Open Thread

The vehemently and severely conservative Chicago Tribune endorses the President, and has a pretty good takedown of Mitt Romney inside. Go over and read the whole thing.

Everyone ready for the storm? It is Sunday and the pundits are loose -- and getting more dangerously silly as we approach election day. Here is a good summary of the Greatest Hits of the Pundit Business by Randall Monroe of xkcd fame:

You go girl!

It's Batten Down the Hatches Saturday! What are you doing to avoid the panic and get ready for the storm?

Shoot!  DelawareDem asked if we could handle this Open Thread.  Since this spot has been blank for an hour we obviously shouldn't be put in charge.  Moving on... Yesterday, Colin…

That's the Delaware state News Headline. The News Journal saw fur flying. Anyway, something was flying. (Sparkly fur?!?!) Here is the News Journal's Jonathan Starkey (mostly paraphrased by yous truly): DOVER — Sen. Tom Carper was double teamed by wack-jobs. Kevin Wade, a teabag, accused Carper of not reading the Affordable Care Act, and basically being a lazy douche. Carper conceded the point on a technicality. “On the [Senate] Finance committee, (a place you will never see) we work off of plain English language,”

"The truth is both sides are worried -- Team Obama is nowhere near as confident about its map as public statements suggest, and the Romney surge isn't as real (or relevant, given battleground-state polling) as Republicans are spinning. Yet it's that map that governs still -- national polls aside, the Romney surge hasn't spilled into the battlegrounds (particularly Ohio) enough to upend the race in Romney's favor, at least not yet."

As we now two weeks out from the election, although I do loving polling, they become less important than the ground game. And that is why the Obama campaign's early voting and registration efforts are so important. Let's take a look at two states that will decide the election: Nevada and North Carolina.

Your post.  Your call.  Have fun!

Ezra Klein interviewed Gallup’s Frank Newport, after noticing that virtually the entire Romney lead was produced among respondents from the South, making him wonder if Gallup might be forecasting a 2000 result where the victor (Obama) wins the electoral college vote and the loser (Romney) wins the popular vote due to the high racist margins he is piling up in the South.

Housing starts are at their highest level in four years. The unemployment rate is at its best point in four years; consumer confidence is at its best point in five years; the federal budget deficit is at its best point in four years. Just this week, reports on retail sales, industrial production, and new housing construction showed sharp and unexpected improvements. This probably isn't what Republicans wanted to hear.

Both national polls that were taken immediately following last night's presidential debate at Hofstra University show President Obama besting Romney by 7 percent. A CNN/ORC poll indicates that 46 percent of voters who watched the debate said that the president won, while 39 percent said Romney won (and the sample in the poll was about 8 percent more Republican than polls taken among all Americans this year). In a CBS News instant poll taken right after the debate, 37 percent of "uncommitted" voters said the president won, 30 percent gave Romney the edge, and 33 percent said it was a tie. A snap poll by Public Policy Polling in swing state of Colorado gave President Obama a 48-44 edge, while CO Independents said that the President won by 58-36 percent. For those who want a detailed point-by-point review of the debate in print as well as video, The New York Times has an interactive transcript of the Hempstead debate with a dynamic fact-checking sidebar.