CHANGE: Polls Show Romney Soars With Independent Voters.

LIZ PEEK: Obama’s Jobs Act Not Just A Failure, But A Fraud.

BILL WHITTLE: Firewall: The Sixth Deadly Sin.

SARAH PALIN: “Apparently President Obama can’t see Egypt and Libya from his house.” Ouch.

But, to be fair, neither can the New York Times.

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “While the responsibility for our lack of credibility in the greater middle east rests with Obama, let’s not forget that our middle east foreign policy is the product of Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Samantha Power and others who share their views. These past four years do not reflect well upon their judgment: something to bear in mind when talk of a Hillary Clinton presidency arises.”

SHOCKER: Hey Look: Chicago’s Teacher Union President is an Occupier Too. And she occupies a lot.

TOBY HARNDEN: Barack Obama Re-Election Campaign Engulfed In Major Foreign Policy Crisis. I would have said “White House” rather than “Re-Election Campaign,” but I suppose these days there’s not much difference. . . .

INTERVIEW: ROMNEY ON GUN RIGHTS. This part was interesting:

Cox: Would you support legislation to provide national reciprocity for Right-to-Carry permit holders so that they can protect themselves when they’re traveling outside their home states?

Gov. Romney: Absolutely. Fundamental rights don’t disappear when we cross state borders, and self-defense is a fundamental right.

Cox: Would you support the reimposition of a federal ban on semi-automatic firearms incorrectly called “assault weapons?”

Gov. Romney: No. I do not support any additional laws to restrict the right to keep and bear arms.

Read the whole thing.

MICHAEL BARONE: Obama Could Be The Odd Man Out On Tax Reform.

One of the services of the Simpson-Bowles Commission was to set out a path for tax reform, with lower income tax rates and removal of many tax preferences or, to use the commission’s term, tax expenditures.

It’s an approach that has been tried before and worked. Ronald Reagan called for such a reform in 1984 and, after much negotiating, it was hammered out in 1986. Lead roles were played by Treasury Secretary James Baker; the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Dan Rostenkowski; and the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Bob Packwood.

It wasn’t easy work, and at one point it required an extra pitcher or two of beer at an Irish pub for Packwood and his staffers.

Mitt Romney has endorsed a similar procedure. So has Paul Ryan, who included it in the budget he steered to passage in the House.

Romney and Ryan have been criticized for not providing specifics on which tax preferences they would eliminate.

But neither did the Simpson-Bowles Commission, which said that “the precise details and exact transition rules should be worked out in a variety of ways by the relevant congressional committees and the Treasury Department.” That’s how it worked in 1984-’86.

And at least some of the relevant congressional players have been working at it already. . . . The biggest obstacle to 1986-style tax reform is Barack Obama.

Of course. To Obama, the 1970s are the model, as we see in all sorts of ways. . . .

SARAH HOYT: Romney Is No Savior, And That’s The Point: “You’re Americans, not Europeans. You are the fruit of a nation constituted in liberty and based on the idea that the people can govern themselves. You should not wait for the king who sleeps beneath the hill. . . . Romney is a decent business manager. He’s a decent man. He likes America. He wants America to like him. He’s not going to actively dismantle our way of life, as will the one now in power. There will be no attacks on freedom of religion, no wild power grabs for the Internet, no executive orders that violate the laws of the land. He will not hanker for more ‘flexibility’ so he can give more to Putin. And — this is petty but important for how the world sees us — he will neither apologize nor bow to foreign leaders. Is he perfect? Oh, goodness, no. Is he exactly what we need? Probably not. Who is? Do you know the trouble we’ve got ourselves into by trusting presidents for this long? It’s a big hole. No one man can get us out of it. Only we can. And it will take time. But that’s fine. He won’t be anointed by any gods. There will be no halos and no Greek columns. Instead, he’ll be the elected by the people and the people — the sovereign people of this free land — who are now awake will stand ready to make sure he knows it.”

Sarah has really been on a roll lately.

DANIEL DREZNER: “How in the hell do the attacks in Cairo and Benghazi not make the front page of the New York Times?” #ProtectingObama

UPDATE: It does seem front-page-worthy: Assault on U.S. consulate in Benghazi leaves 4 dead, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Two Marines died defending the consulate.

In a Reynolds Administration, all U.S. diplomatic posts would have flamethrowers. #Reynolds 2016.

Hey, it’s no sillier than talk of campaigns by Joe Scarborough or Joe Biden . . . .

ROLL CALL: Democrats Split On Wiretap Reauthorization. “The White House released a Statement of Administration Policy on Monday strongly backing the bill, saying the law it reauthorizes has been ‘vital’ to defending the United States from terrorist attacks.”

They told me if I voted for John McCain . . . oh, hell, you know the rest.

THIS IS TURNING OUT WORSE THAN CARTER: U.S. Ambassador To Libya Killed In Benghazi Attack. That whole Arab Spring thing is looking kinda overrated.

ROGER SIMON: The Democratic Party And A Second Holocaust. “So to my Jewish brethren: difficult times ahead. Time to make some tough decisions that call a lot of old assumptions into question. I know it’s not easy. But it’s necessary.”

PAST TIME, I’D SAY: GOP to TSA: Eleven years after 9/11 attacks, it’s time to change. “Since TSA’s creation after 9/11, the agency has gone down a troubling path of overspending, limiting private sector engagement, and failing to sufficiently protect passenger privacy.” Ya think? Also incompetence and pointless security theater.

But then, I’d abolish the entire Department of Homeland Security, which I said was a mistake at its creation. My analysis has been thoroughly borne out, I think.

OUR POLITICIZED DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: Exclusive: Internal DOJ Documents Argued for SC Voter ID Approval But Obama Political Appointees Overruled.

WHEN WILL THE “PEACE CRIMES” TRIALS BEGIN? Greenpeace co-founder Dr. Patrick Moore rips ‘Greenpeace’s Crime Against Humanity’ for opposing Golden Rice which can eliminate vitamin A deficiency. “Moore: ‘Greenpeace and its allies have successfully blocked the introduction of golden rice for over a decade’ — WHO says ‘between 250,000 to 500,000 children become blind every year due to vitamin A deficiency, half of whom die within a year of becoming blind’.”

MORE SCANDAL AT UNC: UNC’s Top Fund-Raiser Resigns Amid Probe of Travel.

PRINCETON ECONOMICS PROFESSOR: Romney’s Tax Plan Increases Economic Growth, Does Not Cut Taxes on the Rich or Increase Taxes on Middle Class.

IN TODAY’S FAKE-INDIAN NEWS: Ward Churchill Loses Again. From the comments: “This case is fascinating not only for its political drama, but even moreso because it points out just how flawed the whole peer review and tenure processes have become. It appears that Churchill was hired for political reasons, accepted for publication for political reasons, and tenured for political reasons. It is only fiting that as this political house of cards collapsed around him that he should be fired for those same political reasons.”

“SMART DIPLOMACY” (CONT’D): US Embassy in Cairo quietly deletes its ‘we stand by our apology’ tweet.

A PACK, NOT A HERD: Civilian ‘hacktivists’ fight terrorists online. “The digital vigilantes, some working barefoot from home, spy on Al Qaeda and its allies, penetrating chat rooms and other sites seeking recruits.”

TWEET OF THE DAY: “This presidency started with an apology in Cairo & looks like its ending with an apology in Cairo.”

AT AMAZON, up to 40% off in Tools & DIY Essentials.

MICHAEL WALSH: Eleven Years Later.

MITT ROMNEY: “I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” To be fair, they’ve backpedaled since. . . .

UPDATE: Byron York: Romney: Obama administration response to embassy attacks ‘disgraceful.’ “Direct attack by mobs on an American embassy, involving death, the destruction of a U.S. flag and the invoking of al Qaeda — on September 11, of all days — will certainly stir outrage among many Americans. And the Obama administration’s weak, apologizing response will likely prompt a strong Republican response in days to come.”