An instant Kavipsian Classic: Painting Delaware Liberal as Bain in a takeover of Delaware Politics to explain how Mitt Romney and Bain made moment. Go read the whole thing.
Maureen Dowd at The New York Times:
Gov. Chris Christie, the fleece-wearing, order-barking Neptune of the Jersey Shore, was all over TV Tuesday, effusively praising the president for his luminous leadership on Hurricane Sandy, the same president he mocked last week at a Romney rally in Virginia as a naif groping to find “the light switch of leadership.” […]
Rather than campaigning, which he finds draining, the president was in the Oval calling a Republican to work things out. But this time, unlike with John Boehner at a fateful moment, a flattered Christie took Obama’s calls. While Romney campaigns in Florida Wednesday, Christie and Obama plan to tour storm damage in New Jersey, a picture of bipartisanship, putting distressed people above dirt-slinging politics.
McCay Coppins reports the last-minute decision by Romney campaign to suspend politics while Hurricane Sandy raged sent aides in Ohio scrambling to convert a scheduled victory rally into an apolitical “storm relief event.”
“But the last-minute nature of the call for donations left some in the campaign concerned that they would end up with an empty truck. So the night before the event, campaign aides went to a local Wal Mart and spent $5,000 on granola bars, canned food, and diapers to put on display while they waited for donations to come in, according to one staffer. (The campaign confirmed that it ‘did donate supplies to the relief effort,’ but would not specify how much it spent.)”
A memo obtained by NewsChannel5 in Florida from a Republican adviser in West Palm Beach, Florida says that the Democratic turnout effort is “cleaning our clock.” The memo says, “The early and absentee turnout is starting to look more troubling.”
First Read: “Given how close this election is, it won’t be surprising if the losing side ends up blaming Sandy, whether it’s fair or not. You could argue that Sandy has both elevated the president and stopped the momentum narrative for Romney. But you could also contend that Sandy has kept the president off the campaign trail for at least three days. Just like Kerry partisans blamed bin Laden video in ’04, Bush folks blamed the DUI story in ’00 and McCain folks blamed Lehman collapse in ’08, Sandy will get the blame from the losing side, period.”
Charlie Cook notes that Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, “which once looked like they were slipping more into the Romney orbit, have pulled back to essentially even-money contests.” From Chris Cizzilla:
“That conventional wisdom has led many… to conclude that Ohio is now the single most important state in the country when it comes to Mitt Romney’s electoral math. But, without Florida and Virginia, Romney may never get to the point, electorally speaking, where Ohio becomes makes or break.”