Today's installment of campaign-related news items that won't necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* In a new closing-statement-style ad, President Obama has a minute-long spot asking voters to compare his plan with Mitt Romney's. The ad will air in New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin and Colorado.
* In national polling, a CBS/Quinnipiac poll released last night found Obama leading Romney by two, 48% to 46%, while a new PPP poll for Daily Kos/SEIU finds the candidates tied at 48% each.
* Oh my: "A Republican-run election board in a northern Ohio county sent out voting instructions to several precincts with the wrong date for Election Day and an incorrect description of the polling place location."
* Speaking of Ohio, a Suffolk University poll finds Obama and Romney tied at 47% each.
* And in still more Ohio news, how invested is Karl Rove's Crossroads operation in Josh Mandel's (R) Senate race? Mandel has spent $9.8 million, while Crossroads has spent $9.2 million.
* A University of New Hampshire poll (pdf) released yesterday found Obama leading Romney by eight, 49% to 41%, though no one really seems to believe it's accurate.
* In early voting news, Democrats appear to have an early edge in Nevada and North Carolina, though in the latter, it's hard to say how many of those voters are conservative Dems who'll back Romney.
* And in Indiana, home to a very competitive U.S. Senate race, Romney is now appearing in a new TV ad in support of far-right Republican Richard Mourdock. It's a rare spot featuring a presidential hopeful helping a down-ballot candidate.
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The Indiana thing is a case the insane being supported by the incompetent.
I don't know can anyone vote for a party that does this:
* Oh my: "A Republican-run election board in a northern Ohio county sent out voting instructions to several precincts with the wrong date for Election Day and an incorrect description of the polling place location."
Let me guess, it's a heavily Democratic county right. You can bet your ass they wouldn't do that in a republican one.
What a horrid little man. Klein's dispassion as he casually discusses the killing a 4 year old girl perfectly illustrates the sociopathic shortsightedness of this administration. Obama is a murderer and his creepy sycophants confirm this on MSNBC. What are you going to say about this Rachel? Anything? What about you Lawrence? Do you need "ten years" to figure this one out as well? Hypocrites!!
And GWB murdered over 4000 Americans and over 100K Iraqis with his lies to get us into war.
Thanks larry74, I wasn't going to respond to him/her or click on his/her link. I have been advised to ignore this kind of troll bait and insults.
Also using the logic I think is being used in #3, we could blame GWB for allowing 9-11-01 to occur.
Joe Klein's sociopathic defense of drone killings of children
by Glenn Greenwald
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/23/klein-drones-morning-joe
War is not hop scotch. Collateral damage always occurs and innocents die.
What would you prefer?
What war are you referring to?
Again, Steve Benen posts here, not Rachel Maddow. I'm sure the two are in touch though which is more than can be said for yourself!
(; - )
Drone strikes kill, maim and traumatize too many civilians, U.S. study says
(CNN) -- U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have killed far more people than the United States has acknowledged, have traumatized innocent residents and largely been ineffective, according to a new study released Tuesday.
"The study by Stanford Law School and New York University's School of Law calls for a re-evaluation of the practice, saying the number of "high-level" targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low -- about 2%.
"This shows that drone strikes go much further than simply killing innocent civilians. An entire region is being terrorized by the constant threat of death from the skies," said Reprieve's director, Clive Stafford Smith.
"Their way of life is collapsing: kids are too terrified to go to school, adults are afraid to attend weddings, funerals, business meetings, or anything that involves gathering in groups. Yet there is no end in sight, and nowhere the ordinary men, women and children of North West Pakistan can go to feel safe."
I'm glad to see the campaign finally using the jobs chart in their ads. For whatever reason, they have ignored what I consider their greatest asset on the jobs argument. Yes, the net gain is very little, but show the same chart from Bush's last full year through today, and undecideds will see in full color that Obama stopped the increasing job losses of the Bush presidency almost immediately, and then recovered to then add over 5,000,000 million new jobs. Why isn't that 2008-2012 chart behind him on a 50x10 banner at every campaign stop he makes?
Obama should be well ahead in the presidential race. The fact that the race is close doesn't speak well for the American electorate.
1. I am surprised that this race IS as close as the press, polls and pundits report. Although it is difficult to sort through the noise to real information, I believe there is some collusion to keep things "interesting" until the very end.
2. Early voting began in North Carolina on 10/18, with some very long lines at polling places and what looks to be enthusiasm among the electorate. NO IDs are required. I walked up to the election judge, stated my name and address, was checked off in her poll/roll book and given a ballot. In fact, one may register and vote on a provisional basis ON THE SAME day here until November 3.
3. While one's hunches are just that, I've been watching presidential politics for over 40 years. My hunch this year is that President Obama will win re-election by more than the sqeaker the polls seem to indicate but by less than a landslide. Still, he ought to have sufficient coattails to help along some of the Senate and House candidates challenging the Tea Partiers. Their time has passed.
4. We will all still be Americans on November 7, whatever happens. It is a duty and a responsibility of our birthright or naturalized citizenship to shake hands and go about normal business upon that day: no more obstruction, no more rancor and no more stupidity.
That ad is the message i've always liked from President Obama. Factual, to the point, and here is where you can get more information. The divisive label can not be used on the man in the video, and it highlights the differences between him and the opposition who are unable to put in a barb somewhere.
We can be a country of united individuals, a large middle class with a proportionally insignificant upper and lower class, or we can be a dual class culture of the aristocracy and the common class. History has shown that one is a model for substantial growth, and the other always precipitates a crash or revolution.
President Obama looks tired & old on the image. This close race has really taken it's toll on him.
If you had to manage the mental gymnastics to keep up with Romneys positions on issues you would look tired too.
Personally I think he should be awarded a gold medal for not only being able to do it but managing to "Stick the landing"
"Mark Ireland" Full comment history
The mental illness these people display is not an act folks
Willard was so exposed last night you could see the glittery unicorn on his magical underwear.
Romney was so desperate to look smart on foreign policy that he actually leaked something he had obviously read on the morning intelligence briefings that he has recently become privvy to as the GOP nominee.
He twice brought up North Mali. 99% of people watching last night has never heard of Mali. I feel pretty safe in saying that 2 weeks ago, Willard Romney had never heard of Mali.
Mali is in North Africa on the border of Nigera and has been the "fighting fields" for opposing religious groups for decades, so there's absolutely no foreign policy issues concerning US national security in Mali. Romney actually thought he was going to leak a national security secret to the American people that the Presaident is hiding from us.
The look on the President's face when Romney sputtered this "warning" out was a look of shock, apparently at the notion that this man would actually expose intelligence information that he read on a Presidential breifing for political points.
Once again we over-estimate the righties on integrity and honor.
and thinking abilities , I will have to catch that moment again , and the details would be interesting
Campaign scorecard for the undecided: President Obama won two out of the three debates and the only one he lost was the only one he didn't show up for. The Obama campaign and Democrats, including Bill Clinton, laid out the math for who has the better plans, delivering a much stronger convention than Republicans. The Obama team has run a solid campaign delineating a clear choice for the future but the Romney campaign has been all over the place with lots of mistakes from 47% to slipping up along every stop on his one overseas trip.
I love your show Rachel, but don't attack Jim Lehrer! He a pioneer in journalism who has managed to keep the media spin, left or right, out of the news room. To add insult to injury, Mitt Romney has promised to sabotage PBS (Including "The News Hour") if he gets in office, through budget cuts. I guess his "boys" at Fox News feel that pure journalism is a threat to thier agenda. Fact checking?... Fugeddaboudit!
Wow, good commercial President Obama! Let's clean out the Congress too, I think our country has had enough of self-centered Tea-tards and vain Grover Norquist horse@!$%#.. Let's clean up that mess, and eject the DINO's too!
If the Republicans are spending that much money on the Ohio Senate race and it is not helping the candidate, then we can be happy that Rove and the SuperPacs are wasting money on a race rather than putting the money into congressional races.
Also, if Romney is doing commercials for Murdock then Obama should be using that endorsement to link Romney to the radical right. I believe that is what Obama has wanted to do as his main campaign strategy.
There is no opportunity for education in a fact-free zone. After the 3 debates, and after the president has won 2 of them, and after his challenger has agreed with most of the president's foreign policy, what else is there to think about? You either like the president, or you like the guy who agrees with him, or you want to go back to where we came from both in a foreign policy standpoint (go to war with the brown people in the mid-east), or wreck the country (and possibly the world) with poor financial decisions that have already been tried and failed. But if you don't understand these policies and their consequences by now, then there is no hope that you ever will....either before the election, or......ever.
And so we are saddled with the low-information consumer. And so the progress of evolution is slowed accordingly.
Prediction: When President Obama wins re-election, the regressives will say that we have a Kenyan, Muslim, socialist president who was elected by illegal immigrants who voted illegally........(right hand to right ear)...uh, what? Oh, they've already said that? Oh....sorry.
Mr. Romney clearly stated he wants to add an additional 2 Trillion dollars to the military budget for weapons systems. (More ship building in VA, of course. Now, on to Ohio). I bleieve him on this. On the other hand, he has not doubt told the Chinese ambassador he has no intention to Really declaring China a currency manipulator. Voters may want a candidate who says anything to win; even if it totally contradicts his statements from the previous week. Voters need to be asked to consider the costs in a wider world.
Rachel, That is what Romney said. Honestly. "SYRIA IS IRAN'S ROUTE TO THE SEA." Why are we not making more of this?
See http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/10/22/fact-check-irans-route-to-the-sea/
We should be saying it in web ad, commercial, everything: "Romney wants to be Commander-in-Chief, but he can't even find Iran on a map." "ROMNEY CAN'T EVEN FIND IRAN ON A MAP." Say it a billion times. 15 second commercial -- Clip of Romney saying this, show map, then "Romney wants to be Commander-in-Chief, but he can't even find Iran on a map." Maybe background music, Sam Cooke sound-alike singing "Don't know much about geography."
Rachel, if you think this has merit, please run it or something like it.
Regards,
Frank DiPrima
3 Carriage Hill Drive
Morristown, NJ 07960
(973) 656-0251
"A Republican-run election board in a northern Ohio county sent out voting instructions to several precincts with the wrong date for Election Day and an incorrect description of the polling place location."
So? What's new? We know the Republicans are the perpetrators of voter fraud par excellence.
But, methinks, is this a case (among many) of criminal negligence?
This needs much more airing... A lot more than Ann Romney's $3 Million UBS Swiss/Liechtenstein bank account is, no doubt, involved. Mr. Ryan is said to have a campaign bus nick name for Mr. Romney - Stench. Was he just thinking of Mr. Romney's campaign missteps or something else?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/what-romneys-hiding-its-t_b_1908104.html
This is something posted in the comments section of the local paper:
Posted by bschmidt727:
"It was near impossible to tolerate more than a few seconds at a time of obama's lies and just as bad his smug sneer when Romney was speaking."
Reply to bschmidt:
Someone needs to point out that Romney was the white guy.
.
Yes, there is selective hearing and now selective visual senses.
Or is it projection? Who knows, maybe both.
I never saw smug sneer on the President, but throughout have seen it on Rmoney. I don't know what they are talking about, but perhaps the lying has seeped into consciences that cannot see dark skin and think anything other than negatively. Very sad…
Hi Ms. Maddow:
Live in Ohio and my sister and I, along with others, watch your program all the time. Today's program was especially spectacular because we have a strong point of reference to your disgust in how we say it, "They Don't Care, because They Don't Have To." We love your reporting and hope you bring home the P.P. for bringing us the truth. Hey, we heard that Bain Capital has invested in some voting machines which will be used in Ohio? Have you heard this?