BARACK TO THE FUTURE: At the Corner, John O’Sullivan links to a great observation by Jim Bennett:

In response to my Friday Corner piece arguing that Biden won on points, Jim Bennett offers a very interesting and quite powerful qualification. Here it is:

John, let me suggest that the criteria for victory are changing. The debate no longer ends when the debaters walk off stage. And now it no longer ends when the TV spinners have, like cuckoos, laid their eggs and flown away. There is now the long, long reverberation in social media, where the basic debate footage serves as raw material for mash-ups and parodies and treatments for the rest of the election cycle and beyond. And Biden’s performance, which won him some tactical advantage in the debate, has set him up as the target for rich satire and a way that Ryan’s conventional performance didn’t and cannot do. His performance is comic gold, and although within hard-core Dem/left circles he will be celebrated as the warrior, everywhere else, and especially for basically apolitical young YouTube viewers, he will be the jackass supreme. I suspect that by Election Day, the various parodic videos will have had a larger viewership than the debate itself. By this criterion, the tactic was a massive miscalculation.

Or as Michael Barone writes today, “Biden and Obama run a campaign fit for the 1980s.”

I’ve seen this movie before.

THE RIGHT STUFF: “Coincidentally, Baumgartner’s attempted feat also marked the 65th anniversary of U.S. test pilot Chuck Yeager successful attempt to become the first man to officially break the sound barrier aboard an airplane.”

LIFE IMITATES SEINFELD: Princess Diana-Prince Charles 1981 Wedding Cake Slice Up For Auction.

Mr. Peterman and Elaine Benes could not be reached for comment.

OBAMA: If people read transcript, they’ll think I won last debate.

Richard Nixon, call your office.

MEGAN MCARDLE: In Defense of the 5 O’Clock Reservation.

AT AMAZON, Top Deals in Electronics.

Also, today only: Panasonic DECT 6.0 Link-to-Cell via Bluetooth Cordless Phone, $63.00.

ROMNEY: More Questions Than Answers On Libya.

THIS NEWS WILL PLAY WELL AT THE CORNER: Duran Duran’s John Taylor: Biden a ‘D*ck’ in Debate, Likes Ryan.

Bruce Springteen will be touring for Obama, but then, like President Goldman Sachs, he’s pretty much an old-line One Percent establishment guy anyhow.

A KINDLE BOOK CREDIT as part of an Amazon lawsuit settlement.

CHANGE: U.S Prepares To Export Crude Oil.

HIGHEST EVER JUMP SUCCESSFUL: “Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner landed safely on Earth after a 24-mile jump from the stratosphere in a dramatic, daring feat that may also have marked the world’s first supersonic skydive.,” AP reports. “Baumgartner came down in the eastern New Mexico desert minutes after jumping from his capsule 128,097 feet, or roughly 24 miles, above Earth.”

The BBC adds:

The previous highest, farthest, and longest freefall was made by retired US Air Force Col Joe Kittinger, who leapt from a helium envelope in 1960. His altitude was 102,800ft (31.3km).

Mr Kittinger, now an octogenarian, was on hand to witness the dramatic jump from the stratosphere. Indeed, he acted as “Capcom” – capsule communicator – throughout the ascent and descent, maintaining voice contact with the much younger man.

None of the new marks set by Baumgartner can be classed as “official” until approved by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI).

UPDATE: The first draft of the AP article quoted above had the altitude wrong; they’ve since corrected the figure, and I inserted the new lede above.

THE ‘MILLION MUPPET  MARCH:’ An example of how the liberal media spins the news.

(H/T: Newsalert.)

DOING DISASTER-PREP WHILE LANDSCAPING with edible ornamentals.

I SAW ARGO LAST NIGHT, Ben Affleck’s new film about the Iran hostage crisis. If you’re skeptical about Affleck as a director, don’t be. First of all, the extended cut of his last film, The Town, is a magnificent crime film. Second, Argo is better by far than just about anything else Hollywood has ever produced about the Middle East. I have a few minor criticisms, but they vanish into the awesomeness of the rest of the film.

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NATIONAL JOURNAL: What Happens To The Children of the Unemployed?

LIVE VIDEO: Felix Baumgartner’s leap from space.

JOHN HINDERAKER: What Happened In Benghazi. “While this is by no means clear, it appears that the State Department may have released the transcript as part of the escalating conflict between Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.”

ARLEN SPECTER has died.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Advice to My Younger Self About One Night Stands.

GALLUP: Romney 49, Obama 47. You can see why they’ve resorted to desperate race-baiting.

QUESTIONS ON BENGHAZI: Where is CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus? “He seems to be the missing man in the unfolding Benghazi debacle. It is his agency, among others, which is being fingered by the White House for getting the Libya attack wrong. However, we know that within a very short time after the murder of our ambassador (an extraordinary occurrence) and others, our intelligence community did have the story straight: This was an organized al-Qaeda attack. Is he to preside over a witchhunt? Or is he, who to date has been one of the most respected national security officials, going to be instrumental in shining light on the Libya fiasco and thereby truly serving the national interest and the memory of those killed?”

NOW OUT FROM VOX DAY: A Magic Broken, currently 99 cents on Kindle.

BOB OWENS NOTES THAT THE “PUTTING THE WHITE BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE” LINE comes from a lefty anti-Palin site. No surprise there. No surprise that Buzzfeed — which is rapidly losing credibility on all fronts — jumped on this.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse: Shameful, lowly race-baiting… but who’s doing it? Well, in the first instance, Andrew Kaczynski. “Buzzfeed and all the Romney opponents who chose to link to Buzzfeed should be ashamed. They lowered themselves. They saw an opportunity go racial and they took it.”

The Buzzfeed folks should also be concerned that folks on the right will be less willing to link them in the future, if they’re perceived — as I believe they increasingly are — as lefty agitprop shills. Caroline Bankoff at New York Magazine may be comfortable in that niche, but I believe Buzzfeed wanted broader appeal.

And if you’ve noticed that I’m going out of my way to name names here, you’re right. Accountability journalism.

One of Althouse’s commenters nails it: “An agent provocateur passed off by BuzzFeed as a Romney supporter. Both are complicit in the smear.”

HE’S MOCKABLE: SNL Mocks Biden For Being A “Real World Catholic.”

CHANGE: Romney Now On Track. “Mitt Romney leads President Obama in national polls, and the president is approaching his all-time low in the RealClearPolitics average. Romney leads in some key swing states (e.g., Florida, Colorado and North Carolina) and has largely erased the deficit in others (Ohio, Virginia, Nevada). His approval rating (the likability rating so many liberals have obsessed about) is in positive territory; the gap between the two candidates’ approval ratings has all but disappeared.” Don’t get cocky, kid.