Even Democrats gave Romney the nod, but only by a grudging 10 points. Still, 49% of all Democrats admit Romney won. The rest lied.

Gallup is on a 7 day track, so their main-page results still have three or four days of pre-debate polling. Because their poll is therefore old, they've broken out the last three days of results -- post-debate -- to note the impact of the debate. The race has now gone from 50-45 Obama to a 47-47 tie.

They note it's possible Romney will continue to gain points in the next few days.

Giada de Laurentiis savors the debate

Posted by: Ace at 06:59 AM | Comments (195)
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One of the frustrating parts of the Romney campaign has been his unwillingness to talk about himself in personal times or for the campaign to do any sort of advertising about how charitable he is.

We finally heard some of the stories during the GOP primary but now Romney is talking about these things himself.

That was from a rally Friday night in Virginia.

It's obvious Romney is uncomfortable talking about these kind of things (to his credit) but now that his off the charts debate performance has people giving him a second look (or a first in some cases), I hope the campaign finds a way to make sure people see this stuff. Honestly, I'm not sure Mitt is the best messenger for this. Perhaps having some of these folks on the trail with him or better yet, some ads, would be the most effective way to deliver the message.

I know some people hate this personal stuff and think it should be about plans and experience but politics is personal. There's no way to know everything a President will have to deal with (George W. Bush didn't run as a national security guy. Remember the whole "Education President" thing?). Voters, the dreaded "independents" at least, vote on feel, their judgement of the person. Romney has been hurt by the idea that he's an unfeeling corporate CEO that likes to fire people. There's obviously plenty of evidence to the contrary but it's up to Team Romney to tell people about it.

Hopefully we see more of this personal revelation as we close in on Election Day.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:03 AM | Comments (164)
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Here is some early morning reading for you all.

Cities and states around the country are shoring up battered retirement plans by reducing promised benefits to public workers and retirees. All told, states need $1.4 trillion to fulfill their pension obligations. It's a yawning chasm that threatens to wreck government budgets and prompt tax hikes or deep cuts to education and other programs.

The political and legal fights challenge the clout of public-sector unions and test the venerable idea that while state jobs pay less than private-sector employment, they come with the guarantee of early retirement and generous benefits.

The actions taken by states vary. California limited its annual pension payouts, while Kentucky raised retirement ages and suspended pension increases. Illinois reduced benefits for new employees and cut back on automatic pension increases. New Jersey last year increased employee retirement.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 04:22 AM | Comments (223)
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Maet can't be here. This is a last minute thing.

There were no volunteers.

Only victims.

And random pictures.

This post brought to you by the six-inch rocket.

Posted by: LauraW at 06:52 PM | Comments (665)
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Yes, this is a cover up.

They know how badly they botched this -- and they know deadly errors were made by people at the top or so close to the top as to jeopardize the top -- and hence they went with a false cover story, a disinformation campaign directed at the real enemy -- the American voter.

Lt. Col. Andy Wood was the leader of the 16 member special forces team whose job it was to protect US personnel in Libya. His teamÂ’s mission ended in August a month before the deadly Al-Qaeda attack on 9-11. A six member mobile security team was also withdrawn around the same time. This was despite the fact that there were over a dozen attacks in the country this year. Lt. Col. Wood was subpoenaed to appear at a House committee hearing this coming week. Wood told CBS News it was unbelievable to him that the State Department withdrew security when they did because of the 13 security incidents before 9-11.

Below, a pair of brutal videos about the cover up. The first, from ObamaIsn'tWorking, is a very cinematic effort, with quick cuts and grating, ominous music.

Ben Howe's video is a corker, too -- less music, less dramatic cuts, but a fuller account of the Benghazi Cover-Up. It lets the facts speak for themselves more. more...

Posted by: Ace at 04:28 PM | Comments (537)
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One problem: Just because he's voted out has little to do with whether he actually departs office.

The link is in Spanish but I think you can figure it out. Actually: Per Drudge, these are the exit polls, not the actual vote tabulations. Which just might be different.

It's not the vote count, it's who counts the votes.

Posted by: Ace at 03:42 PM | Comments (159)
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So, this started to trickle out Thursday night when the Washington Examiner published a story questioning whether Obama's poor debate performance might be related to a soon-to-be broken donor scandal story.

President Obama's reelection campaign, rattled by his Wednesday night debate performance, could be in for even worse news. According to knowledgeable sources, a national magazine and a national web site are preparing a blockbuster donor scandal story.

Sources told Secrets that the Obama campaign has been trying to block the story. But a key source said it plans to publish the story Friday or, more likely, Monday.

According to the sources, a taxpayer watchdog group conducted a nine-month investigation into presidential and congressional fundraising and has uncovered thousands of cases of credit card solicitations and donations to Obama and Capitol Hill, allegedly from unsecure accounts, and many from overseas. That might be a violation of federal election laws.

Next, the Obama campaign shocked everyone by announcing they had raised an unbelievable $181 million in September. Rather curiously, only 2% of the total amount raised was reportable.

The campaign said that just over 1.8 million people made donations to the campaign last month. According to the campaign, over 500k of these were brand-new donors, having neither given in 2008 nor 2012. 98% of contributions were under the reporting threshold of $250. Of these, the average contribution was $53.

Next week, same magazine will expose Obama campaign's illegal donor scandal. twitter.com/guypbenson/staÂ…

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 5, 2012

Moe Lane is sold as well. We shall see. I'll have more on this later. I poked around Thursday night and noticed some hastily-made odd changes to Obama's site (teaser: donate.barackobama.com now forwards to contribute.barackobama.com, a change made recently).

Update: Katie Pavlich at Townhall says the story could break as early as tonight.

Posted by: JohnE. at 03:26 PM | Comments (187)
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Everyone seems to like this ad, except me. more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:01 PM | Comments (380)
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Super-cute story.

I got this from Adam Carolla, who talks up the advisability of adopting crows as pets at 15:40 or so into the podcast.

Later in the podcast, he discusses the debate with Jay Mohr. Carolla's take is extremely frustrating. Although he's a Romney supporter, his take is he already knew Romney had substance and was an impressive guy, so he's barely complimentary about him at all. (He also never thought much of Obama.) His take is sort of "Well I knew this about him already, so... not really all that impressed."

Very frustrating.

On the other hand, guest Jay Mohr called it a "curbstomp" and previously thought Romney was a "joke," but then watching the debate, realized, "Oh, this guy could be president." He also offers this: "For the first time in my life, the sitting president looked unpresidential."

The debate talk begins around 1:21, but I suggest listening in at 1:19:30 to hear Jay Mohr do his hilarious Norm MacDonald impression.

Oh, actually all of Mohr's impressions are great. Like his impressions of Colin Quinn and Tracy Morgan. For those, you know, click back until Mohr is introduced.

Posted by: Ace at 12:28 PM | Comments (218)
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David here. Since Zakn is taking the weekend off, it falls to some of us second-stringers to bring the video game post. Unlike Zakn, I am not involved in EVE online. I prefer to waste my gaming time with Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2, although Borderlands 2 has been sucking up a lot of my disposable time. In any case, here is what has been going on recently in the gaming world.

Posted by: Gang of Gaming Morons! at 11:30 AM | Comments (71)
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