Fox & Friends Hosts Bash Obama’s ‘Pointless’ Speech: ‘He’d Already Booked the Room’

The hosts of Fox & Friends savaged President Barack Obama’s performance during a Tuesday night address to the nation regarding the evolving plan for responding to Syria’s use of chemical weapons. The hosts were unclear about what Obama was attempting to accomplish with that speech, given that his policy toward Syria has been in flux over the last week. They agreed that the proposed diplomatic resolution to the crisis is not feasible. 

“I’ve watched it twice now in its entirety — I don’t know why he gave it,” Brian Kilmeade said of Obama’s speech. “I have no idea what it accomplished. And I cannot believe how our diplomacy, even if it works out in the end, how this has all been one stumble into the next mistake, and next thing you know, ball is in your court, Vladimir Putin. Bail us out.”

Gretchen Carlson said that the president had no choice but to give the speech given that he had already announced that he would, even though the president appeared to shift his resolve from military action to continued diplomacy.

“But he’d already booked the room,” Steve Doocy joked.

RELATED: Krauthammer, Powers Pan Obama’s Syria Speech: Said ‘Nothing New,’ Will Have ‘Zero Effect’

Carlson noted that United States policy towards Syria, and the Middle East broadly, is now so ill-defined that it would be difficult to predict America’s responses.

The hosts tried to make sense of what the White House’s desired outcome is in Syria at this point. They agreed that they could not be sure what the administration’s ultimate objective is in Syria today.

“Like him or hate him, President [George W.] Bush made a decision and said ‘here’s what I think, and, you know what? You may hate me for it, but this is the direction I’m going in,’” Carlson opined.

Kilmeade observed that the plan to remove or destroy chemical weapons in Syria is nearly unworkable given the lack of security in that war-torn nation. Carlson concluded by observing that the administration’s decision to go back to the United Nations means that there will be no resolution to that conflict in the near future.

Watch the clip below via Fox News Channel:

Via: Mediaite.com

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WATCHDOGS: Tally in Illinois grant-fraud probe so far: 13 charged, $16M embezzled

From the city that brought us Barack Obama.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Springfield has been busy the past few years investigating a variety of fraud schemes involving state grants. Thirteen people have been charged so far, six who have pleaded guilty.

Two of them have ties to President Barack Obama. One is the daughter of his controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Another was chief of staff to Obama’s longtime friend Eric E. Whitaker when Whitaker was Illinois’ public health chief.

In all, prosecutors are alleging a total of $16 million in fraud involving state health or commerce department grants and contracts.

Here’s a brief look at each of the criminal cases that have been filed, which prosecutors built with help from the Chicago offices of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as from the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office’s inspector general:

Defendants: Margaret A. Davis and Tonja Cook, of the Chicago chapter of the National Black Nurses Association

Via: Chicago Sun-Times

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Poll: President Obama nears all-time low

President Barack Obama’s approval numbers are approaching their lowest levels ever in a new poll.

Just 45 percent of those surveyed in the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll said they approved of the job the president was doing, a drop of 3 points from June. Fifty percent said they disapproved.

That’s close to the lowest numbers registered for Obama in the poll, a 44 percent approval and 51 percent disapproval rating registered in November 2011.

(PHOTOS: Obama going gray)

The poll’s numbers reflect Americans’ assessment of how Obama is handling the economy: Forty-four percent said they approved and 51 percent said they disapproved.

Pollsters also pointed to a drop in support among African-Americans as a possible explanation for Obama’s falling numbers, as 78 percent approve of Obama’s work, a 10 point drop since June and 15 point drop since April.

Obama’s approval rating is the same as George W. Bush's was at this point in his second term, while Bill Clinton’s approval rating was significantly higher, at 56 percent, during this point in his second term, The Journal said.

Congress fared poorly in the poll as well, registering a new low approval number. Only 12 percent of those polled said they approved of the job Congress was doing; 83 percent disapproved. That’s tied for Congress’s lowest approval ever in the poll and the highest disapproval registered.

Via: Politico

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Holder Begs Court To Prevent Public From Seeing Obama’s “Executive Privilege” Records Relating to “Fast And Furious”

Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice have asked a federal court to indefinitely delay a lawsuit brought by watchdog group Judicial Watch. The lawsuit seeks the enforcement of open records requests relating to Operation Fast and Furious, as required by law.

Judicial Watch had filed, on June 22, 2012, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically [a]ll records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Barack Obama on or about June 20, 2012.”

The administration has refused to comply with Judicial Watch’s FOIA request, and in mid-September the group filed a lawsuit challenging Holder’s denial. That lawsuit remains ongoing but within the past week President Barack Obama’s administration filed what’s called a “motion to stay” the suit. Such a motion is something that if granted would delay the lawsuit indefinitely.

Via: Breitbart

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Dem Rep Moves to Block Obama's Congressional Pay Increase

A Democratic member of Congress is moving to block President Barack Obama's congressional pay increase. The move, led by John Barrow of Georgia, is to prevent the pay increase that Obama issued through an executive order from going into effect.

"At a time when American families face real hardship, it would be irresponsible to allow Congressional pay to increase," says Barrow in a statement. "Too many families face uncertainty in the New Year for Congress to get a bonus. Folks expect us to be looking out for them, not ourselves, and we should be working to lower taxes, cut spending, and get our nation's debt under control. Congress should get to work, and I urge the House leadership to do anything and everything possible to stop this pay increase for Members of Congress right away."

Barrow's office explains: "The Executive Order called for a pay increase for Members of Congress and other elected officials of 0.5 percent after March 27, 2013. During tonight's votes, Congressman Barrow will urge his colleagues to sign his letter to House Leadership urging them to bring legislation to the floor to block the pay increase."

Here's the letter Barrow is circulating to send to House leadership:

Dear Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor, Leader Pelosi, Whip Hoyer,

We oppose the pay increase for Members of Congress granted by Executive Order on December 27, 2012. The Executive Order would raise our salaries by $900 per year, beginning March 27, 2013.

We believe that it is inappropriate for Members of Congress to receive a pay increase of any size while American families and taxpayers continue to face tough economic times.

We urge you to bring legislation to the floor to stop this pay adjustment as soon as possible.

Via: Weekly Standard

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CONGRESSMAN: OBAMA'S TAX INCREASES FUND GOVERNMENT FOR EIGHT DAYS

President Barack Obama has proposed raising taxes on the rich to put America's fiscal house in order, but critics say federal spending is so massive that the wealthy don't have enough money to cover the nation's unprecedented debt.

In an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) said President Barack Obama's plan to raise taxes on the wealthy would only generate enough revenue to fund the federal government for eight days.

"The president’s plan to increase taxes on the upper two percent covers the spending by this federal government not for eight years, not for eight months, not for eight weeks but for eight days. Eight days only," said Mr. Price. "It’s not a real solution. So, again, I’m puzzled by an administration that seems to be more interested in raising tax rates than in gaining economic vitality."

The problem is that the rich don't have enough money to put so much as a dent in America's $16 trillion national debt. "If the IRS grabbed 100 percent of income over $1 million, the take would be just $616 billion," writes John Stossel. "That’s only a third of this year’s deficit. Our national debt would continue to explode."

Still, Mr. Obama's supporters persist in proposing tax hikes on the wealthy. On Sunday, billionaire Warren Buffett proposed a minimum tax for America's top earners. "We need Congress, right now, to enact a minimum tax on high incomes. I would suggest 30 percent of taxable income between $1 million and $10 million, and 35 percent on amounts above that."

There's just one problem with such an approach, says author Mark Steyn:

If you took every single penny that Warren Buffett has, it'd pay for 4-1/2 days of the US government. This tax-the-rich won't work. The problem here is the government is way bigger than even the capacity of the rich to sustain it. The Buffett Rule would raise $3.2 billion a year, and take 514 years just to pay off Obama's 2011 budget deficit.

Indeed, even Mr. Buffett seems to concede that he and the president's "soak the rich" proposals are more an act of political theater designed to generate an emotional response than serious solutions: Mr. Buffett told Matt Lauer he believes his proposal would boost the "morale of the middle class." 

Via: Breitbart

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NH towns cast first ballots - IT'S A TIE

DIXVILLE NOTCH, NH -In the tiny town of Dixville Notch New Hampshire, the presidential vote ended in a historical first.

In a tradition that started more than 40 years ago. The town of ten registered voters all cast their ballots right after midnight on election day, and the results are tallied immediately.

This year, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney each received five votes from Dixville Notch.

The tie is a historical first for the midnight vote.

And in another tiny New Hampshire town -- Hart's Location -- the President picked up a win.

The earliest voters can go to the polls in other communities is 6 a.m., with the last polls closing at 8 p.m.

Via: WCAX.com

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Romney Internal Polling Looks Good

 Mitt Romney is ahead by a single percentage point in Ohio, according to internal polling data provided to MailOnline by a Republican party source.

Internal campaign polling completed last night by campaign pollster Neil Newhouse has Romney three points up in New Hampshire, two points up in Iowa and dead level in Wisconsin and - most startlingly - Pennsylvania.

Internal poll show Romney trailing in Nevada, reflected in a consensus among senior advisers that Obama will probably win the state. Early voting in Nevada has shown very heavy turnout in the Democratic stronghold of Clark County and union organisation in the state is strong.

Romney is to campaign in Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on election day, reflecting the tightness of the race in Ohio and the tantalising prospect of success in Pennsylvania, which has not gone Republican in a presidential campaign for 24 years.

Nearly all public polling put Obama ahead in Ohio by whisker at least. The RealClearPolitics average of polls there gives the president a 2.8 per cent advantage. But the Romney campaign insists that pollsters have their models wrong and are overestimating Democratic turnout and underestimating Republican enthusiasm.

If the Romney campaign's internal numbers are correct - and nearly all independent pollsters have come up with a picture much more favourable for Obama - then the former Massachusetts governor will almost certainly be elected 45th U.S. President.

The most dramatic shift in the Romney campaign's internal polling has been in Wisconsin, which has moved from being eight points down to pulling level. President Barack Obama is campaigning in the state on the eve of election day.

Despite the Obama campaign's insistence that Romney's late decision to contest Pennsylvania is an act of 'desperation', former President Bill Clinton - Obama's most valuable ally on the stump - is holding four eve-of-election events there.

Via: Daily Caller

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NEW JERSEY AN 'APOCALYPTIC VISION' TWO DAYS AFTER OBAMA PHOTO OP

Two days after President Obama flew into storm-ravaged New Jersey on Wednesday for a 90 minute photo op with Governor Christie, parts of the state have descended into what one local resident calls "an apocalyptic vision." On Friday, in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, this New Jersey resident described the situation there:

New Jersey right now is experiencing an apocalyptic vision. Gas lines are a mile long. Hundreds are standing in line with gas cans. Fights are breaking out. Police and national guard have been called out. I've not had power or taken a shower since Sunday. Pray for us here.

FEMA reps are meeting with people in their residences to assess how recovery assistance can be provided to them.

While FEMA representatives had finally arrived on the ground by Friday, most of them appear to be focused on providing financial assistance to victims of Hurricane Sandy at some point in the future. There is no indication yet that any FEMA representatives on the ground are actually doing anything to aid in the distribution of food, supplies, gas, or restoring electricity.

On Wednesday, President Obama promised to deliver a far rosier outcome to New Jersey residents over the next several days. In fact, the President made a specific promise that he would make sure supplies were delivered, as CNN reported. Two days later, he's failed to deliver on that promise, though he has been able to campaign in key swing states across the country during that time:

Many people across the region are still in need of basic supplies. President Barack Obama visited a shelter Wednesday in the hard-hit town of Brigantine, New Jersey, where he said he met a woman with an 8-month-old who has run out of diapers and formula.

"Those are the kinds of basic supplies and help that we can provide," he said. [emphasis added]

Obama promised the federal government "will not quit" until communities are cleaned up.

"We are not going to tolerate red tape, we are not going to tolerate bureaucracy," Obama said. "And I've instituted a 15-minute rule, essentially, on my team. You return everybody's phone calls in 15 minutes, whether it's the mayor's, the governor's, county officials.

"If they need something, we figure out a way to say yes."

The President may be right. The Obama administration has found a way to "say yes to something needed," by New Jersey victims of Hurricane Sandy, but it's not yet found a way to "do that something needed."

Via: Breitbart

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D+8 VA POLL: ROMNEY +21 AMONG INDEPENDENTS, OBAMA UP TWO OVERALL

A D+8 Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS News Virginia poll found President Barack Obama with a two-point lead (49%-47%) in Virginia, even though challenger Mitt Romney holds a 21-point lead among independents.

The partisan breakdown of the poll was: 27% Republican, 35% Democrat, 35% Independent. 

In 2008 in Virginia, Democrats had a six-point turnout advantage at the polls, and independents made up 27% of the electorate (Democrats made up 39% and Republicans 33%). Obama beat McCain by one point among independents in 2008 (49%-48%). 

In the Q poll, independents make up 35% of the sample -- an eight-point increase from 2008 --  and Romney beats Obama by 21 points. Romney even leads Obama by seven points when voters were asked which candidate would work work better with "both Democrats and Republicans in Congress."

But the poll, which surveyed 1,074 Virginia likely voters between Oct. 25-28 and has a margin of error of +/-  three percent, has Obama leading by two points. 

Via: Breitbart

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Obama's Failed 2012 Campaign Strategy

It was all going so perfectly for President Barack Obama.

He had painted his opponent, former Gov. Mitt Romney, as an out-of-touch rich guy with elevators for his wife's multiple Cadillacs and bank accounts throughout the Caribbean. Romney had no plan—or at least none he was willing to discuss with voters. He was bellicose and callow on foreign policy. And The Groups—women, Hispanics, African-Americans, union members, public employees— were lined up so solidly behind the president he absolutely could not lose.

And then, on October 3 at about 9:04 p.m., Romney took to the stage in Denver and reset the campaign. He was not out of touch at all. He made sense. He had solid ideas, a sense of hope. He connected. He laughed. He seemed confident. The president looked down at his notes. He came across as not wanting to be there. He offered little reason to give him another term.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the 2012 campaign.]

That night was followed closely by Vice President Joe Biden's neighing, braying debate performance—an effort only a deeply partisan Democrat could've loved. Then there was the Al Smith Dinner, where Romney seemed uncommonly gracious, sensible, and downright funny.

The cascade of cognitive dissonance these Romney appearances unleashed on the nation were like the waves slashing the coast because of Hurricane Sandy. They destroyed the landscape in their path and left something decidedly different, something Democrats now recognize as a true and serious threat to the president's re-election hopes. He can lose, and they know it.

And if Obama does, if he becomes only the sixth president in the last 100 years to lose re-election, he will have no one to blame but himself. He created a Romney so far removed from the real Romney that when voters saw the real Romney they realized they had been had. And voters don't like to be had.

[Check out our editorial cartoons on President Obama.]

Via US News

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Mooch Says She Sneaks Out Of White House In Disguise To Hang With The Little People…

Michelle Obama says her life isn’t that unusual.

The First Lady insisted on Thursday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live that she is still able to sneak out in public unnoticed and that her daughters with President Barack Obama – Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11 — are able to lead normal lives.

“There are times when I do kind of disguise it up, you know?” she said. “It’s a little harder because I’m so tall. You know, so you see people just kind of looking at me because I’m tall. And then it’s like… [gasps] ‘Oh, it’s you!’

“But every now and then I try to sneak out, but I don’t get to do it too much … It’s just a warm-up, cap,” she added before stopping herself: “I shouldn’t tell…”

Asked what she would do if she had just an hour to be a “normal” person, Obama replied: “I would walk out of the door of the White House like a regular person, walk down the street, go to the drug store, go to CVS, go in there, go shop. I’d go buy my toiletries, I’d pay money. I’d get a receipt. Yes. And then I’d go sit on the park, on the park bench and just watch people.

She also joked that she has to be more discreet when reprimanding her daughters in public, noting that she’s perfected the ability to speak to them without moving her lips and with a smile on her face. But she praised their ability to handle their lives as the kids of a sitting president in a “poised and gracious” manner.

Via: Red Alert Politics

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Bob Woodward on Obama's Sequestration Comments: 'What The President Said Is Not Correct'

Bob Woodward says President Barack Obama got some of his facts wrong on sequester at Monday night’s debate.

Woodward’s book, “The Price of Politics,” has been the go-to fact check source for the president’s answer, in which he claimed the idea of using deep, automatic, across-the-board domestic and defense spending cuts to force Congress to address the nation’s burgeoning federal deficit originated from Congress, not from the White House.

(Also on POLITICO: D.C. caught off guard by Obama sequester vow)

“What the president said is not correct,” Woodward told POLITICO Tuesday. “He’s mistaken. And it’s refuted by the people who work for him.”

Woodward, a Washington Post journalist who was a key reporter on the initial coverage of the Watergate scandal, said he stands behind his reporting in the book, which drew upon sources involved in last year’s deficit talks and detailed notes taken in the meetings.

(Also on POLITICO: Woodward's book: 5 telling moments)

Woodward reports in his book that White House Office of Management Director Jack Lew and Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors took the proposal for sequestration to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and then it was presented to congressional Republicans.

During the debate, however, Obama said the idea originated on Capitol Hill.

“First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed,” Obama said, adding his strongest pronouncement to date on its future: “It will not happen.”

Woodward said there’s a possibility the president was unaware of how the idea came about.

“It’s a complicated process — and in fairness to the president — maybe he didn’t know that they were doing this because it’s kind of technical budget jargon,” Woodward said.

Via: Politico

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Obama: ‘Who’re you gonna believe; me or your lyin’ eyes?’

While President Obama appeared much less comatose in Tuesday night’s debate than he was during the first, he certainly played fast and loose with his facts. His constant claim that his administration has created in excess of five million private sector jobs since taking office has little to no supportive evidence.

If indeed there were five million private sector jobs created over the past four years, then why is the unemployment rate so much higher today than it was when he first took office?

The most recent jobs report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed the unemployment rate in the US dropping below 8% for the first time in 3 years. What the BLS failed to acknowledge was that this drop in the unemployment rate was a statistical aberration, in large part due to one state’s failure to make its unemployment statistics available. This is the final BLS report before Election Day and isn’t it convenient that this one state’s failure to provide unemployment data would make the unemployment rate appearing to be lower that it actually is? Expecting that the unemployment rate has dropped by .3% in an economy that’s at or below 1.3% GDP growth is in the same ballpark as believing that pigs can fly. For a real look at how Obama’s economic policies have worked, the graph released by the BLS is a visual telling of the President’s failures.

Via: Canada Free Press

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CNN editor claims in internal memo -- Crowley did a 'superb job'

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  Oct. 16, 2012: Moderator Candy Crowley, center, addresses President Barack Obama, left, and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the second presidential debate. (AP/EPA Pool)

  
  

The firestorm over the role of the moderator at the second presidential debate shows no signs of dying down. 

First came Tuesday night's event at Hofstra and before it was over there was a major controversy over whether moderator Candy Crowley should have interceded on President Obama’s behalf. 

But wait, there's more. Now we have her managing editor at CNN, Mark Whitaker, sending out an internal memo defending her performance, calling it a “superb job.”

In the memo, first made public by the website TMZ, Whitaker ignores the fact that Crowley herself publicly admitted after the debate that she wasn’t entirely correct when she said Obama did describe the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya as a terrorist act in a Rose Garden statement one day later. 

Mitt Romney said the president didn’t do it until weeks after the attack. He said on Tuesday night that the president continued to say the Sept. 11 attack that killed our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans was the result of anger at an anti-Muslim video produced in the United States and seen on YouTube.

"He did in fact call it an 'act of terror,'" Crowley said in the debate. She was referring to the part of Obama’s statement on Sept. 12 that "no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation."

When a post-debate fact check of the transcript revealed that Obama was not directly referring to the Libya attack when he described “acts of terror,” Crowley revised her own remarks conceding that Romney “was right in the main.”

Via: Fox News

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Poll shows Romney leading in blue Pennsylvania

A  new poll shows Republican Mitt Romney leading in Pennsylvania, a state that Republicans had all but written off just weeks ago but which is now listed as a toss up by the Real Clear Politics website.

Susquehanna Polling and Research provided The Washington Examiner with a poll it conducted for state party officials that shows Romney with a 49 percent to 45 percent lead over President Obama.

It's the first poll to show Romney leading among likely voters in the Keystone State.

"The polling is very clear that the race is certainly up for grabs and Republicans have a tendency to never believe it," Susquehanna President James Lee told The Examiner.

Romney isn't spending much time or money in Pennsylvania, which hasn't backed a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.

Every other Pennsylvania poll shows Obama ahead, though by a narrowing margin. A Quinnipiac University poll taken around the same time as the Susquehanna poll shows Obama leading Romney 50 percent to 46 percent.

Susquehanna's automated poll of 1,376 likely voters was taken between Oct. 11 and 13, before the second presidential debate Tuesday that many saw as a comeback for Obama since his Oct. 3 showdown with Romney.

Lee said Romney has made significant gains in the all-important suburbs of Philadelphia, a ring of counties that helped push Obama to victory in 2008.

"Republicans haven't been able to do that in 20 years," Lee said. "Romney has made some major inroads."

Lee said Romney also gained ground in western Pennsylvania, where socially conservative, blue-collar Democrats have turned their backs on Obama.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Sen. Lindsey Graham on the Real Truth Behind the Benghazi Attack ...

It's a story about al Qaeda coming back, Libya going south, and it destroys the narrative that by killing bin Laden, al Qaeda's been dismantled. And it also destroys the narrative you can lead from behind in Libya and everything's fine. I hold the president personally accountable for knowing the security situation in the world.

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," October 17, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Well, the controversy over Libya leading to fireworks at last night's debate. Since the day after this year's September 11 attack, the Obama administration has been dishing out different versions of what happened. Here's a look at their ever-changing stories.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we're seeing on social media, what we're seeing in some of the local commentary is largely related to this reprehensible video.

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: We've seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with.

SUSAN RICE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: This was not a pre-planned, pre-meditated attack.

OBAMA: It is an extremely offensive video directed at Mohammed and Islam. Extremists and terrorists used this as an excuse to attack a variety of our embassies, including the one -- the consulate in Libya.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy.

CLINTON: What happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.

OBAMA: We're still doing an investigation. There's no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn't just a mob action.

LEON PANETTA, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It was a group of terrorists obviously conducted that attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: And now is President Obama changing his tune again? For weeks, the president's been saying al Qaeda is on the run and on its heels, but today -- and everyone was listening for this -- the president specifically removed those words from his campaign speech.

Senator Lindsey Graham is demanding answers from the president. He joins us. Nice to see you, Mr. -- nice to see you, Senator.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Thank you. I'm from Wisconsin, believe it or not,.

Via: Fox News

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ROMNEY'S SECRET BLOWOUT

While the left cheers President Obama’s second debate performance with the excitement of Chris Matthews on a prom date with The One, the fact remains that this was not just a bad debate for President Obama. It was a disastrous debate for President Obama. He may have achieved firing up the base, but the base had already been fired up by Vice President Joe Biden’s bizarre performance in the vice presidential debate. He may have achieved not looking comatose, but instead he looked angry and puerile.

Actually, Obama lost in three major ways.

Economy. The first loss is the most obvious. Mitt Romney absolutely dismembered Obama on economics. Obama wasn’t merely outclassed. He was out-leagued. Take, for example, the Romney-Obama exchange on gas drilling. After Obama blathered on about how he’d been great for oil supply (false), Romney gutted him with a single line:

The proof of whether a strategy is working or not is what the price is that you're paying at the pump. If you're paying less than you paid a year or two ago, why, then, the strategy is working. But you're paying more. When the president took office, the price of gasoline here in Nassau County was about $1.86 a gallon. Now, it's $4.00 a gallon.

Obama’s response was perhaps the worst economic gaffe in modern debate history:

Well, think about what the governor -- think about what the governor just said. He said when I took office, the price of gasoline was $1.80, $1.86. Why is that? Because the economy was on the verge of collapse, because we were about to go through the worst recession since the Great Depression, as a consequence of some of the same policies that Governor Romney's now promoting. So, it's conceivable that Governor Romney could bring down gas prices because with his policies, we might be back in that same mess.

Via: Breitbart

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INFOGRAPHICS: Federal Spending by the Numbers 2012

Several key questions still remain to be asked of President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney during tonight’s debate. Among them: What would each of them do to reduce the growing burden of federal spending on American households?

In 2012, the federal government spent $29,700 per American household. Of that amount, $9,400 was deficit spending. Put another way, $3.20 out of every $10 spent was borrowed.

These facts and more are available in a new Heritage report: “Federal Spending by the Numbers 2012.”

In 20 powerful graphics and four detailed tables, “Federal Spending by the Numbers 2012” analyzes government spending trends in the past and future. Heritage experts explain where the federal government spends the most, which areas of the budget have grown the fastest, and when the entitlements and net interest begin to overwhelm all other federal spending.Specific examples of government waste are featured at the end.

By 2025, the major entitlements and net interest will grow to 18.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), devouring all tax revenue at the historical average level. (continues below chart)

Via: The Foundry

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Swing States poll: Women push Romney into lead

9:06PM EDT October 15. 2012 - WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney leads President Obama by four percentage points among likely voters in the nation's top battlegrounds, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, and he has growing enthusiasm among women to thank.

As the presidential campaign heads into its final weeks, the survey of voters in 12 crucial swing states finds female voters much more engaged in the election and increasingly concerned about the deficit and debt issues that favor Romney. The Republican nominee has pulled within one point of the president among women who are likely voters, 48%-49%, and leads by 8 points among men.
MORE: Follow who's up and who's down in the polls

The battle for women, which was apparent in the speakers spotlighted at both political conventions this summer, is likely to help define messages the candidates deliver at the presidential debate Tuesday night and in the TV ads they air during the final 21 days of the campaign. As a group, women tend to start paying attention to election contests later and remain more open to persuasion by the candidates and their ads.

That makes women, especially blue-collar "waitress moms" whose families have been hard-hit by the nation's economic woes, the quintessential swing voters in 2012's close race.

Via: USA Today

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