BLAME EARLY AND BLAME OFTEN: James Taranto on the latest round of pre-postmortems from the left. ” It would be premature for the left to despair,” Taranto writes. “This is a time for dread and denial. What also seems premature, although fun, is the rush to assign blame in advance for an Obama loss.”
Meanwhile, John Nolte of Big Journalism finds Romney potentially outpacing the MSM’s competing meme du jour: “As Romney Expands Battlefield, Media Claims He Peaked Too Soon.”
ADDRESSING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: The Sex Lives of Conjoined Twins.
DON’T PANIC — BUT PREPARE: Sandy Looks Like The Real Deal, Brendan Loy, the self-proclaimed “Weather Nerd” writes.
RELATED: Virginia, Maryland declare states of emergency to prep for Sandy.
MICHAEL MANN’S False Nobel Prize Claim. Really, what is this guy thinking? “This morning, I called the Nobel Committee in Norway and asked whether Michael Mann had won a Nobel Peace Prize. The answer was a pretty emphatic ‘No.'”
PODCAST: The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol discusses Benghazi with Michael Graham.
PREDICTION: “Barring some dramatic change in the final ten days or so, Mitt Romney will win the popular vote in the 2012 presidential election,” Jim Geraghty writes — with this additional don’t get cocky-related caveat:
Now, as Al Gore will tell you, a popular-vote win and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. But it’s also relatively rare for a candidate to win the popular vote and lose the Electoral College. And if Obama is running a few percentage points behind his 2008 levels of support in red states and blue states . . . just how much can advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts stem that tide in the purple states?
Perhaps that explains this imagery from the Obama camp. They were channeling Putin yesterday; has Team Obama moved on to Mao? Forward!
(It also dovetails perfectly with the subhead of the essay by Matthew Continetti we linked to a few moments ago: “How sarcasm and insult took over the Democratic Party.”)
VIA TWITTER, Chris Christie recommends the Red Cross Hurricane Preparedness App. Some further hurricane-prep tips here.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Average GDP Growth Less than Half of What Obama Predicted.
JOURNALISM: Which Is Worse: The Study About Women Voting With Their Hormones, Or The Trolly Story About It On CNN? It’s clowns all the way down.
IRONY, THY NAME IS PANETTA: “Defense Secretary Leon Panetta calls the criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the Libya terror attack ‘Monday morning quarterbacking,'” CBS-DC reports.
And yet, as Matthew Continetti writes in the Washington Free Beacon, in “A Brief History of Obama,” the entire focus of the left, from November 8th, 2000, until Barack Obama took office on January 20th, 2009, involved an utter obsession with every decision made by President Bush. “Half of Washington was organized around the principle of opposing one man,” Continetti writes. “Bush was that despised by the left.”
Read the whole thing.
THE MAGICAL MYSTERY FANTASY SCIENCE FICTION TOUR: I’ve been postponing doing this, because I’ve been trying to finish a novel, and because well… elections, but yesterday I got contributor copies for Darkship Renegades. This means the book is shipping or about to ship to bookstores at least, which means it’s time to get some word of mouth going — since these days book preorders are massively important. As I did for Darkship Thieves, I’m doing a blog tour. This means I’ll write a post for blogs that invite me and (if asked to) answer comments. For details, or if you wish to invite me to stop by your blog, please see my blog today.
JASON PONTIN: Why We Can’t Solve Big Problems (Anymore).
GALLUP: ROMNEY 51, OBAMA 46. And Obama’s approval down 3 from yesterday to 48. Benghazi fallout?
IT JUST GETS WORSE: AC-130U Gunship was On-Scene in Benghazi, Obama Admin Refused to Let It Fire. Even though the consulate-attackers’ mortar was under laser designation.
RELATED (From Ed): It’s deja Black Hawk Down all over again.
UPDATE (From Glenn): Reader John Koisch writes: “It’s not Blackhawk Down. It’s worse. Recall that the major problem in BD was the UN commander was unwilling to risk casualties to protect forward US positions and troops in the city. This is the US unwilling to protect its own. It’s like we have the UN for an administration or something.”
THE WOMAN WHO INVENTED THE MODERN KITCHEN: She couldn’t cook.
FOXNEWS: Report: Hillary Asked For More Security in Benghazi, Obama Said No.
Related: EXCLUSIVE: CIA operators were denied request for help during Benghazi attack, sources say. This is just looking worse and worse. (Bumped).
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): September 30, 2012 US Debt-To-GDP: 102.4%.
CAMPUS FREEDOM: George Leef loves Greg Lukianoff’s new book.