CHANGE: The audience completely failed to cheer or applaud when Jon Stewart announced that Obama was the guest on “The Daily Show.”

UPDATE: Compare this report from Salena Zito: More than half of the people attending Paul Ryan event in Pittsburgh are women, many of them young adults.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader T.J. Linzy writes:

I’m a US citizen that has lived in Europe for 24 years. I just moved back to the USA (Nevada). I am a long time reader of Instapundit. (I like the new multi-blogger format too). . . I just wanted to say thanks and to ask you to double down on your “Don’t get cocky, Kid” remarks. Every other post would be fine with me.

I am hopeful of a Romney win, but also fearful of the echo chamber that led many of us to a serious letdown on the SCOTUS decision on Obamacare.

For the first time ever in my life, I have signed up to do calls for a campaign. The Romney/Ryan has an easy sign up procedure and a very helpful video and instruction page.

For CA residents who know their vote will not carry CA for Romney, there is also program to help in Nevada.

Every little bit helps. Please feel free to use my name.

Indeed it does.

ANDREW MALCOLM: GOP: Another $1 trillion Obama deficit for what?

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: ObamaCare Work Disincentives: 4 Cliffs Hit Employees. “The health law is filled with cliffs where the returns for more work take a nose-dive.”

GAFFES AND GAFFES: These bumps in the road just aren’t optimal.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): “People who get their information exclusively from mainstream media sources may be surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on the left for President Barack Obama in this crucial election. But that’s probably because they weren’t exposed to the full online furor sparked by Obama’s continuation of his predecessor’s overreaching approach to national security, such as signing the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the indefinite detention of those accused of supporting terrorism, even U.S. citizens.”

Hey, if Obama’s not your cup of tea any more, you can always vote for Jill Stein.

UPDATE:

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “Increases in Pell grants appear to be matched nearly one for one by increases in list (and net) tuition.”

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Computers & Accessories.

Also, markdowns on Editors’ Picks in beauty products.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: Tolerance: Obama supporters urge black Romney voters to kill themselves.

DANIEL HANNAN: You thought the whole ‘EUSSR’ thing was over the top? Have a look at this poster.

LOWER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: How Education Savings Accounts Will Revolutionize K-12 Schools. “Time to stop thinking 19th century style.”

RNC TROUNCES DNC IN FUNDRAISING AS DEMOCRAT PARTY GOES ‘BANKRUPT:’ “Somehow, this seems an apt metaphor for the Obama era,” Stacy McCain writes.

Indeed:

HUGH HEWITT: President Obama’s Closing Act: An Epic Collapse.

The president of course has his passionate supporters. These are the same people that spent last Tuesdaynight declaring him the winner of his second meeting with Mitt Romney, and Wednesday and Thursday trying to infuse the word “binder” with game-changing significance.

They are the same people who spent Friday denying that “not optimal” was not a big deal.

“Binder” –big deal. “Not optimal” –no deal at all. That’s the state of the Obama campaign: A nearly Orwellian effort at making some words matter and others disappear while facts are pushed aside It hasn’t worked. It won’t work..

Mitt Romney by contrast followed two very strong debate showings with a wonderful set of remarks at the Al Smith dinner, the third time in two weeks that he has reassured those just tuning into the presidential campaign that he will be a steady and reliable force for good in the Oval Office.

Romney was ready for his close up. This is the primary reasion behind his surge.

Related: How Romney’s Polling:

According to the latest Gallup survey, Mitt Romney is polling 52% of likely voters. At this point in the race he is ahead of:

Where Jimmy Carter was in 1976 (47%)

Where Ronald Reagan was in 1980 (39% — Carter was six points up)

Where George H.W. Bush was in 1988 (50%)

Where Bill Clinton was in 1992 (40%)

Where George W. Bush was in 2000 (48%)

Where Barack Obama was in 2008 (49%)

Nice polling, kid. Don’t get cocky. It only matters if people show up.

LONGEVITY UPDATE: Starvation Hormone Markedly Extends Mouse Life Span, Without Need for Calorie Restriction. “Restricting food intake has been shown to extend lifespan in several different kinds of animals. In our study, we found transgenic mice that produced more of the hormone fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF21) got the benefits of dieting without having to limit their food intake. Male mice that overproduced the hormone had about a 30 percent increase in average life span and female mice had about a 40 percent increase in average life span.”

MY CATS WOULD KILL ME IN MY SLEEP: Cats get dressed up for US breeders show.

DREAMING OF A WIDER WORLD.

These cartoon females supposedly inspire the female dream to have it all. The Little Mermaid’s song begins with the observation that she pretty much looks like “the girl who has everything.” But she wants more, more, more. (Song cue.)

But men? Our culture doesn’t want you saying such things anymore. There was a time when Marlon Brando and James Dean were icons, and they seemed to be all about rejection of this humdrum life in your sad little town. But they have been swallowed up into the past. In the American pop culture of today, the admirable man cannot seriously express such longings and expect love and admiration. It can only be a joke, comic dissonance with the reality of the good man’s life, scrambling eggs at the kitchen table with his adorable little girl (who is, herself, permitted to internalize the female dream of getting out of this dreary, constricting place to get what she deserves — the bigger, brighter, better life).

And yet there’s supposed to be a war on women.

WALLS, WALLS, THEY ALL FALL DOWN: Firewall in ruins?

CHANGE: Chicago Jewish Newspaper Endorses Romney.

AND OTHER CRAZY IDEAS: The Economic Record in Favor of Limited Government.

IN OTHER WORDS, STANDARD OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE: Department of Energy Insecurity.  “Security Agents Charge Dept. of Energy with ‘Fraud, Waste, and Abuse’ in new letter.”

BETTER BOOKS, better brains.

‘REMEMBER WHEN PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA WAS LIKABLE?’ Well, I remember when he was first sold to the American public as being likable.

Of course, that was back when he still dining out his famous 2004 DNC speech, which featured such platitudes as “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”

These days? New Obama ad labels Romney ‘not one of us.’

So, The Other, in other words.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Jim Treacher had him pegged four years ago.

ORLANDO SENTINEL ENDORSES ROMNEY:  Another left-leaning editorial board jumps ship to formally endorse Mitt Romney.  The paper– located in a key “swing” area of Florida–had endorsed Obama in 2008.

We have little confidence that Obama would be more successful managing the economy and the budget in the next four years. For that reason, though we endorsed him in 2008, we are recommending Romney in this race.

EIGHTEEN DAYS TO GO.

BODYFORM APOLOGIZES for lying to men.

MILEHI CON:  Science fiction convention in Denver starting today.  I’ll be dropping by tomorrow for a signing and a reading.  I’ll be reading from the upcoming A Few Good Men (Baen, March 2013) Come out if you wish to say hi.