Nice Guys Finish First

...but not always in debates.  President Obama talked to radio host Tom Joyner today and assured listeners that he's coming out swinging next week:

Well, two things. I mean, you know, the debate, I think it’s fair to say I was just too polite, because, you know, it’s hard to sometimes just keep on saying and what you’re saying isn’t true. It gets repetitive. But, you know, the good news is, is that’s just the first one. Governor Romney put forward a whole bunch of stuff that either involved him running away from positions that he had taken, or doubling down on things like Medicare vouchers that are going to hurt him long term.

…And, you know, I think it’s fair to say that we will see a little more activity at the next one. 

Well now.  That sounds like the President Obama we're used to seeing.  Clearly inundating America with outright bullcrap was an effective campaign strategy, and a gamble that paid off for the Romney campaign.  But the downside is, that only works once.  Now the gloves come off.

Thursday's Biden/Ryan showdown should be just as awesome.

Ladies, We Need To Have A Talk

Greg Sargent says Dem pollster Stan Greenberg has pinned down where President Obama took the damage from last week's debate:  among single women who bought Mitt Romney's premise, and didn't buy the President's performance at all.

Greenberg told me in an interview that his new research persuaded him that Mitt Romney beat Obama in the debate for a simple reason. Unmarried women — a critical piece of Obama’s coalition — did not hear Obama telling him how they would make their lives better. By contrast, they did hear Romney telling them he’d improve their lives.

Greenberg says the research also indicates a clear route to winning reelection, however. “This is a major turning point and an opportunity for the president,” he says.

Greenberg did dial sessions among Colorado swing voters during the debate, and also conducted post-debate questionnaires. He found that unmarried women didn’t respond to Obama’s vow to improve the economy — which they found lacking in a clear overarching message.

“They heard nothing there that was relevant to them,” Greenberg says. “They were not hearing about issues or problems or things that Obama would do that affect their lives.”

Romney, however, succeeded in communicating with unmarried women, Greenberg says, by prefacing talk of his five point plan with an extended discussion of the economic strain of middle-income Americans — which Greenberg calls an effective “set up that gave his details meaning.”

I've got to say that gosh, this explains Mitt's immediate flip-flop on abortion, now doesn't it? 

The Obama administration is already on the case.

President Obama's reelection campaign isn't buying Mitt Romney's contention that new restrictions on abortion aren't part of his legislative agenda.

“It’s troubling that Mitt Romney is so willing to play politics with such important issues. But we know the truth about where he stands on a woman’s right to choose – he’s said he’d be delighted to sign a bill banning all abortions, and called Roe v. Wade ‘one of the darkest moments in Supreme Court history’ while pledging to appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn it," said Lis Smith, a campaign spokesperson for Obama. "Women simply can’t trust him."

This is the message President Obama needs to hammer home in next week's town hall debate, and I'm looking forward to him doing just that.

Black Magic, Black Heart

Police in Texas arrested a man who allegedly lured a teenage girl into his home under the pretense he knew black magic and then sexually assaulted her.

Mario Munoz-Verudes, 60, was booked into the Harris County Jail on Saturday on rape charges.

The alleged sexual assault happened on Sept. 23. Investigators said Munoz-Verdures invited a 17-year-old church member into his home, claiming he could rid her of bad spirits.

He then allegedly raped the teen and “threatened to put a curse on her if she told anyone,” according to court records obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

Here's hoping justice comes through in this case.  Though I hope the girl learned a valuable lesson in making decisions.  Just because someone claims to be holy and righteous doesn't mean they are.  In fact, in most cases, the more they claim it the less likely it is to be true.  It's very sad that she learned it the hard way, but maybe her story will help prevent this from happening to another young girl.

It takes a certain kind of evil to exploit the inherent gullibility of the young.

Hitchcock Story Retold

An upcoming movie about Alfred Hitchcock has Jessica Biel and Scarlett Johansson looking very much like two of his leading ladies, Vera Miles and Janet Leigh.

The full story is exciting for Hitchcock fans, because it advertises a deeper look at his personality.  I like some of his movies but I am not a student of cinema in general, so I am more interested in the overall story.

Check out ScarJo playing Janet Leigh.  Despite Leigh's ridiculously petite frame, the resemblance is eerie.  It would be awesome to hear from Jamie Lee Curtis, an actress who also knows her mother's body language and mannerisms.  She would be able to offer a point of view that covered all angles of Johansson's portrayal of her famous mother.  The one difference I can see is Scarlett has her Black Widow expression on, and Janet Leigh never came across as intimidating to me.  She was sweet, kind and gentle, where Scarlett Johansson is a good person who can snap your neck, and it comes through.

Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh in Hitchcock (left), and the real Leigh in Psycho

SUZANNE TENNER; EVERETT

Chair, Noose, And Two Smoking Watermelons

The ni-CLANG! moment edges closer, even in California.

Some residents are calling a symbolic political display erected by a Morgan Hill homeowner that features two watermelons and a noose racist and even vaguely threatening towards President Obama.

Many people driving along Foothill Avenue in Morgan Hill gawked at the display on a fence post in front of a home.

Just feet from a "Mitt Romney for President"  sign sat a chair, empty except for two watermelons.

Draped along the side of the chair was a rope tied into a noose with a sign set up to look like a teleprompter that read "Go back to Kenya."

The apparent reference to President Obama made some people passing by, including Republicans, uneasy.

"We shouldn't be threatening with a noose and a watermelon," said San Martin resident Ben Gomez. "I believe that's a little over the top. I like the chair and the teleprompter. I mean, they're just copying Clint Eastwood, so I can't blame them on that one. But the noose goes a little over the edge."

You think?  But it's okay, somebody called Bush bad names once, so all this is justified and FIRST AMENDMENT and DON'T TREAD ON ME.  Awesome.

I'd say I'm getting sick of this, but it's turning into a daily occurrence at this point, just like it did in 2008.  We're just not seeing all of the incidents publicly, I assure you.  The ones that are public like this piece of work here, well, the message is rather clear, isn't it?

You think the GOP is going to lift a finger to discourage this?  If so, I've got some beachfront property in Montana to sell you.

Mitt: Mister Mendacity

Mitt Romney's flip-flop-flip attack strikes again, this time on abortion.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in a Tuesday interview with an Iowa newspaper that he has no abortion-related legislation on his platform - although as president, he would reinstate through administrative means a policy banning nongovernmental organizations from using federal funds to provide abortions.

"There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda," Romney said in an interview with The Des Moines Register.

That of course is not what Mitt's said in the past.  He's trying to have it both ways...even on the same day.

After the remarks were published online Tuesday, Romney’s campaign spokeswoman reiterated that he is opposed to abortion.

"Mitt Romney is proudly pro-life, and he will be a pro-life president," Andrea Saul said in a statement.

Earlier Tuesday, the conservative site National Review Online published a different statement from Saul: “Governor Romney would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life.”

Obama's campaign said Romney's "statement contradicts his pledge to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade," the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming a woman's right to have an abortion.

Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement, that "women simply can't trust (Romney)."

So which is it, Mitt?  Whatever position gets you the most votes that week?  This guy has all the convictions of a sponge.  But he won the debate, right?  That's all that matters to voters, right?

StupidiNews!

• Toyota has issued a global recall for more than 7.4 million cars and trucks, including nearly 2.5 million in the US, for a power window problem that could be a potential fire hazard.
• Palestinian opinion is split over a territory-wide minimum wage that critics say is far too low, but proponents say is necessary to protect workers.
• Convicted serial child molester Jerry Sandusky will spend at least the next 30 years in prison as the 68-year old was sentenced on Tuesday by a Pennsylvania judge.
• The IMF has raised its estimates of European bank selloffs to $4.5 trillion in assets unless they EU can get things together by next year.
• The first Windows 8 mobile phones will go on sale in under two weeks, despite Microsoft having yet to debut the entire new OS.

Last Call

So, when billionaire CEOs threaten to fire their employees if President Obama gets elected, do we finally get to call it class warfare?

David Siegel is the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, a huge national timeshare company and one of the largest resort developers in the world. In 2007 he was a billionaire, although he may be only a hundred-millionaire now. He and his wife Jackie were the subjects of the recent documentary "The Queen of Versailles," about their ongoing quest to build the largest house in America, a 90,000 square foot monument to excess. And yesterday, David Siegel sent an email to all of his thousands of employees, in which he—in a veiled way—insinuated that they would be fired of Barack Obama is reelected.

Here's the letter in part:

So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.

So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn't? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of protecting and saving your job. While the media wants to tell you to believe the "1 percenters" are bad, I'm telling you they are not. They create most of the jobs. If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the "1%"; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country.

You see, I can no longer support a system that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, so will your opportunities. If that happens, you can find me in the Caribbean sitting on the beach, under a palm tree, retired, and with no employees to worry about.

And yes, Siegel has confirmed the e-mail.

Shortly after we posted this letter, we found out, thanks to multiple readers, that it bore suspicious resemblances to a popular chain letter that was circulated just before the 2008 elections. Well, we just got off the phone with David Siegel, who told us the letter below is real, and that it was sent out to all of his employees yesterday. "I did use the letter that had circulated before as a guideline, but I changed it [to fit my circumstances]," he told us. "It speaks the truth and it gives [employees] something to think about when they go to the polls." He also said that its threats of possible layoffs are real, based on his assessment of the political and economic climate. He added that he "hasn't had any negative feedback" on the letter.

So once again, Siegel is proud to say that he freely admits threatening his employees' jobs if President Obama is re-elected, and the Democrats go through with their promise to raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy.

Boy, this guy's a real patriot, isn't he.  "Give me my tax cut, or I help destroy the economy". 

What are you going to do about it, America?

Early Voting Bird Gets The Worms

Ohio's GOP Secretary of State Jon Husted has decided that if "those people" get to vote early, then nobody gets to vote early.

Ohio’s secretary of state is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block a pair of rulings that will open the polls for all voters on the three days prior to the Nov. 6 election, a time when 105,000 Ohioans cast ballots four years ago.

The election-year emergency appeal could prompt the high court to revisit its Bush vs. Gore ruling of 2000, which said voting standards must be equal across the state.

Now things get pretty serious on this front.  SCOTUS will have to act rather quickly here either way, and Husted figures he's going to win regardless.

“This is an unprecedented intrusion by the federal courts into how states run elections and because of its impact on all 50 states as to who and how elections will be run in America, we are asking the Supreme Court to step in and allow Ohioans to run Ohio elections,” Husted said. “As a swing state, we in Ohio expected to be held to a high standard,” adding the state is offering early voting on all the weekdays leading up to final Friday before election day.

Husted said if his appeal to the Supreme Court fails, he will craft “a directive to set uniform hours” for early voting in Ohio’s 88 counties.

Either way, expect Ohio's early voting hours to be sharply curtailed, if not all but eliminated by Husted's directive.  If early voting means a higher turnout for urban, minority, and poor voters, then by God, Ohio will put an end to that once and for all.

Pot, Meet Kettle

Mitt Romney's son Josh has a few words for the President, and none of them are kind.

Josh Romney, one of Mitt Romney's sons, told a pointed joke Tuesday about President Obama's debate performance, while warming up the crowd for his father at a campaign rally in Van Meter, Iowa.

"I don't know if you guys saw the debate last week," Josh Romney said, as the crowd cheered and applauded. "I take a lot of pride in that, because — I don't know if you noticed, but I was — me and my brothers were responsible for my dad doing so well. We were the ones, as kids, that kept saying the same thing over and over. And we'd say the same lie over and over. And my dad learned then, not to believe it. While we didn't go to any of the formal debate preparation, we did the real hard stuff.

"So as a father, he learned how to debate an obstinate child. We had a lot of fun, we had a lot of fun watching the debate."

That's some funny stuff.  Team Romney certainly is feeling their oats this week.   Perhaps one should best avoid referring to the President as a child, just a parenting tip there.  Imani over at ABLC has some words for Josh, too.

None of them are kind, either.

Hey Josh — Your dear pappy’s own party knows that he’s lying and flip flopping all over the place like a fish out of water, so you might want to stop cracking stupid ass jokes and tell your dad to find a position and stick with it.

Like I said, the sense of entitlement coming off the entire Romney clan, the feeling of "Why haven't you yokels awarded us the White House already?" is pretty nauseating.  And yet, this is what Mitt the father has taught Josh the son.

Mitt will make a heck of a President, right?

Campus Fatality May Have Been Avoidable

Classmates and friends are questioning why a police officer fatally shot a University of South Alabama freshman who was naked and had been banging on a window at police headquarters.

Campus officials didn't give any indication that Gil Collar, 18, of Wetumpka had a weapon when he was shot. A university spokesman said he was fatally wounded about 1:30 a.m. Saturday after an officer heard a bang on a window and went outside to investigate.

A statement issued by university spokesman Keith Ayers said Collar, who wrestled at Wetumpka High School before enrolling at South Alabama, assumed a "fighting stance" and chased an officer before being shot. The officer tried to retreat numerous times to defuse the situation before opening fire, the school said.

But sophomore Tyler Kendrick said campus authorities haven't provided any satisfying answers about why Collar was killed.

"Really, it just upsets me that there's no other way to apprehend an unarmed student rather than shooting him. I don't understand that," Kendrick said.

I don't understand, either.  Police are resorting to kill shots before trying non-lethal measures.  In this case I do understand why it was unnerving for the officer.  But before he went outside, one would think a trained officer would have armed himself with a variety of tools.

This kid could have been on bath salts, or he may have just gotten really drunk for the first time.  It's hard to know until the autopsy report is complete, but it doesn't look like anything besides retreating was done before killing a young man.

Expect updates as they come. There is plenty of room for us to learn what caused this tragedy and maybe how to avoid future ones.

Color Me Skeptical

Whitney Houston's mother Cissy is deathly afraid Bobbi Kristina will die like just the singer -- in a haze of drugs and other bad influences -- which is why she wants to withhold Bobbi's multi-million-dollar inheritance, sources tell TMZ.

Sources close to Cissy tell us, Cissy feels Bobbi is currently surrounded by numerous negative influences -- including her boyfriend Nick Gordon and father Bobby Brown -- who will drain Bobbi's fortune given half the chance.

We're told Cissy also feels 19-year-old Bobbi is still extremely impressionable right now -- and if left unchecked with millions of dollars, Bobbi could end up going off the rails ... eventually dying just like Whitney.

According to sources, Cissy wants to wait until Bobbi has matured significantly more before she gets her money ... an estate estimated at $20 million ... though it's unclear how long she wants her to wait.

As for allegations Cissy is trying to withhold Bobbi's fortune to hoard the money for herself -- Cissy is telling friends that's total BS ... that's it's about protecting her family.

It makes sense to worry about Bobbi Kristina's mental health.  She should be in counseling (I only assume she is) and I can even see the court asking for an independent assessment to make sure she is capable of handling the facts of her mother's death and making reasonable choices.  But in the end, this was Whitney's final wishes and they should be carried out.  There's barely a point in making a will or end of life decision now, as families seem to enjoy dragging out in court what has been legally signed, sealed and approved.

As for withholding it to keep her control of both Bobbi Kristina and the money being purely for the family good... yeah, right.  Pardon me if I seem skeptical, but I've seen this play out several times in this crazy world and that has never been true yet.

Lyin Ryan, Cryin' Foul

Can you imagine the crapstorm President Obama would get if he walked out of an interview like Paul Ryan did on Monday?

Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck tells BuzzFeed: “The reporter knew he was already well over the allotted time for the interview when he decided to ask a weird question relating gun violence to tax cuts. Ryan responded as anyone would in such a strange situation. When you do nearly 200 interviews in a couple months, eventually you’re going to see a local reporter embarrass himself.” 

Sure.  And if Paul Ryan can't handle a local reporter, how can he handle Joe Biden on Thursday, or the job of Vice-President?

Once again, if President Obama had done this, it would be over for the Obama campaign.  "Thin-skinned.  Arrogant.  Uppity.  Ni-CLANG."

But it's perfectly okay for Paul Ryan to do it.

Best Possible Romney Scenario Is Still Tied

It looks like Monday's Pew Research poll was conducted at just the right time to maximize Mitt Romney's debate bounce, and it puts him in a statistically significant lead over President Obama.

Republican nominee Mitt Romney leads President Barack Obama by 4 percentage points among likely voters in a Pew Research Center poll that shows the Republican challenger getting a bounce from last week’s debate.

The survey taken Oct. 4-7, following the Oct. 3 presidential debate in Denver, gave the former Massachusetts governor 49 percent among likely voters and Obama 45 percent. Among registered voters, 66 percent said Romney won the debate and 20 percent said Obama did.

A Pew poll of likely voters taken Sept. 12-16 gave Obama a 51 percent to 43 percent lead, the widest margin of any nominee since Bill Clinton in 1996.

The latest Pew poll showed Romney even with Obama among women likely voters at 47 percent apiece, while leading among men, 51 percent to 43 percent. Last month, Obama held an 18- point edge among women, 56 percent to 38 percent, and trailed by 2 points among men, with 48 percent backing Romney and 46 supporting the president. Independent likely voters backed Romney, 46 percent to 42 percent; they split 45 percent to 44 percent for Obama in September. 

The crosstabs -- especially Mitt Romney erasing the President's lead among women -- is pretty sobering news.  Pew is not Rasmussen or a GOP outfit.  The poll also shows a big jump in Republicans among survey participants:

Among the likely voters, 36 percent identified as Republican, 31 percent as Democratic and 30 percent as independent. The September poll was 39 percent Democratic and 29 percent Republican. 

And finally, the crosstabs show that Romney now has higher favorability numbers than the President.

The edge in favorability ratings that Barack Obama had enjoyed throughout the campaign has now been erased, as voters’ impressions of Romney have continued to improve while Obama’s ratings have returned to levels seen earlier in the summer. Currently, voters are about evenly divided in their overall opinions of both Obama (49% favorable, 48% unfavorable) and Romney (50% favorable, 46% unfavorable).

So it depends on what you think of Pew's likely voter model.  It's one that heavily favors the GOP in turnout, and gives Romney the win at the national level, at least this week.  It's not something that should be ignored.  It's also not something I completely buy, but we'll see what all of the other polls say.

I'd like to see how the state polls are shaking out however.  A 12 point turnaround, if lasting and stable, will very quickly be reflected in equally big swings in the state polling.  So far that's not happening yet.

Here's the thing however.  Look deeper into the crosstabs.



Two-thirds of the people Pew surveyed were over 50.   A third were over 65, and they favor Romney by 17 points.

If you believe that two-thirds of voters will be over 50, then yes, Romney will win easily.  I don't think that will be the case.

Also, check out the racial makeup.



Seems Latino voters were left out of the poll entirely.  Sure, that's representative of the population.  No Latino voters actually vote, you know.

It's up to the President to make the most of these last four weeks...and up to us to vote.

StupidiNews!

• Mexican officials say that arrested Zetas cartel leader Salvador "The Squirrel" Martinzez is also a suspect in the 2010 killing of a US tourist at Falcon Lake.
• The International Monetary Fund is warning that the "fiscal cliff" US lawmakers face after the election could trigger a global recession if not resolved.
• President Obama was on hand to dedicate a California memorial to labor leader Cesar Chavez in Keene, where Chavez spent the last two decades of his life as an activist.
• Networking giant Cisco has ended its partnership with Chinese firm ZTE after allegations the foreign firm sold technology to Iranian sources.
• This weekend's smooth SpaceX Dragon capsule launch?  One of the rocket's engines came apart.