In an alternate reality, this would be Mitt Romney’s first web presence as President-Elect. He prepared a transition site in preparation for victory, and it was live for a brief period of time before it was clear he’d lost the election. Big ups to Taegan Goddard for grabbing screenshots before the site was toast. source
Michael Bloomberg endorses Obama: Shortly after delivering some extremely harsh criticism of President Obama in The Atlantic this month, the Mayor of New York has endorsed Obama for reelection, attributing much of his decision to Obama’s leadership on, of all things, climate change. “Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks,” Bloomberg wrote in his endorsement. He had nice words for Mitt Romney, but criticized him for reversing otherwise “sensible positions” on a variety of issues. “If the 1994 or 2003 version of Mitt Romney were running for president, I may well have voted for him,” said Bloomberg. (Photo credit: AP) source
To be brutal, a certain amount of bad weather on election day helps conservatives in every democracy. In crude terms, car-driving conservative retirees still turn out in driving rain, when bus-taking lower-income workers just back from a night shift are more likely to give rain-soaked polls a miss.The Economist, speculating on what effect—if any—Hurricane Sandy might have on the outcome of the election. “School closures are a particular problem for low-income families or single mothers scrambling to find childcare,” the columnist adds, and this could further surpress Democratic turnout. However, there’s also the possibility that Sandy could help Obama’s chances. The theory here is that the news coverage devoted to the storm will prevent any serious change in the media narrative of the race from taking hold, and because Obama is still the favorite for reelection, this could end up “freezing the election campaign, and Mr Romney’s perceived momentum, in place.” In truth, it’s anyone’s guess as to what effect Sandy will have on the polls. Thankfully, though, the storm is expected to clear up by November 6th, so it may ultimately be a moot point. —Seth @ ShortFormBlog (via election)
Or how Obama wins without Ohio or Florida? Or what the most likely path is to a 269-269 electoral tie? Larry Sabato’s got you covered.
2012 Debates Memorandum of Understanding Between the Obama and Romney Campaigns
The guidelines of tomorrow’s presidential debate, as agreed upon by both campaigns (technically, this is a “memorandum of understanding,” not a list of official rules). Good get by Mark Halperin over at Time, who highlighted some of the more interesting bits in the 21-page document. source
The only relevant comparison that I see between your campaign and Friday Night Lights is in the character of Buddy Garrity — who turned his back on American car manufacturers selling imported cars from Japan…Please come up with your own campaign slogan.Friday Night Lights creator Peter Berg, in an irritated letter to Mitt Romney. Berg is annoyed that the Romney campaign has appropriated a tagline from his TV series—“Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose”—for use on the campaign trail. “Your use of the expression falsely and inappropriately associates Friday Night Lights with the Romney/Ryan campaign,” Berg writes. “Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in the series.” Oddly enough, the author of the book upon which the series is based has endorsed Romney for president. source (pdf)
We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.Mitt Romney today. Actually, about 26,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have health insurance, so Romney is flatly wrong (and, in our eyes, being a bit disrespectful to about 26,000 American families). He also said that “we don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack.’” source
$125 the price President Obama’s campaign paid for a slot of ad time in Ohio
$900 the price a conservative super PAC paid for the same amount of ad time in the same state source
A rarely-discussed fact about super PACS: Under federal law, they’re charged a substantially higher rate for ad time than candidates’ campaigns. One implication of this is that candidates who are supported primarily by super PACS get a lot less bang for their buck than candidates who pay for ads with their own campaigns. This excellent chart, courtesy of Paul Blumenthal at Huffington Post, says it all: 
Keep in mind that Florida is a must-win state for Mitt Romney, yet for all of his supposed financial advantages, he’s buying less ad time there than Obama (h/t Jon Chait).
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
[Romney’s] doubling down on criticism of the President for the statement coming out of Cairo is likely to be seen as one of the most craven and ill-advised tactical moves in this entire campaign.Time’s Mark Halperin. In case you missed it: Yesterday, Mitt Romney knocked President Obama for “sympathiz[ing] with those who waged the attacks” on US diplomatic compounds in Libya and Egypt. This claim was false to begin with—Obama didn’t express any sympathy for the attackers—but was made all the more awkward when, six hours after Romney’s statement, news came out that the US ambassador to Libya was killed in the attacks. After that revelation, Romney doubled-down on his attacks on POTUS, and so now, it seems a bit as if Romney is claiming that Obama supported the killing of one of his own ambassadors. Notable here is that very few prominent Republicans are backing Romney up on this—he’s more or less alone. source
$2m Amount VP hopeful Paul Ryan is set to spend on additional campaign ads…for his reelection to the House of Representatives, that is. Just in case Mitt comes up short. source
I’m very looking forward to a Republican being back in office…When you’re rich, you want a Republican in office.Ex-porn star and rich person Jenna Jameson • Endorsing Mitt Romney for president. Jameson previously was a Hillary Clinton supporter during the 2008 campaign. source (via • follow)
I am not basing this on some figment of my imagination.Harry Reid • “Doubling down,” as they say, on his allegation that Mitt Romney paid no taxes for ten years. Reid sourced this claim to an anonymous investor in Bain, Romney’s old company, and in a conference call with reporters today, said that he’s “had a number of people tell me that [Romney paid no taxes].” When asked to back up his claim, Reid replied: “The burden should be on him. He’s the one I’ve alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn’t he release his tax returns?” On the one hand, it’s easy to attribute an incendiary allegation to an anonymous source, as Reid has done. On the other hand, the only way to confirm or discredit this allegation is—you guessed it—for Romney to release his tax returns. source (via • follow)
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