After asking the opening question in last night's debate, 20 year-old Jeremy Epstein became a minor internet celebrity. He's also no longer an undecided voter. He's going with Obama.
Unsurprisingly, Ezra Klein is less than impressed with the answers Mittens gave last night. If you like frosting, you're going to love the cake Mitt bakes. If you like actual cake, well that's another story.
GOP talking points and buzzwords fail: the US under Obama (who has been practicing what the right has been shrieking is "European-style socialism") has outperformed Europe -- which in reality was practicing the sort of Hoover-like austerity conservatives think is such a great freakin' idea. Seriously, there's not a single point in this whole thing the wingnuts have gotten right.
"Binders full of women" makes its way into Obama's stump speech.
Also in binders news: the RNC tries to get control of the meme and fails spectacularly. Another example of Republicans believing that if something's not working, you need to do more of it. The next step is probably to cut a 60-second spot where Mitt just says "binders, binders, binders..." over and over.
Mitt can lie really, really fast. Not really a talent to be proud of.
The TV audience for the second debate was larger than the first. Not a huge surprise, given the press the first one got. But keep in mind, that means more were exposed to the "fired up, ready to go" Barack Obama than the "I really wish I were celebrating my anniversary with my wife" one. We'll see if that makes a difference in public perception as time goes on. After all, the largest percentage probably saw both. Of course, the third debate is on Monday, so there may not be time to make much of an impact. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Fox's Megyn Kelly doesn't really get this whole focus group concept.
Finally, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg starts a nonpartisan super PAC for candidates whose positions resemble a certain NYC mayor's. The good news is that it reflects his position on gun control. The bad news is that it reflects his devotion to centrism. I'll say it until the day I die: if your political opponent is crazy, meeting him halfway is halfway crazy. You aren't going to get good results. Centrism represents a logically flawed argument, in that it assumes both sides have an equally valid point. This is not the case more often than not -- and especially after the GOP became infected with Tea Party Rabies.
[photo via Maddow Blog]
