Mitt Romney leads President Obama in national polls, and the president is approaching his all-time low in the RealClearPolitics average. Romney leads in some key swing states (e.g., Florida, Colorado and North Carolina) and has largely erased the deficit in others (Ohio, Virginia, Nevada). His approval rating (the likability rating so many liberals have obsessed about) is in positive territory; the gap between the two candidates’ approval ratings has all but disappeared.
Obama is below 60 on Intrade. Crowds for Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) are swelling in battleground states like Ohio. The Associated Press reported:
The crowds tell the story. As Election Day nears, Mitt Romney is drawing large and excited throngs. Look to dusty Iowa cornfields, rain-soaked Virginia parks, the muddy fields of the Shelby County Fairgrounds, where a crowd of 9,500 — almost half of this western Ohio town — gathered among the barns and stables on a frigid October evening this week to glimpse the Republican presidential contender. . . . He drew an estimated 12,000 people to a central Florida rally last weekend, 1,200 to an Iowa town of just 1,000, and several hundred more to Newport News, Va., under heavy October rain.
“People wonder why it is I’m so confident we’re going to win. I’m confident because I see you here on a day like this. This is unbelievable,” Romney said, his wet hair stuck to the side of his face. Soaked supporters standing in muddy puddles cheered as he delivered an abridged version of his standard campaign speech. Some wore ponchos, while many others stood shivering and drenched, hands in pockets.
This is all the more remarkable since Romney was never the favorite of the right-wing base.
The New York Times grudgingly concedes that Romney continues to surge. His “bounce” from the Oct. 3 debate hasn’t faded. His state polling in swing states has followed his national surge.
All of this suggests that the presidential race changed in some fundamental way after the first debate. It can certainly change again, but it is silly to deny that the first debate has been more significant than any one event in the 2012 election.
What happened? For one thing the debate exposed what many Republicans suspected, namely that some of Obama’s support was shallow, rooted in habit or from failure to consider Romney might be a viable alternative. Even in the heady days after the Democratic National Convention Obama did not reach more than 50 percent in the RCP averages or even in any week of Gallup tracking polls.
Recall that virtually the entire Obama strategy was aimed to discredit and delegitimize Romney as a candidate. The avalanche of negative ads in the summer, however, failed (barely) to do so. With Romney’s extraordinary debate performance, it now becomes nearly impossible to vilify him. Unfortunately for Obama he’s got no Plan B. He never devised an impressive second-term agenda. He has either unpopular (Obamacare) or unhelpful (raise taxes) or small beans (hire 100,000 teachers) proposals. Romney has therefore been able to deploy his “we can’t afford four more years” argument quite effectively.
And finally, as many of us suspected, foreign policy has become a front-burner issue. The attack on the Benghazi Consulate has now resonated with mainstream media and has become a story about competence and credibility. This may not have contributed to Romney’s rise, but it will assist him in holding off Obama.
For this, Romney owes a debt of gratitude to Vice President Biden, who elevated the issue in the debate through blatant misstatements. And in pointing the finger at the intelligence community, Biden risks a backlash in the form of leaks and testimony from those who aren’t going to take the fall for politicians. James Risen of the New York Times picks up on just one story line that just weeks ago hadn’t garnered much attention, as he writes:
The large private security firms that have protected American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan sought State Department contracts in Libya, and at least one made a personal pitch to the ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the militants’ attack in Benghazi on Sept. 11, according to a senior official at one firm.
But given the Libyan edict banning the contractors, the Obama administration was eager to reduce the American footprint there. After initially soliciting bids from major security companies for work in Libya, State Department officials never followed through.
“We went in to make a pitch, and nothing happened,” said the security firm official. He said the State Department could have found a way around the Libyans’ objections if it had wanted to.
Be prepared to see the drip-drip-drip of more revelations as whistleblowers get in line to tell their side of the story.
Romney has not won this race yet. A rotten debate performance could reset the race once more. Obama and his Chicago political hacks may have an October surprise or two up their collective sleeves. But now time and momentum are on Romney’s side. He appears to a plurality of voters to be not just an alternative to Obama but a good one. Unless that changes and changes fast (remember early voting is ongoing), Romney will win.
Addressing Attacks Against Mitt Romney Regarding Attempt to Improve Lyme Care in Virginia
As most people might guess, I have Lyme Disease. I’ve had it for 10 years now. I’m not here to defend Romney or endorse him. I’m here to explain how sad it is that few media outlets are focusing on the real issue. And that’s Lyme Disease, the epidemic.
At this point, I could care less what Mitt’s intent is for that Virginia mailer. We can speculate all we want, but why? We aren’t Romney or his team of brains that think up his campaign tactics. I do, however, think this is a good chance to view exactly how divided science, politics, the medical industry and patients are on this ONE topic.
Whether citizens in any one of these populations of people care to admit or not (if they even have an inkling), this disease is currently the largest vector-borne disease in America. Much like HIV was dubbed the “gay man’s disease” in the 80′s, Chronic Lyme Disease is getting ridiculed, overlooked, and dismissed without much attempt at further scientific research, aside from privately funded studies.
Why is this a political disease? Ask the politicians. Between Dearborn, OSP A and Plum Island, I’d say there is a whole lot of room for investigation. Of course, mainstream readers aren’t going to be reading about those topics, because the media has presented a neat and tidy scenario that makes Lyme activists, much like myself, “conspiracy theorists”.
I could care less about the criminals involved with creating this controversy. They will receive their Karma when they are ready to learn about the receiving end of disease. Whether they learn in this lifetime or the next is not up to me, but them, if you believe in that sort of thing. That’s really not my concern. Right now, Lyme patients need help. We need science. We need better (more sensitive) testing, we need treatments that WORK. Government has done nothing to support scientific research in chronic lyme disease.
Online “science” and news blogs are directing their attention on the WRONG thing. Forget about Romney for a second. Forget about what you think you know about this disease. Ask George W. Bush if he went to an IDSA trained doctor for his Lyme disease. Ask Bush how long he treated his infection. ANSWER: longer than 4 weeks, which is the max amount of time given to non-presidential Lyme patients with a newly diagnosed case only. Anything longer than that, you’re on your own.
What is being attempted by Romney is beyond description.LymeDisease.org explains it best in their blog post.
In there they discuss how Durland Fish, one of the IDSA authors, firmly believes Chronic Lyme Disease doesn’t exist. Where is the scientific evidence that it doesn’t exist? Where are the scientific studies the proves 4 weeks of doxycycline cures Lyme Disease? THAT is what doesn’t exist, because it’s never been done. What Mr. Fish IS good at is yelling at peaceful IDSA Guideline protesters, claiming they are “all crazy” and “you don’t know what you’re talking about,” while he flailed his arms about in a demeaning manner. What was he so upset about, if he has science backing his (flawed) guidelines up?
Unfortunately, mass media is going to support what the “authorities” say and label it as truth, while grouping Romney with the rest of the “quacks” in support of Lyme Disease awareness, prevention and proper treatment. Epidemic monsters like Lyme Disease cannot be kept in the closet forever. The US government knows this. The IDSA knows this. It’s a matter of what will they do to make themselves look like the heroes when they have no choice but to address these very real concerns.
If you want to understand the Lyme epidemic and the issues within the divided medical community, read “Cure Unknown” by Pamela Weintraub. She’s a talented and objective medical science journalist who happened to have Lyme after moving to upstate New York, along with her husband and children. The disease is devastatingly real. Some of these “writers” on these “science” and political news blogs (see links below) could really benefit by learning how to become self-thinking humans. It’s really not entirely difficult. All you need is a spine, a brain, and some balls.
