“HANNAH ARENDT HAD IT RIGHT,” Pat Moynihan once said. “She said one of the great advantages of the totalitarian elites of the twenties and thirties was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive.”

ED MORRISSEY: Media cooperating with Benghazi cover-up?

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes:

Infuriating as their attempts may be, an MSM cover-up doesn’t have the same damping effect it once did. Consider the viewership numbers for Fox News and of course the deep penetration now achieved by social media and the web more generally. Time after time attempts to suppress “news” fail in the face of an extensively networked population. Even the Chinese continue to have problems despite powers far exceeding anything we’ve experienced. Partisans in the MSM have been standing there guarding a door while the walls of the house around them have collapsed. Perhaps they should recall the effectiveness of the Maginot Line circa 1940.

True.

BUYER’S REMORSE (CONT’D): Richard Cohen: The President Who Seems Not To Care. “His eloquence, it turned out, was reserved for campaigning. Obama never espoused a cause bigger than his own political survival.”

Of course, Republicans are still “vandals.” Because letting people keep their own money and stuff is, you know, exactly what the Vandals did.

SANDY: Federal efforts to create a better network for emergency services after September 11 remain unfulfilled.

YEP, COMPLETELY UNBIASED: Reporters Caught Mocking Romney on Politico Live Stream.

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD, AND THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN DONATION SCANDAL IS ALIVE: Claim: Obama campaign website accepted real donation from fake ‘Osama bin Laden.’

OBAMA IN OREGON: Elizabeth points out that President Obama is only polling at 47 percent in my home state of Oregon. (Romney is only polling at 41 percent.) I live in one of the most left-wing neighborhoods of the state’s most left-wing city. Four years ago just about everyone had an Obama sign in their yard. This year my neighborhood has a grand total of one. Romney isn’t making the sale, but there is no enthusiasm for the president here whatsoever.

UPDATE: A Portland reader adds: “My daily walks around the neighborhood often take me through the faculty parking lot of the Lewis and Clark College Law School. Four years ago about 70 to 80% of the cars in this usually near full 100-place parking lot had Obama bumper stickers. This year-to-date three is the most cars I have seen with an Obama bumper sticker. And these are 2008 stickers, no new 2012 stickers. Most of the 2008 stickers were gone within a year of the election. Also gone were the old Gore and Kerry bumper stickers left over from previous election campaigns. The Prius with a dozen or so lefty bumper stickers had an Obama sticker 4 years ago, now no Obama sticker, still has his NO W sticker though. This is my data point, there does not seem to be much enthusiasm for Obama around here either in the way of lawn signs.”

THIS WOULD BE A GREAT MOVIE IDEA: Going After Pirates With Robots. Might need to sex up the design a little. . . .

AND YOU SHOULD SEE WHAT IT’S DOING TO MOST PUBLISHERS: The internet has made shops obsolete in some towns.  I’m going to stick my neck out and say this is just beginning.

OKAY, SO WHERE DOES FIAT PLAN TO BUILD JEEPS? There’s a flap on the presidential campaign trail sparked by questions over whether Fiat, which owns Chrysler, plans to move Jeep production from the U.S. to China. Turns out Jeeps will continue to be built here, may again be built in China, and will in the near future also be built in Italy. Confusing? Perhaps this will help.

EVEN MORE MITTMENTUM:  OREGON POLL PUTS OBAMA AT ONLY 47%:  The newly released Oregonian poll has the presidential race at 47-41 for Obama, with 8% undecided and a 5% margin of error.  Says the paper:

Obama’s lead is considerably smaller than his margin of victory in Oregon four years ago and is a sign of how tight the presidential race has become across the nation.

C’mon 8% undecided Oregonians!  Can you really stand 4 more years of the same???

IN RESPONSE TO MY EARLIER POST ON U.S. PLANS FOR INTERVENTION IN MALI, reader Rob Crawford writes: “What was it Powell said the other day about Obama not getting us in any more wars? Anyone asked him about Mali?” If someone sees Colin, maybe they can ask him. Also, what does he think about letting our people die in Benghazi? . . .

MARK HALPERIN: Democrats Go On Defense In Blue States.

A DRAW YOU SAY: Politico: Looks like a draw on early voting.  I don’t think that word means what you think it means…

VOTES BY PRECINCT: The Stanford Election Atlas.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Ask the Blogger: How Long Do I Wait Before Collecting Social Security?

VIDEO: Local media covering Anti-Romney vandalism; national liberal media ignore. I hope the gas station owner in the video below was able to make the license plate number(s) in his security camera footage:

EUROPEAN HYPOCRISY — TRES CHIC: Inconsistent’ Europe imports 15 times more goods from West Bank than from Palestinians.  Of course, hard to import goods that aren’t created…

KATRINA PART II: NYT Exploits Storm to Criticize Romney:

At least sixteen people are dead and millions are without power, and the NYT has one message for you — Romney is a bad man.

Ironically, about the same time a NYT writer would have been putting the anti-Romney editorial together, a Romney campaign bus-turned-supply-vehicle was delivering pre-storm essentials to people who needed them.

And from yesterday, “When News Reports Become Editorials: Let’s check in tonight at how ABC News is covering the presidential election,” and Sandy — don’t miss the screen shot of the ABC Website.

I watched a few minutes of CBS’s coverage of Sandy last night before bailing, after it took major partisan shots at Romney and Christie. I wish I had been able to make a recording of it; perhaps a Website like Newsbusters or the MRC.org did, though.

SHAME AND THE SINGLE MAN.