Geraldo Rivera claims video to blame for Libya attack after all.

On Fox and Friends this morning, Geraldo Rivera claimed that it was definitely the video that was the cause of the terrorist attack on the consulate in Benghazi.  Not Team Obama spiking the football over killing bin Laden, not the drone attacks, just the video.

I suspect that this is going to be the new spin coming from the Obama administration.  The video was so inflammatory that - while it did not inspire a demonstration outside the consulate in Benghazi, it so enraged the Islamists that they staged a terrorist attack on our consulate and killed our ambassador and three others.

That's the new story and they're going to stick to it.  

Spinning the ‘Pile of Manure’ Economy

Jonah Goldberg recalls Ronald Reagan's famous joke ...

It was arguably Ronald Reagan’s favorite joke. In one version, two kids — one an optimist, the other a pessimist — rush downstairs on Christmas morning. The pessimistic kid gets a new bike and weeps that he’ll probably break it soon. The optimistic kid is presented with an enormous pile of manure and squeals with delight: “There’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”

Here's Obama's version ...

Barack Obama, who always wanted to be a liberal version of Ronald Reagan, has his own version of the joke. It’s not particularly funny, alas. In Obama’s telling, the kid runs downstairs, sees a huge pile of manure and yells, “Yay! Manure! Who needs a pony!”

Obama, having reduced the economy to a pile of manure, a crowing about how great the manure is. Read the whole thing.

CNN admits that Crowley’s disregard of the rules was intended to help Obama

If authentic, CNN’s memo explaining why Candy Crowley permitted President Obama to speak four minutes more than Mitt Romney during Tuesday’s presidential debate is devastating to that network:

On why Obama got more time to speak, it should be noted that Candy and her commission producers tried to keep it even but that Obama went on longer largely because he speaks more slowly. We’re going to do a word count to see whether, as in Denver, Romney actually got more words in even if he talked for a shorter period of time.

One of Crowley’s main jobs as moderator was to enforce the rules that were established for the debate. The rules established time limits, not word limits.

Via Powerline

Crowley had two jobs at the debate.  The first was to be sure that Obama had time to make his arguments and to prevent Romney from making his but cutting him off.  The second was to ambush Romney on the issue of Benghazi and "terrorism."  Since she knew the questions in advance, in fact had picked the questions, she knew how that part of the debate was going to go and was ready to rally to Obama's defense. 

Romney Now Leads in Electoral College Map

Check  Real Clear Politics map.

FLASHBACK: OBAMA '07 BOASTS BETTER FOREIGN POLICY JUDGMENT THAN 'ANY OTHER CANDIDATE'

Via Breitbart

In a closed door meeting in 2007, Senator Barack Obama boasted that his judgment in foreign policy was “better than any other candidate in this race, Republican or Democrat.” Obama’s statement includes then-rivals Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

As the unraveling of President Obama’s foreign policy becomes a campaign issue in 2012, it’s worth recalling the unbridled arrogance that may have contributed to recent disasters.

He also claims the foreign policy experience of visiting Indonesia and Pakistan for two weeks on a summer trip while a college student.

Apparently, President Obama believed that living in Indonesia and going to school from age six to ten made him more qualified than any other candidate. His theory, stated over and over, was that understanding "the people" was the single most important factor in successful foreign affairs. The bloody results of his foreign policy judgment would seem to indicate this theory was dangerously wrong.

It's hard to believe that he managed to convince millions of Americans to make this narcissistic moron our President.

Obama's Binder of Women

Someone has a Cayman Islands bank account for his Chinese investments. Nope. Other guy.

Via Naked DC

Turns out, Obama has investments made through the Illinois State Board of Investment, which cares for the pension funds of Illinois state employees. Obama was an Illinois State Senator and is entitled to (and did) make investments through this board, in a manner almost identical to Mitt Romney’s own blind trust. In fact, the ISBI even put some of it’s cash into Avent International, a private equity and buyout firm like Bain Capital that puts a percentage of it’s investors money into a Cayamn Islands partnership (sound familiar?). And as part of it’s diversified portfolio, the blind trust also has investments in Chinese companies, presumably some of which have human rights problems. Because pretty much all Chinese companies have human rights problems.

GALLUP: Romney 52, Obama 45 among likely voters.

Via Instapundit

On October 16th  Gallup

Romney 50%, Obama 46% Among Likely VotersObama down sharply among men, college grads, and Southern voters vs. 2008

Bottom line, the debate the Obama "won" has lost him the support of 1% of the likely voters and gained Romney 2%.  

I think we can continue to thank the in-the-tank Candy Crowley and the MSM.

Is Obama Losing the Black Vote?

You'd better believe it!




“Ride right through them, they’re demoralized as hell”!

One out of five Black Americans in a state where the president won 95% of the Black vote the last time around have explicitly told strangers they will not support the first black president for re-election and they have expressed that decision in a public poll..

It is that public nature that makes all the difference because it reinforces what other Black Americans may be thinking in other states but are hesitant to say aloud.

It is a paradigm shift and if it repeats itself beyond North Carolina then this election over.

Bishop E.W. Jackson Message to Christians

Santelli On Labour "Math"

Via Small Dead Animals

"Act of Terror" It was the video!!!???

Chris Matthews believes that questioning the President is unconstitutional.

From Twitchy

Matthews: “I don’t think [Romney] understands the Constitution of the United States,” Matthews said. “He’s the president of the United States. You don’t say, ‘You’ll get your chance.’”

 What? No one dare speak in the presence of Dear Leader! He, and fellow noted Constitutional expert, James Lipton, then fretted and wrung hands over how rude Romney was. By not paying the proper deference to Obama and “looking down on him as a person.” Good grief! Did they scrawl entries about meany pants Romney in their tear-stained diaries?

Bumper Sticker

Via Legal Insurrection

The Student of "Exercise Science" and the Debate

The DiploMad imparts some interesting information about one of the people who asked a question during Presidential Debate #2, and comments about college students in general.

First, the interesting information:  

According to the press he is studying "exercise science." I am not sure, but is that what we used to call physical education? How much is that costing his parents? Does he really have the right to demand that the President (translation: society) provide him a job? Did he think of checking the level of demand for that "skill"?

Second, about academia in general:

 I have written before about my VERY low opinion of higher education in the Western world. Let me be frank: Universities as a rule are giant frauds perpetrated on the public by well-paid university staff and their leftist political allies. In my view, the average graduate knows next to nothing, at least, next to nothing useful. He or she generally emerges from these hugely overpriced, vastly overfunded, and heavily subsidized institutions with a phony cynicism, a derisive attitude towards capitalism and patriotism, an insufferable arrogance, a numbing ignorance about the history and culture of the West, and--to top it off--a sense of entitlement. We all have been brainwashed--myself included--that our kids must have that university degree, and employers go along with the gag even when the job does not require one....

Students in universities worried about their futures might want to revisit what they are studying. If you want a degree in Modern African Art or in Gender Studies because you love that topic, fine, but don't assume that the rest of us have an obligation to fund your life in the undoubtedly exciting world of Modern African Art or of Gender Studies. Let your knowledge of Modern African Art or of Gender Studies console and empower you as you swing that mop after hours at the Luby's, or as you lie in your parent's basement wondering how you will pay back $100,000 in student loans.

Don't come knocking on my door with your hand out. I've got my own kids to fund.

In an economy that isn't producing enough jobs for people with real, marketable, useful skills it's not really surprising that half of today's college graduates can't find a job.  Keep in mind that attending college has convinced them that on graduation they will move into a professional field.  Instead, what they find is that they barely qualify to compete for jobs as waiters or bartenders.

Academia has perpetrated a giant fraud on this nation.  What Glenn Reynolds calls the Higher Education Bubble is coming to an end.  

And in This Corner ...

Ramirez

"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam" - Obama 9/25/2012

From Sunny

OBAMA AT HOFSTRA: RELATIVELY ALERT, ERGO BIG WINNER

Ann Coulter:

The best question at the second presidential debate came from Michael Jones, an African-American who said: "Mr. President, I voted for you in 2008. What have you done or accomplished to earn my vote in 2012? I'm not that optimistic, as I was in 2008. Most things I need for everyday living are very expensive."

To which Obama said: "Are you my half-brother?"

Actually, all Obama could say was that he had ended the war in Iraq (while pointlessly escalating the war in Afghanistan) and that Osama bin Laden is dead (and so is our ambassador). Both of which must be a great comfort to Mr. Jones as he tries to pay his bills every month.

Jones was right: Since Obama has been president, everything you own -- your home, pension, savings accounts, weekly paychecks -- are all worth less.

Meanwhile, everything you need -- gas, food, and anything else that requires fuel to be transported to you -- costs more.

Obama can't talk his way out of his record. ...

The media's campaigning for Obama isn't fooling Americans; it's just making Obama's obtuseness worse. If you're behind at halftime, you don't go to the cheerleading squad to ask what you're doing wrong.

Absolutely nothing! You're perfect! Don't change anything!

But we're behind by 7 points ...

You're great! You're the best team ever!

With Obama unable to compete in a fair fight, debate moderator Candy Crowley had to become Obama's wingman, injecting herself into the debate by declaring Obama the winner on the question of whether he had called the Benghazi attack an act of terror the day after the attack. Only after the debate, when everyone had gone home, did Crowley admit that Romney was right on Libya.

Read the rest, Ann's always entertaining.

Who are the "undecided" voters?

I saw a few comments this morning about the composition of the undecided voters who made up the audience of the second Presidential debate. The suggestion was that this group were mostly Obama supporters.  Frank Luntz had a focus group of undecided voters who, it turned out, had mostly supported Obama in the 2008 election.

At first I thought that it was unfair to stack the "undecideds" with Obama supporters. But on second thought, it's entirely reasonable.

If you didn't support Obama in 2008, when he was the non-Bush, the Lighbringer, the Messiah who would slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet, why would you decide to consider voting for him after four years of misery and gloom, broken promises and record-breaking deficits?

And here's a shocker:  MSNBC's Undecided Voter Panel Swayed by Romney

Frank Luntz is right.  The only undecided voters in this election are the ones who voted for Obama last time and are now either leaning to Romney or are going to stay home.

Liberals don’t mind when Democrats insist their policies are motivated by religion.

Jonah Goldberg notes that Liberals are outraged when a Republican tells us that his faith is important to him.  That means they are "ayatollahs" ...

Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker, for instance, was outraged — at Ryan. To say that faith informs everything you do is “disturbing and scary,” Gopnik insisted. “That’s a shocking answer — a mullah’s answer, what those scary Iranian ‘Ayatollahs’ he kept referring to when talking about Iran would say as well.”

When a Democrat says that his faith informs his political views, it's a different matter.

I strongly doubt that Gopnik and the rest of the faith-fearing liberals mind when progressive figures insist their policies are motivated by religion. President Obama routinely waxes biblical in his view of government: “I am my brother’s keeper,” he has said repeatedly. It is, to be sure, an odd recasting of the Bible, since Cain’s question to God — “Am I my brother’s keeper?” — was simply an attempt to dodge a murder rap. But he is invoking his faith nonetheless. And Nancy Pelosi says her Catholic faith “compels” her to support gay marriage. Really.

It might be that secular liberals aren’t offended by all this because they think Catholic Democrats are simply lying. That’s probably true in some cases, but it’s surely unfair in others. Biden seems sincere when he says he’s a faithful liberal Catholic. And that’s forgivable so long as he remembers that the “liberal” comes first in “liberal Catholic.”

 

I think that's essentially correct.  Liberals have Liberalism as their God, they only go to church for show and pretend to believe in a God to fool the rubes in flyover country.  Gopnik understands that lie and is perfectly fine with it.