Stories to Watch: 10/30/12

Electoral college forecasts:

• Electoral-Vote.com: OBAMA 280 - Romney 235
• FiveThirtyEight: OBAMA 294.6 - Romney 243.4
• DeSart and Holbrook: OBAMA 281 - Romney 257
• Princeton Election Consortium: OBAMA 303 - Romney 235
• Votamatic: OBAMA 332 - Romney 206
• UnskewedPolls.com: ROMNEY: 321 - Obama: 217

*****This is weird: "Shashank Tripathi, a hedge-fund analyst and the campaign manager of Christopher R. Wight, this year’s Republican candidate for the U.S. House from New York’s 12th congressional district," spent last night tweeting wildly inaccurate news stories about Hurricane Sandy. The most plausible explanation? He has "asshole tendencies." Sounds like a typical Republican troll. BONUS FUN: he's a fundraising contact for the Romney campaign.


Speaking of Republican assholes, the Cleveland Plain Dealer rips into Mitt Romney for lying about Chrysler-Jeep moving Ohio jobs to China. "Ohio voters know who stepped up when the auto industry was at the abyss," write the paper's editorial board, "and it wasn't Romney."


David Brooks wrote something stupid again.


Conor Friedersdorf nails it with just the headline: "The Case Against Sending TV Reporters Out in Hurricanes." Seriously, WTF? Are networks afraid we won't believe there's a hurricane unless some poor sap is televised ducking debris? Get them inside where it's safe and dry and they can report the facts calmly, rather than shouting into a microphone over the howling wind. We get it. It's not nice outside. We believe you.


All of a sudden, Mitt won't answer questions about FEMA.


Wisconsin Republicans are just embarrassing.


Utter devastation in Queens.


Finally, I'm getting so damned tired of this "Outrage of the Day" crap: President Obama used the word "Forward" in a briefing with emergency management types. "Forward" is Obama's campaign slogan and THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER!! Never mind that it wasn't a press event and the president was basically talking to the guys at work -- we must be outraged! We must!... Give it a rest, wingnuts. For one day, can't you just give it a rest?


[image via Flickr ]