, Tea Party nutjobs, or anyone for that matter if he's too scared to go on The View?

After Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign announced on Monday that the candidate had canceled his Thursday appearance on ABC’s The View, media critic Howard Kurtz wondered how the former Massachusetts governor could stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin if he couldn’t even take questions from Whoopi Goldberg.

“Governor Romney was supposed to be on with us this Thursday with Ann Romney,” co-host Barbara Walters explained on Monday’s show. “We were looking forward to it. Over the weekend, his people said that he had scheduling problems and would not be coming on with us, nor at this point did he feel that he could reschedule.”

“Apparently the idea of sitting next to Whoopi Goldberg was just a little too intimidating,” Kurtz told Daily Download founder Lauren Ashburn. “Doesn’t this make Romney look like he’s avoiding a confrontation with the ladies of The View? He said he would go.”

In a secretly-recorded video released by Mother Jones last month, Romney told wealthy donors that going on The View was a “high-risk” proposition because the “sharp-tongued” co-hosts were not conservative enough. 

Defending Mitt's views (whatever they are this week) against Whoopi and Barbara is just too hard.  Not at all like being President and stuff.  Somebody might ask Mitt a question, and we can't have that.  Just shut up and give the quarter-billionaire his Presidency, you lackwit serfs.

Skewed, Screwed, And Tattooed

If we're to believe the likely voter model for the latest USA/Today Gallup poll, then Mitt Romney will win in a cakewalk.

Mitt Romney leads President Obama by four percentage points among likely voters in the nation's top battlegrounds, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, and he has growing enthusiasm among women to thank.

As the presidential campaign heads into its final weeks, the survey of voters in 12 crucial swing states finds female voters much more engaged in the election and increasingly concerned about the deficit and debt issues that favor Romney. The Republican nominee now ties the president among women who are likely voters, 48%-48%, while he leads by 12 points among men.

If that's true, Obama's dead.  Gone.  Toast.  Tied among women and a 12 point edge among men pretty much equals a Romney win equivalent to Obama's margin over John McCain in 2008.

The Obama camp doesn't buy it for a second.

"In the last election, Gallup's registered voter model — not its likely voter model — was a much more accurate predictor, with their likely model missing the mark in 2010 by 9 points right before the election," Benenson says. "That explains why Gallup's results are way out of line with a dozen recent swing state polls that show the president with a double-digit lead among women."

Among all registered voters in the survey, Obama leads by nine points among women and by two points overall, 49%-47%. 

So, Gallup's likely voter model is skewed toward Mitt Romney here by seven to nine points overall, which is the equivalent of 14-18 points with women voters.  If you believe that's how this election will play out, then yes, he'll win and win handily.

But that's ignoring the fact that Gallup's likely voter model was a disaster 2 years ago.  It looks to be equally disastrous now.

StupidiNews!

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is taking responsibility for State Department security lapses in Libya.
• A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds the Romney/Ryan Medicare/Medicaid plan would hurt Florida seniors the most.
• The second Presidential debate gets underway this evening at Hofstra University in New York in a town hall style format.
• China looks to fall from its perch as the US's chief creditor, as shrinking foreign demand for US debt makes way for Japan.
• Apple has hired Amazon.com's A9 search engine creator to tutor the iPhone's "personal digital assistant" Siri.