November 2012

Matthew Continetti, writing in the Washington Free Beacon: 

Speaking Friday afternoon with THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Oklahoma congressman Tom Cole, a Republican who has emerged this week as an advocate of compromising on taxes, panned President Obama's proposal to avert the fiscal cliff.

At a farewell roast for retiring Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman, his Republican colleague from Arizona, John McCain, joked that he was now converting to Judaism.

The AAA has joined the side of the crackpots resisting the burning of food in internal combustion engines:

Georgia-based blogger and radio host Erick Erickson will not be running for the U.S. Senate, Erickson writes at RedState.com:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

Times are good in Washington and the political class is enjoying itself enormously in a game where the players see who will dance closest to the edge of a cliff.  Who knew that something as traditionally boring and pedestrian as balancing a budget could be so full of drama?  And, then, there is the…

The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, revealed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD that he “burst into laughter” when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined President Barack Obama's fiscal cliff plan yesterday. McConnell believes the plan is "completely unserious."

Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon reports:

George F. Will: A cliff of the Democrats' making.

Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, responds to reports of Barack Obama's fiscal cliff "plan" by calling it a "fabrication."

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, says he “burst into laughter” Thursday when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined the administration proposal for averting the fiscal cliff.  He wasn’t trying to embarrass Geithner, McConnell says, only responding candidly to his one-sided plan,…

America's ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, stated that today's resolution on the status of Palestine as an observer state "does not establish that Palestine is a state."

In the imagination of liberals and, hence, the mainstream media, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform is the great Republican bogeyman preventing Congress from coming to a reasonable (read: liberal) deal on taxes and spending. So reporters have been busy the past couple weeks asking…

President Barack Obama’s plan to avert the so-called fiscal cliff hinges on increasing marginal tax rates on those earning over $250,000 a year—a group that includes those “millionaires and billionaires” but also includes several hundred thousand small-business owners who file their taxes as…

Back in the day, when a cook lost on Top Chef, cohost Padma Lakshmi would tell the loser to "pack your knives" and go home. (At least she said it in her soft, sensual voice.) But for the last two seasons, eliminated contestants were given a chance at redemption on Last Chance Kitchen (viewable on…

The Falkland Islands seem to be popping up in the news a lot in the last month. There was the recent death of Sir Rex Hunt—the governor of the territory during the Argentine invasion—and his obituary must be read to be believed. It's like something straight out of an Evelyn Waugh novel.

Two technology firms that monitor global Internet traffic report that Syria has been cut off from the Internet. Regular landline phone and cell phones services have been affected as well, Syrian opposition activist Ammar Abdulhamid told me. “Therefore, the possibility of accidental damage can be…

In remarks on the Senate floor today, Alabama senator Jeff Sessions blasted President Barack Obama and congressional leadership for holding "secret" fiscal cliff negotiations.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid suggested he supports raising taxes on small business owners to 39.6 percent while lowering the tax rate on corporations to 28 percent. In a press conference at the Capitol Thursday afternoon, Reid, joined by other members of the Senate Democratic leadership,…

Jay Carney, speaking about the so-called fiscal cliff negotations, said yesterday that "the future" is now, as Jeryl Bier first noticed:

The Houston Chronicle reports:

In Washington there are two kinds of government expenditures.  Those that are too small to sweat and those that are too large to do anything about.  An example of something too large would be Medicare.  In the too small category, there is Amtrak, which gets a billion or so in subsidies every year.…

Vice President Joe Biden is attending the opening of Washington, D.C.'s first Costco this morning. From the pool report: 

When Mexican president Felipe Calderón leaves office on December 1, his successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, will inherit a country with rampant corruption and high levels of drug-related violence. Of course, when Calderón entered the presidency six years ago, he himself inherited a country with rampant…

Here comes the middle-class tax hike.

A week after the ceasefire concluding Israel’s eight day campaign against Hamas, Operation Pillar of Defense, there is some debate as to who came out on top. The way one judges the outcome seems to depend on: one, what you make of the ceasefire agreement; two, what role you think that Egyptian…

The Associated Press reports:

President Barack Obama singled out the American ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, for praise at a cabinet meeting today.

According to Iran, the terrorist group Hamas is very thankful for all the help provided to attack Israel.

In response to a question from reporter Major Garrett on whether the Obama administration's mishandling of Benghazi raises "core questions of basic competency," press secretary Jay Carney revealed that Barack Obama "is not particularly concerned" about whether Susan Rice misled the American people:

Harry Reid was against the filibuster rule change before coming out for it. In 2005, when Republicans threatened to change the rules to weaken Senate Democrats, Reid was a vocal opponent. 

Republican Bill Bolling, the two-term lieutenant governor of Virginia, has dropped out of the race for governor, CNN reports. Bolling was challenging Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for the Republican nomination. Here's more from CNN:

Republican senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, is accusing Democrat Harry Reid, the majority leader, of wanting to "break the rules to change the rules." This is part a "systematic effort to marginalize the minority," according to McConnell.

Erick Erickson, a conservative blogger, radio talk show host, and CNN contributor, may be considering a run for Senate in Georgia. On his radio show Tuesday, Erickson stated there are "a lot of people pledging a lot of money" for a primary challenge against incumbent Republican senator Saxby…

The White House announces that Governor Mitt Romney will meet tomorrow with President Barack Obama for lunch.

As hard as it is to believe, it’s been only a little over three weeks since Election Day. But there are already plenty of signs that Republicans are learning many of the wrong lessons from that debacle. For starters, there’s been a lot of excessive emphasis on racial demographics, which actually…

Early in November, the Saudi Arabian government announced the replacement of interior minister Prince Ahmed Bin Abdul Aziz, named to the post in June of this year, after the death of Prince Nayef, his elder brother. Nayef, who succumbed at age 78, had been feared widely as the embodiment of the…

How the "Life of Julia" won out.

CBS News reports:

The president-elect of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, praised President Barack Obama's immigration plan in a meeting today at the White House. 

Household debt jumped once again to $2.7 trillion, according to the New York Fed. "[T]he Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that in the third quarter, non-real estate household debt jumped 2.3 percent to $2.7 trillion," reports the fed. "The increase was due to a boost in student loans ($42…

The world's greatest deliberative body (just ask any of its members) got hung up over what is called a "Sportsmen's Bill." The impasse came on the first day after the Thanksgiving holiday, which is, traditionally, a time when hunters like to be in the deer woods and duck marshes, which the bill…

The chair of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger, revealed yesterday that President Barack Obama believes "the payroll tax cut, among others, should be on the table." Krueger suggested Obama favored letting the payroll tax cut expire, which would result in a large tax…

U.N. ambassador Susan Rice says in a statement that "I nor anyone else in the Administration intended to mislead the American people" regarding Benghazi.

Three U.S. senators blasted Susan Rice after meeting with her on Capitol Hill. The meeting centered around the Benghazi terrorist attack--and Rice's public statements following the attack.

Susan Rice, the current U.N. ambassador and a possible nominee for secretary of state, has been under fire recently for her involvement in the Benghazi scandal. Prominent senators have promised to block Rice's nomination over the matter, if President Obama puts her up for secretary of state.

Barbara Starr of CNN reports that Iran is currently "finding ways to resupply Hamas."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida will reportedly stay on as Democratic National Committee chief for another two-year term.

In an interview on CNN, Grover Norquist likened his no-tax pledge to marriage.

Ross Douthat on the enemy that is the payroll tax.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Benjamin Weinthal reports that "Death to the Jews" chants were heard in the streets of Vienna:

Warren Buffett is by now no stranger to the national debate over federal tax policy. In 2009, he penned a New York Times op-ed calling for "truly major changes in both taxes and outlays." Two years later, he returned to the Times with a widely publicized call for large tax increases on the…

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum says he is “open” to another run for president in 2016. Santorum was asked about a possible presidential campaign Monday at THE WEEKLY STANDARD. 

Next week the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union will meet in Dubai to figure out how to control the Internet. Representatives from 193 nations will attend the nearly two week long meeting, according to news reports.

The Hill reports:

Republican House member Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia will challenge Democrat Jay Rockefeller for the U.S. Senate. At 59, Capito, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2001 and is the daughter of former West Virginia governor Arch Moore, will be facing a 75-year-old…

CNN reports that practically all Americans went shopping over "Black Friday" weekend.

The American Enterprise Institue's latest report on the Iranian nuclear program:

Babies are being named for the recent fighting between the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Israel, the Israeli media is reporting. At least, babies being born to those affiliated with Hamas.

The boss made the case over the weekend that the payroll tax should not be forgotten. Likewise, Ross Douthat writes:

Lover he was, unlonely, yet alone—

Last week was an eventful one in Washington, but one piece of news came and went with surprising swiftness. The executive editor of the Washington Post, Marcus Brauchli, was fired by the Post’s publisher, Katharine Weymouth—and hardly anyone paused to notice.

For almost a year, America’s allies in the Middle East and Western Europe have believed it was only Obama’s reelection campaign that held the president back from employing more forceful means to topple Bashar al-Assad. After all, ending the bloodshed that has killed over 40,000 people has been the…

Marathon runners are cheaters. Not all of them, or even most of them, mind you. But of all the major endurance sports​—​bicycling, running, swimming​—​the men and women hoofing it at the 26.2-mile distance are the ones most prone not just to doping and steroids and other chemical/mechanical…

Under current law, the U.S. economy will tumble over the so-called fiscal cliff at the start of the new year, when roughly $500 billion in across-the- board tax hikes and $100 billion in spending cuts are scheduled to take effect. Numerous economists predict the automatic tax increases, the result…

A dedicated libertarian, William Niskanen was also a dedicated pot-stirrer. For him the two vocations—pressing the case for small government and, at least intellectually, making trouble—were inseparable. He was best known as an original member of Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, one of…

The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and…

In their obsession with stressing the economy and jobs in the 2012 campaign, Mitt Romney and Republicans ignored or downplayed an array of compelling issues. This was a foolish mistake. They failed to exploit unpopular policies of President Obama’s first term and left unanswered charges that proved…

At his first press conference after being elected to a second term, President Barack Obama did everything he could to avoid directly answering the difficult questions on the growing scandal about his administration’s handling of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi. But in so doing, the president…

One of the dramatic social developments of our time—family breakdown, now known by the term of art family fragmentation—is seldom touched on by our top politicians. Yet with the United States probably leading the industrial world in this amalgam of out-of-wedlock births, divorces, and short-lived…

Remember Shaima Alawadi? Shortly after the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida last March, the 32-year-old mother of five, an immigrant from Iraq in the 1990s, was found murdered. There was a note next to her bludgeoned body that read, “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” With liberal…

It’s no wonder Danny Boyle’s spectacular opening show at the London Olympics featured a scene in which Daniel Craig’s James Bond jumped from an airplane along with Queen Elizabeth. For just as those ceremonies finally and for all time sealed Great Britain’s journey from the nation of the stiff…

It is now two months until the inauguration in Washington, and it would be nice if the world went into a postelection recess for the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s holidays. With Israel facing elections on January 22, there might once have been some hope for a brief respite. Alas, events…

They squabble, scrabble, and squawk. They peck at the last windfalls, out under the fruit trees, until they’re—I don’t know, drunk maybe on the hard cider of the apple mash or rendered hyperactive by some mad avian sugar rush, and then they strut through the yard, chests puffed out, spoiling for a…

The New York Times opens up an article on the city's mayoral race by asking, "Where are the Jews?"

Bob Woodward explained this morning on a Sunday show that Barack Obama did not fix the economic issues in his term as president:

The day after Hamas agreed to a ceasefire with Israel, the terrorist group's TV station aired this "Death to Israel!" music video on its station:

The Chinese military claims for the first time to have landed a plane on an aircraft carrier, the state media outlet Xinhua reports.

By the end of this long weekend, we will have eaten (46 million gobblers gobbled up), travelled (44 million 50+ mile trips in cars, planes, and trains), malled (147 million crazed bargain hunters), and spent enough time watching football to have become familiar with every vulnerable bone and…

The U.N. wants to use drones, the French news agency Agence France-Presse reports. "The United Nations wants to use drones for the first time to monitor fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwanda has been accused of aiding rebels," says the report, quoting U.N. officials.

President Barack Obama is reportedly considering the use of the corporate cash to help pay for inauguration. The thinking is, after a long and very expensive presidential campaign, donors might be too spent to pick up the tab.

The World Jewish Congress is expressing concern about an anti-Semitic and racist outburst at a recent soccer game. The concern relates to a Europa League game between Italian team S.S. Lazio and the English the Tottenham Hotspur. The match took place Thursday night in Rome.

I happened to read Michael Connelly's first mystery, The Black Echo, when it was published twenty years ago. I've been a fan every since. His books are now bestsellers, but it's always a nice feeling to have discovered someone (or something) before everyone else did—even if one deserves no…

Lee Smith, writing at Tablet: 

Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, a key figure in the scandal that brought down CIA director Gen. David Petraeus, received the "country’s second-highest honor for a civilian," according to the New York Post. The honor was awarded because of the socialite's “selfless contributions” and “willingness to…

Ambassador Susan Rice has finally explained, in her opinion, why she misled the country about what happened during the September 11 terror attack against Americans in Benghazi, Libya. According to Rice, all the blame should be given to the intelligence community for her misleading comments made…

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that…

There are some facts so obvious that only a liberal could deny them. One of them is that, from Benghazi to Be’er Sheva, the West is under attack.

If the truce announced in Cairo last Wednesday truly brings the Gaza war to a close, it is not too soon to assess who gained and who lost from this conflict.

The Hill reports:

Reuters reports:

At this year's annual turkey pardoning event at the White House, President Barack Obama took a jab at Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Here's the text, via the Egyptian president, of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas:

In an interview with the Huffington Post, MSNBC president Phil Griffin tries to push back against the notion that his channel has become a mouth-piece for President Barack Obama.

In a phone call today between the two leaders, President Barack Obama thanked Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi for helping to assist with the ceasefire between Hamas in Gaza and Israel.

In a read-out of a phone call between President Barack Obama and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the United States pledged to "use the opportunity offered by a ceasefire to intensify efforts to help Israel address its security needs, especially the issue of the smuggling of weapons and…

America's ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, was quick to condemn the terror attack in Tel Aviv today as a "terrorist attack."

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

Karen Mills, President Obama's Small Business Administration chief, claimed this morning on MSNBC that she has not heard one case of Obamacare hurting small business:

Saxby Chambliss, the two-term senior senator from Georgia, could face a Republican primary challenge in 2014.

The White House immediately condemned today's bus bombing in Tel Aviv, which it labeled a "terrorist attack."

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Iowa governor Terry Branstad says no more Ames Straw Poll.

The Israeli army has issued a warning to journalists: Stay away from the terrorist group Hamas. The warning was issued on Twitter:

The Associated Press reports that a homegrown terror plot was busted in California.

Mark Warner, the Democratic senator from Virginia and governor from 2002 to 2006, has decided not to run for governor next year. The Washington Post's Ben Pershing reports:

The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that "At this point in time there is no Israeli agreement on any version of a ceasefire." Emergency Committee for Israel executive director Noah Pollak reports on Twitter:

This past weekend, Congressman Mike Rogers, who is chairman of the House intelligence committee, said that the talking points used to explain what happened in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012 were changed by political appointees in the Obama administration. Rogers pointed specifically to the…

Yesterday, the Treasury Department designated Ali Musa Daqduq, “a senior Hizballah commander responsible for numerous attacks against Coalition Forces in Iraq, including planning an attack on the Karbala Joint Provincial Coordination Center (JPCC) on January 20, 2007, which resulted in the deaths…

At Forbes.com, Larry Bell offers a nice summary of the unanswered questions surrounding the Benghazi-Patreaus controversy. He asks (and addresses) the following: “Did the White House blackmail General Petraeus to support a cover story?” “When did the President really learn about the Petraeus…

Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, has voted to rescind the honorary degree it conferred on embattled bicyclist Lance Armstrong, a university spokesman confirms.

Politico reports:

The Foreign Policy Initiative is hosting its annual forum next week in Washington, D.C.:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Cairo, the State Department announced. Here's the announcement: 

Yuval Levin and James Capretta, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

Why Americans instinctively defend Israel.

In this footage from CNN, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to fall asleep during President Barack Obama's Burma speech:

At an event at the White House for the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program awards program, First Lady Michelle Obama praised arts in children's education by saying, "if it’s good enough for our kids, it’s good enough for all of our kids."

The pro-Israel group Christians United for Israel (CUFI) is circulating a petition asking Twitter not to allow the terrorist group Hamas to use its social media platform.

Willy Stern recalls:  

The State Department has announced that it's sending the assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs to ... Minneapolis, Minnesota. The government official, Esther Brimmer, will meet with "local human rights and refugee advocates."

Those who doubt the possibility of comebacks (Republicans, for instance) can take heart from the revival of Notre Dame's football fortunes, this morning's number one college team.

After a year and a half of conflict, and despite some 40,000 deaths, the world still stands impotent to end the bloodshed in Syria. With Russia and China reviving their recurring role as United Nations Security Council obstructionists, concerned countries have been forced to seek out meaningful…

A new poll from CNN finds that most American support for Israel's retaliatory action in Gaza targeting Hamas.

During an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Congressman Mike Rogers, who is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, accused political appointees in the intelligence community of spinning the September 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

When Argentine president Cristina Kirchner nationalized the Spanish-owned YPF oil company this past April, Washington Post correspondent Juan Forero proclaimed her “the standard-bearer of populist nationalism in Latin America.” At the time, her decision played well at home: One poll found that 62…

President Barack Obama called Burma 'Myanmar' after a bilateral meeting with Thein Sein, the president of that country. From the pool report:

Bill Kristol, with Bob Woodward, Charles Lane, and Kimberley Strassel, yesterday on Fox News:

Sometimes a picture just isn’t worth a thousand words. Or to be more precise, the 947 words the Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott published the day after the election about a photograph of Barack and Michelle Obama embracing earlier this year. It’s a lovely photo, and we don’t doubt that it…

The last thing Republicans need is an identity crisis. The losses in the 2012 election shouldn’t be sugarcoated. President Obama’s reelection does mean Obamacare will go into effect, and another shot at capturing the Senate was squandered. But the election was a setback, not a catastrophe.

Perusing the exit poll data, The Scrapbook noticed that Romney would have triumphed but for losing one pesky little demographic group: voters aged 18-44. This finding reminded us of H. L. Mencken’s jaundiced view of democracy—“the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to…

The relative lack of interest in drinking among those of the Jewish persuasion is familiar enough that it is the subject of numerous jokes of various degrees of wit. It is well known, for example, that caterers think it is in their own commercial interests to tend an open bar for Jewish events and…

Consumers are justifiably confused when it comes to picking out a smartphone. Many high-end iPhones and Androids contain features that are not terribly useful in everyday life. Not-so-early adopters also worry that they will purchase a state-of-the-art phone for $399 and then, just a few months…

On November 6 voters in California did something nearly unheard of during the past 30 years: They approved, by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent, a ballot measure raising state income taxes on the most prosperous Californians and sales taxes on everyone, even though the state’s sales tax is…

The best way to fly isn’t first class, and it’s not on a private jet​—​the former resembles more and more what economy used to be while the latter usually involves tiny cabins. No, the way to go is on a chartered jet with a professional sports team.

Just as American children grow up with Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat, British children grow up with Edward Lear’s fantastical but touching poem “The Owl and the Pussycat.”

After his defeat in Britain’s 1945 general election, Winston Churchill’s wife Clementine consoled him: “It may well be a blessing in disguise.” Churchill replied, “At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised.”

Over at The Root, the Washington Post’s online section providing “commentary from an African-American perspective,” columnist Keith Harriston reminds President Obama that black support for his reelection was unwavering. “We understand a broad coalition elected you president both terms, not just us.…

Does Alexis de Tocqueville have anything to say to the current generation of Chinese leaders?

Every Christmas there’s some newfangled toy that kids clamor for​—​Cabbage Patch Kids, Furby, Tickle Me Elmo. Could this be the year of the Breast Milk Baby? 

In many respects, the 2012 election played out as a close cousin of the 2004 contest. A vulnerable incumbent president in a bad political environment faced a weak challenger who lacked a core ideology and who articulated no clear vision for the country. In both campaigns the challenger chose to…

In the 1930s, a group of psychologists and physical anthropologists at Harvard chose 268 students whose medical, amatory, and career experiences they wished to document over the remaining decades of their lives. Department-store mogul W. T. Grant, who bankrolled the study, was curious about what…

Whatever the reason for holding elections in November, it works out as a merciful thing. If your party loses, you’ve still got football to remind you of what is truly important in life. There is nothing like college football—not even politics—for passionate, irrational affections and loyalties. A…

Had this presidential campaign been a chess match, one move would have merited a row of exclamation points. A chess master will violate the rules of strategy as neophytes understand them (“You’re gonna lose your Queen!”) but only because he sees possibilities on the board that are invisible to…

The ostensible subject of Jon Wiener’s account of his visits to several dozen Cold War museums, monuments, and memorials is how badly many of them convey what actually happened during that era. He reports that, by and large, they do a poor job of explaining the Cold War and of justifying the…

Visiting victims of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey today, Vice President Joe Biden told them not to worry, saying, "you’ve got a homeboy in the deal who gets it." Biden was referring to President Barack Obama.

The terror group Hamas has reportedly rejected a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Jerusalem

I received an email yesterday from Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R, Ill.) that he's given me permission to post, as I thought it would be of interest to our readers. Here it is:

White House staffer Ben Rhodes denied to reporters yesterday that Susan Rice's talking points had been edited to delete reference to a terror attack in Benghazi:

New Hampshire Republican senator Kelly Ayotte asks General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., why Afghanistan matters. Watch Dunford's response here:

Charlotte Allen writes:

The Washington Post reports that “the CIA and other intelligence analysts have settled on what amounts to a hybrid view” of September 11, 2012, “suggesting that the Cairo protest sparked militants in Libya, who quickly mobilized an assault on U.S. facilities in Benghazi.” 

Two major Israeli newspapers are reporting that rockets fired from Egypt have hit Israel. 

This afternoon, President Barack Obama consulted with MSNBC host Al Sharpton, who's also assicated with the National Action Network (NAN), about the fiscal talks between the White House and Congress. At the same meeting, Obama also consulted with other "leaders of civil rights and civic…

According to this Fox News report, intelligence professionals are unable explain why the Benghazi intelligence downplayed the role of al Qaeda-linked terrorists in the attack.

President Obama’s trip to Southeast Asia will take him to Thailand, Cambodia, and Burma. Relations with Thailand and Cambodia are relatively static, thanks to the former’s historic alliance with the U.S. and despite the latter’s terrible human rights record. Burma, on the other hand, is in the…

Jill Kelly, the Tampa socialite that was instrumental in bringing down CIA director David Petraeus, visited the White House three times over the course of the last year, numerous reports reveal. Kelley's most recent visit was November 4, 2012, two days before President Barack Obama was reelected to…

President Barack Obama spoke on the phone with the Islamist leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, about the Israel's retaliatory strikes on the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, according to the White House.

First off, it’s not a “fiscal cliff.” What we’re slated to hit as of New Year’s Day, as the Wall Street Journal notes, is a tax cliff. Our fiscal cliff, which drops off into a far deeper canyon, is what looms because of our $16,000,000,000,000 debt and the runaway entitlement spending that fuels it…

Hostess Brands has been driven into bankruptcy. The company, according to the Wall Street Journal, was done in by:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

Yesterday, Hostess announced that it would be forced to liquidate if it could not get striking employees to return to full production as of today. Among many pro-labor types, this was dismissed as yet another negotiating ploy by management. It wasn't. Hostess is laying off 18,500 workers and…

The AP reports:

Ryan Streeter writes:

David Petraeus is going to tell members of Congress that he "knew almost immediately after the September 11th attack, that the group Ansar al Sharia, the al Qaeda sympathizing group in Libya was responsible for the attacks," CNN reports.

President Obama heads abroad Saturday for a four-day visit to Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia. One assumes the president was going to add on to this trip a visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan, which would certainly be the fitting and proper thing to do. Wouldn't it also be fitting and proper, and an…

The FBI agent's "shirtless photo" was a joke.

Israel’s latest campaign in Gaza against Hamas has left Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in a bind. His rivals, both on the left and more significantly those on the right, the Salafis, have taken to the streets to protest Operation Pillar of Defense. Morsi has recalled Egypt’s ambassador to Israel,…

Kirsten Powers writes:  

Fans of Top Chef were probably not surprised that the first to go was young Jeffrey Jew, a personal chef formerly of Washington, D.C. Problem is, he only looks young. Jew was 34 when the episode was taped. He not only has years of experience both stateside and in London, but also graduated at the…

President Obama said in front of a church devastated by Hurricane Sandy in New York that ""We've got some work to do and I want you to know I'm here to do it." Here's more, from the pool report:

President Obama is traveling in New York today for the first time since Hurricane Sandy devastated large areas in that state (and elsewhere). While touring the federal centers set up to deal with the storm, a woman told the press: "We need help--he should [have] been here a long time ago."

With Barack Obama’s reelection, withdrawal of U.S. and other NATO combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014—except for trainers of an Afghan national army—remains high on his agenda. The leading rival Islamic powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are meanwhile competing for future influence over the…

Numerous reports on Twitter indicate that a rocket from Hamas has hit Tel Aviv. Here's one from Israel's ambassador the U.S., Michael Oren:

A report in the Chinese state-run Xinhua outlet claims that President Barack Obama congratulated Xi Jinping on his "election" to be the top Communist in China. Jinping will be the next president of China, and now controls the Chinese military.

Lee Smith, writing in Tablet: 

At yesterday’s press conference, Chuck Todd of NBC News asked, “Are you withholding judgment on whether you should have known sooner that there was a potential — that there was an investigation into whether your CIA director — potentially there was a national security breach with your CIA director?…

“She will continue to lead a united Democratic Caucus that will play a crucial role in developing a responsible deficit reduction package — working with President Obama and our colleagues in the Senate — that protects Social Security and Medicare, the middle class and children, while asking the…

Reason 583 why Project ORCA failed miserably.

Mitt Romney’s campaign can effectively be boiled down into two parts. One was his first debate appearance, during which he aggressively attacked President Obama’s abysmal record and vigorously explained and defended his own policy proposals. During the other part of his campaign — encompassing his…

President Obama the self-proclaimed compromiser sounds the same as Obama the partisan politician running for reelection. At his press conference Wednesday, he harped on what had been a chief talking point of his campaign—raising taxes for the wealthy.

Washington Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers was elected by the House Republican conference as its chair for the upcoming Congress, reports Jill Jackson of CBS News. McMorris Rodgers, who defeated Georgia congressman Tom Price for the position, will rank fourth in the House leadership. Price had…

Marc Thiessen reports that, in fact, the CIA still has "detention authority."

Max Boot writes:

President Barack Obama revealed at his press conference this afternoon that he is responsible for sending U.N. ambassador Susan Rice to speak to the American people a few days after the September 11 Benghazi terror attack.

At today's press conference, President Barack Obama made a second term pledge:

With the election over, President Barack Obama lavished praise on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at today's press briefing:

The Israeli army gives fair warning to Hamas terrorists on Twitter:

Let’s be clear what the bargaining over the fiscal cliff is all about. It is not about a long-term solution to our run away deficits and the iceberg looming in the distance: entitlement spending that will sink our fiscal ship. It is not about extracting more revenues from “the rich,” however…

Earlier today, Israel struck at dozens of targets inside Gaza, including Ahmed Jabari, Hamas’s chief of staff and a senior official in the organization’s military outfit, the Izz ad-din al-Qassam Brigades. Jabari was behind the abduction of Gilad Shalit, and planned the 2007 coup that left Hamas in…

Here's video, courtesy of Israel Defense Forces, which is said to show the direct bombing of a top Hamas commander, Ahmed Jabri:

Let me preface this item by saying I am not the biggest fan of Guy Fieri, the Food Network celebrity with the bleached-blonde spikey hair who hosts Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives. I pretty much lost all interest in him when he started doing ads for T.G.I. Friday's—are you honestly craving that Chipotle…

Paul Wolfowitz writes: 

Senate aides confirm that Republican senator Mitch McConnell has been reelected minority leader in the Senate. Conservative stalwarts Pat Toomey and Marco Rubio spoke in favor of McConnell's nomination at the closed door session.

Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts, was coy this morning when asked in the Capitol about his plans for the future. It has been speculated that Kerry might be a leading candidate to take over for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or even for Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

The Washington Post reports:

The United States is giving an additional $30 million to help aid those affected by the Syria crisis, the State Department announced today. This means total U.S. assistance to help with this crisis is now nearly $200 million.

Robert Robb writes:

Joe Trippi on what he saw with Karl Rove on Election Night.

According to my sources here in Vermont (that would be the Burlington Free Press and Vermont Public Radio) 2/3s of the state's congressional delegation believes the country is likely to go over the fiscal cliff.  The remaining 1/3 is "hopeful" that this bullet can somehow be dodged.

Robert Kagan, writing in the Washington Post:

Russian president Vladimir Putin claims President Barack Obama is planning to visit Russia, the outlet RIA Novosti reports.

In remarks on the Senate floor, the top Republican in that chamber argues against a mandate for President Barack Obama after his reelection last week.

A White House petition gathering force calls for citizenship to be stripped and exile for anyone who signs a petition in favor of a state's secession.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

When it comes to finding a leadership role in the next Congress, Tom Price is running out of options. Price, a stalwart conservative House member from Georgia, is the outgoing Republican Policy Committee chairman, which ranked him fifth in the GOP House leadership. His position gave movement…

ABC's Denver affiliate is coming under fire for accidentally running a phony cover of Paula Broadwell's biography of General David Petraeus. The cover read, All Up In My Snatch. The real book title is All In.

Robert W. Patterson writes:

Bobby Jindal suggests to Politico he's thinking of a new way forward:

"The FBI probe into the sex scandal that prompted CIA Director David Petraeus to resign has expanded to ensnare Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced early Tuesday," the Washington Post reports.

Labor lost at the polls in MIchigan last week.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta seemed not to have extensive knowledge of the Petraeus affair when talking to the press earlier today on board a flight to Australia. 

Honor Flight, the trailer:

The United States and Venezuela will now serve together on the United Nations Human Rights Council, after both countries won elections today to serve together. Venezuela received 154 votes and is in the Latin American group, while the U.S. received 131 and is in the Western group.

Academic and activist Cornel West blasts Barack Obama, just days after the first black president's reelection.

Over the weekend, New Jersey senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who was just reelected, sat for a Sunday interview with CNN's Candy Crowley. They discussed the Petraeus affair, the looming fiscal cliff, and the clean-up after Hurricane Sandy.

The paperback version of All In, the biography of David Petraeus written by his mistress Paula Broadwell, will be published earlier than planned, according to Shelf Awareness:

With the election over, members of the mainstream media are now claiming victory over the conservative media. Jonathan Martin of Politico writes about how insular Republicans were blindsided by the Democrats' success last week and chalks it up to "Kaelism"--recalling the movie critic Pauline Kael's…

We heard throughout the campaign of President Obama’s “all of the above” energy policy. That was then. This is now. About 48 hours after he was assured of reelection, the president’s Interior Department issued a plan to close to oil shale development 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West to…

The New York Times reports that the Petraeus affair has been known about since the summer:

Two years ago, Oliver Stone announced that he was preparing to make a documentary about recent American history. It premieres on the CBS-owned cable network Showtime on November 12. Titled 

There is one curious beneficiary of the September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that cost four American lives: Egypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood government. The attack in Libya and subsequent controversy has almost entirely obscured the siege that same day of the American embassy in…

Hurricane Sandy showed Vermont some mercy, where Irene did not.  The storm passed to the west, and we got a lot of rain and enough wind to knock out power to a few thousand people, including, 

As people in New York were suffering and hospitals were being evacuated, the New York Times editorial page seized the occasion to score political points: “Disaster coordination is one of the most vital functions of ‘big government,’ which is why Mitt Romney wants to eliminate it.” This was…

November 6 is not only Election Day, it's also the eight-week anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

China and the United States both launch leadership transitions this week. Earnest persons, in fear or hope, turn a raindrop of coincidence into a storm of meaning. In fact, November 6 here and November 8 in Beijing, when the Chinese Communist party (CCP) opens its 18th congress, have nothing in…

The Scrapbook notes, with some amusement, that George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars franchise, sold his lucrative Lucasfilm enterprise last week to the Disney Company, which announced in turn that it intends to revive and extend the Star Wars saga. We leave it to the experts to judge whether this…

In case you were wondering who the “Brave Thinkers” of 2012 are, the Atlantic has helpfully compiled a list of 21 people who are “risking their reputations, fortunes, and lives in the pursuit of big ideas.” There are a few people on the list worthy of commendation, such as Chinese human rights…

New York

A solipsistic, brooding president fights for reelection. A bold attack by terrorists on a U.S. embassy takes the administration by surprise. National malaise increases. Most people are not better off than they were four years before, and many worry that their best days are behind them. Gas prices…

Of the making of books, Ecclesiastes informs us, there is no end. But of some books, perhaps, there should never have been a beginning. One such book, or so many believed when it first appeared, was Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. When published in…

This morning on NBC's Meet the Press, Andrea Mitchell revealed that the Petraeus affair would not have been public had it not been for a whistleblower who approached Republican House majority leader Eric Cantor.

In today's New York Times, Ross Douthat begins the debate, and, in my judgment, very much points in the right direction.

Israeli forces returned fire into Syria today with some warning shots, according to the Jerusalem Post. "The IDF fired a warning shot at the Syrian military on Sunday, after a Syrian shell landed in the Golan Heights for the second time in recent days."

The robocalls have stopped. Television ads have gone from attacks on candidates to the usual pitches for medications and exercises that will enable you to live forever. Political post-mortems are under way. And the 2016 wannabees are lining up financing and staffs for their runs at the Democratic…

President Barack Obama is spending his first Saturday after winning reelection on the golf course. Today's outing is to the course on Andrews Air Force Base.

Six U.S. senators continue to push officials in the Obama administration for information related to the 9/11 Benghazi terror attack. In a statement released just before the weekend, Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte, Rob Portman, Saxby Chambliss, and Ron Johnson, all Republicans,…

Here's a letter to the New York Times Magazine's "ethicist," which was published over the summer:

Eli Lake on the coming foreign policy debate in the GOP.

A few thoughts on the resignation of David Petraeus as CIA director: Few American leaders had a stronger reputation for integrity and honor, so the reason he cited for his departure – an extramarital affair – comes as a shock to the nation and to those who know him best.

Following his resignation from CIA director, David Petraeus won't testify at next week's Benghazi hearing on Capitol Hill. Mark Knoller reports: 

President Barack Obama's statement on the resignation of CIA director Gen. David Petraeus:

CIA director David Petraeus's statement of resignation:

President Barack Obama used his new political politician coming off his reelection win to assert his political position ahead of fiscal negotiations with Congress.

The office Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, confirms to the White House press corps that he'll be dining with President Obama tonight at the White House.

Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who defeated Scott Brown for the U.S. Senate, held what the Boston Herald reports as an "awkward" first press conference in Boston with Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. Warren's first question from the press as a senator-elect was about defense…

The Washington Post is reporting that an article published on the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence website suggests that Tehran is open to talks. According to the Post, the document is a “sober analysis assessing the possible threat of a military confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program and…

Megan McArdle offers a few reasons to be skeptical of an "emerging Democratic majority."

Yuval Levin, writing for National Review Online:

At Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevan and Carl Cannon rightly note that “[Mitt] Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan cheered fiscal and social conservatives within the Republican Party and provided a much needed shot in the arm for Romney’s campaign.”  But they also argue that, “by choosing Ryan, Romney…

Liberal historians of American politics have long held, at least implicitly, a teleological view of our history. The assumption is that America is slowly moving toward a more “progressive” (read: statist) society, and the only thing the right can do is slow the movement. Conservatives cannot stop…

Yuval Levin on the election and the right.

Last night Bravo aired the qualifying episode of Top Chef, featuring 21 chefs competing for 15 slots. Of the three D.C. chefs in the running, two succeeded and one failed—Dan O'Brien of Seasonal Pantry was asked to make an omelet for Wolfgang Puck. It wasn't pretty.

New York City will start rationing gas tomorrow. Here's the announcement, from mayor's Twitter feed:

Fox News reports:

The U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James Smith, told the Arabic news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat that American foreign policy will now change after President Barack Obama's reelection. Smith made the comments at an election night party at his residence. 

Bill Kristol, with Mara Liasson, A.B. Stoddard, and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

President Barack Obama will travel to Burma, as well as other countries in Asia, the White House announced. 

Hillary Clinton still intends to step down as secretary of state. That will take place likely "days" after President Barack Obama's second inauguration in January.

Attorney General Eric Holder might not serve in President Barack Obama's second term.

The 2012 presidential election is over, but perhaps the 2016 contest has already begun. Florida senator Marco Rubio, a star in the Republican party, is headed to Iowa. 

Former White House chief of staff William Daley is considering a run for Illinois governor. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Fred Barnes, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

On October 24, Egyptian officials raided an apartment in Nasr City, a neighborhood in Cairo, suspected of housing a terrorist cell with ties to the September 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. A firefight ensued and one of the suspected terrorists was killed. An Egyptian police official…

Vice President Joe Biden will be a guest performer on the sitcom Parks and Recreation later this month. The spot was filmed over the summer, but kept silent in order to avoid having to give equal air time to Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, the New York Times reports.

Vic Matus, writing on steak sauces in the Washington Post:

Barack Obama is now the first president in American history to win a second term with a smaller share of the electoral vote, a smaller share of the popular vote, and a smaller aggregate vote than when he was first elected. There are still votes to be counted, but as of this writing he actually has…

Vice President Joe Biden told reporters on Air Force Two today that last night's election represented a clear "mandate" to raise taxes.

A second term with no mandate.

According to the AP's Ben Feller, "Obama will push for higher taxes on the wealthy as a way to shrinking a choking debt and to steer money toward the programs he wants."

The Republican party’s brutal defeat in yesterday’s presidential and Senate races offers at least one clear, abiding lesson: Republicans can’t win without making their case.

John Boehner laid out the House Republican position in the upcoming legislative debate on the fiscal cliff in remarks Wednesday afternoon. "Mr. President, the Republican majority here in the House stands ready to work with you to do what's best for our country," Boehner said, calling the massive…

Vice President Joe Biden told the press on Air Force Two that he's now  "very optimistic about ... immigration reform."

Last night, Colorado approved the legalization of marijuana. In response, Governor John Hickenlooper said, "The voters have spoken and we have to respect their will. This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug,…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

Democrat Jim Matheson of Utah has won a tight race against Republican challenger Mia Love. The only Democrat in the Utah congressional delegation, Matheson bested Love by 1 percentage point. Here's more from the Deseret News:

Democrat Jim Matheson of Utah has won a tight race against Republican challenger Mia Love. The only Democrat in the Utah congressional delegation, Matheson bested Love by 1 percentage point. Here's more from the Deseret News:

In reaction to President Barack Obama's reelection, a top Israeli newspaper is warning, "start filling your sandbags. We're in for a rough ride." The column, written by David M. Weinberg, is published today in Israel Hayom.

Two thoughts for those TWS readers who—for some reason!—may be a bit down in the dumps, and especially for those who may have spent considerable time and effort trying to secure a better outcome on Election Day 2012.

James Ceaser's article in last week's WEEKLY STANDARD, "The Day After," is very much worth re-reading … the day after. Here's the most relevant part:

What happened with the Senate? That’s one question Republicans are likely asking themselves after a disappointing Election Day. 

Republicans never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.  In 2010, they failed to win the Senate when it was theirs for the taking. Now they’ve lost the White House to President Obama, despite his poor record and the likelihood things won’t get any better in his second term.  And they failed…

Mitt Romney delivered the following concession speech to supporters in Boston:

NBC News projects President Barack Obama will be reelected:

Fox News projects that President Barack Obama will win the crucial state of Ohio. "That's the ball game," Fox host Bret Baier said.

The AP reports:

Republican Senate candidate Deb Fischer of Nebraska has defeated her Democratic opponent, former governor and former senator Bob Kerrey, according to CBS News.

Mitt Romney is projected to win North Carolina, according to the Associated Press.

Democrat Tim Kaine is the winner of the hotly contested Senate race in Virginia, CBS News projects. Kaine, a former governor, faced another former governor and former senator, Republican George Allen. Allen lost this Senate seat in 2006 to Democrat Jim Webb, who chose not to run for reelection.

Fox News projects that Democrat Elizabeth Warren has defeated Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race.

Democrat Joe Donnelly of Indiana has defeated Republican Richard Mourdock for that state's Senate seat, Fox News reports.

Fox News projects Barack Obama will win Wisconsin, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's homestate.

Fox News projects Barack Obama will win Pennsylvania. Mitt Romney's campaign gave a late push there, but it appears not to have paid off.

Democratic senator Bob Casey has held on to his Senate seat in Pennsylvania, Fox News projects. Casey, whose significant lead in the polls dropped in the final weeks of the campaign, has held off a challenge from Republican Tom Smith, a businessman from Western Pennsylvania.

Obama will win Michigan and New York, Fox News projects. Romney will win Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska (or at least 4 of the state's 5 electoral votes).

Fox News projects Mitt Romney will win Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Obama, the cable news channel predicts, will win Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.

Fox News projects Mitt Romney the winner of Georgia.

Vigo County, Indiana, has correctly reflected the winner of the presidency in every election since 1956, as in 2008 when Barack Obama won the county with 57 percent support and in 2004 when George W. Bush won the county with 53 percent support.

The AP reports:

Fox News projects Mitt Romney the winner in Kentucky and Indiana. Fox also projects Barack Obama the winner of Vermont.

I gather the first wave of the exit poll has the right track/wrong track at around 46/52. The current Real Clear Politics polling average for right track/wrong track is about 41/54, with no poll having the right track above 43. Maybe all the other polls are wrong. Or, given that Democrats are more…

Here's a picture a Washington, D.C. polling place--at the School Without Walls High School--which clearly displays a mural of President Barack Obama:

To help readers keep score at home of the 2012 presidential election: 

A woman wearing an MIT t-shirt was barred from voting Florida, according to a local report. MIT stands for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, not Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Here's a photo of an election judge checking in voters in Barack Obama's Chicago ward--wearing an Obama baseball cap:

Former DNC chair Howard Dean said that if Obama loses Ohio, it's because of voting irregularities:

Here's a picture of an Obama mural at a Philadelphia polling place:

On the evening before the big game, both candidates showed up on ESPN's Monday Night Football.  And why not?  You hunt where the ducks are.  And on Monday night, that's where they are.

Yuval Levin, writing at National Review Online:

Since the House passed Obamacare 961 days ago, on March 21, 2010 — two days before President Obama signed it into law — all eyes have been on November 6, 2012.  As Bill Kristol wrote on March 22, 2010: 

Politico writes that Nancy Pelosi’s “drive to regain the [House] majority for Democrats is on the verge of a complete collapse.”  It adds, “Democrats are expected to pick up five seats at best — a fraction of the 25 they need.  On the eve of the election, some party officials are privately worried…

Blue Bell, Pa.

In an email to supporters, the Obama campaign pleads for Election Day volunteers in northern Virginia. "Daniel," the email begins, "if you care about how this election ends, then I need to know right now: Can we count on you to help get out the vote on Election Day?"

Reader email of the day! (We've removed his name for the sake of his mom's privacy.)

At Harry's Bar, 5 rue Daunou, 2eme, Paris—in the deepest of deep blue precincts!—Mitt Romney is doing surprisingly well in the early vote, trailing Barack Obama by only about 10 percentage points. Sophisticated statistical analyses of early voting trends suggest this may well mean diminished Obama…

Today at a reelection event where President Barack Obama was scheduled to speak, rapper Jay Z replaced the word "bitch" in a rap song with "Mitt:"

A chart from the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee shows that "U.S. Per Person Debt [Is] Now 35 Percent Higher than that of Greece."

Urban Outfitters, a retail store that appeals to a young (teens and 20s) demographic, is encouraging voters to "Vote Early, Vote Often." A reader, Allyson Rowen Taylor, sends along this picture from the storefront of the Urban Outfitters at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura Blvd. in Studio…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot is reporting that the Obama administration has been conducting one-on-one talks with its Iranian counterparts. Negotiations, according to the report, have been held in Bahrain and have been led by Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett.

Vice President Joe Biden gives his impressions of the race to the pool reporter: 

What did or didn't the president do on the evening of September 11?

Mitt Romney will win.  The tie in the polls goes to the challenger. Here’s why:

At an Obama rally in Wisconsin today, Bruce Springsteen admitted, "The first debate really freaked me out."

Larry Summers, President Obama's director of the National Economic Council, on Monday said it was "ridiculous" for Republicans to point out the 7.9 percent unemployment rate announced last Friday was higher than when the president assumed office.  Going on what he says to Justin Sink of the Hill,…

Today, Claudia Rosett goes over the timeline following the Benghazi attacks and points to one of the enduring mysteries: Where was the President while the attack was happening?:

Reuters writes the following about Mitt Romney’s Sunday night rally on the outskirts of Philadelphia:  “The rally drew a huge crowd, but Romney arrived some 90 minutes after he was expected and hundreds of people streamed out of the rally as he spoke, angry and cold after waiting at a facility with…

A friend of THE WEEKLY STANDARD passes along this note he received from a friend (some names and places have been edited out):

The auto bailout debate, already a triumph of narrative over reality, took another turn for the absurd last week as both presidential campaigns exchanged salvos over what amounted to a misunderstanding about Chrysler's plan to build Jeeps in China. The dust-up began when the Romney campaign…

Here's a video calling attention to how President Obama abandoned those who are recovering from Hurricane Sandy to go back on the campaign trail:

Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts is in a dead heat to retain his Senate seat against Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, according to a new poll from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the Boston Herald. The poll found 49 percent support Brown and 48 percent support Warren.…

They have a dream. For months now, Republicans have been nursing the hope that déjà vu may be on order, that their favorite year may be making a comeback, and that their nominee, after numerous trials, may be riding a late-breaking wave. Democrats scoff, and predict the mirage will dissipate in the…

Jon Meacham’s new blockbuster—Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power—landed on The Scrapbook’s desk with a thud last week, and we do mean thud: At 762 pages of text, plus a special 16-page color illustration section, as well as black-and-white pictures and 30 introductory pages, it can serve as…

Joe Biden was forewarned. When he did a walk-through at the site of his debate with Paul Ryan, he asked if there might be double screens when the debate was broadcast. Yes, indeed, he was told, though it would be up to each TV network and cable channel whether to show both candidates at once on a…

This issue of The Weekly Standard, as it happens, will be the last one to carry campaign news before Election Day. (Next week’s issue will go to press shortly before the election but will reach most readers after the results are known.) We don’t want to leave you high and dry in the critical final…

Last week on CNN, Anderson Cooper interviewed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley about his interview with President Obama for Rolling Stone—the one in which the president called Mitt Romney a “bullshitter.” Asked by Cooper about the president’s change in tone, from positive to negative,…

The news readers from NPR were mum-mum-mumbling in the background the other morning as I was putt-putt-puttering around the house when .  .  . all of a sudden .  .  . running counter to every fiber of my being .  .  . pulling against my every natural inclination .  .  . I began to pay attention!…

With a week to go until the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney has a decided leg up on President Barack Obama.

Six months ago, in an editorial titled “President Romney,” I speculated that Mitt Romney​—​then behind in the polls​—​could prevail this fall: “If Romney can speak to Americans’ sense that it’s a big moment, with big challenges, and if he can make this a big election rather than a petty one, then…

Plumcreek Township, Pa.

Observers on both sides of the political aisle have noted, often with surprise, President Obama’s failure to offer an agenda for a second term in office. It would be a mistake, however, to assume Obama has no second-term agenda; he simply doesn’t have one he can express aloud. In truth, the…

This superb revisionist study suggests to me that its subject, once the cynosure of writerly interest, may soon emerge from a long eclipse. No American writer was more obsessively studied and imitated half a century ago. Then Ernest Hemingway fell as far from fashion as any great writer ever does.…

Mark Blitz’s Plato’s Political Philosophy makes, and keeps, some large promises. 

When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced on August 11 that he had selected Paul Ryan as his running mate, the consensus was that he had made a daring choice with a huge risk: being demagogued on Medicare cuts.

For the small school of political analysis that draws its inspiration from the great French 17th-century philosopher René Descartes, the cardinal methodological rule is to begin from what one can know “so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.” The only important fact about the…

With our embassies around the world besieged, and some 47 million Americans on food stamps, the pettiness of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has been something to behold. The leader of the free world has spent the last few weeks before Election Day talking about Big Bird and “binders full of…

Columbus, Ohio

At a speech in Davenport, Iowa, on October 24, with 13 days left in the presidential election, Barack Obama introduced a new closing argument: “Trust matters,” Obama said.

The chief defect of the New York Times, it has long seemed to The Scrapbook, is that it is at heart a deeply provincial paper. We have nothing against New York itself—it’s a fine city full of decent and remarkable people. But the Times is even more provincial than that. There is a strain of…

Milwaukee

David Axelrod was asked this morning on Fox News Sunday about the decision not to deploy military forces to Benghazi the evening of September 11. His response: “The president convened the top military officials that evening and told them to do whatever was necessary and they took the steps that…

The last several weeks have not been good for Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock of Indiana. The two-term state treasurer, who beat six-term incumbent Senator Dick Lugar in the GOP primary in May, has fallen back in the polls against his Democratic opponent, Congressman Joe Donnelly. A…

Two recent polls maintain that Republican Tom Smith of Pennsylvania is statistically tied with his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey Jr., in the race for the U.S. Senate. The first poll, an internal Smith poll released Friday, shows the candidates tied at 46 percent. The second, a Susquehanna Research…

At a campaign rally for President Barack Obama yesterday in Virginia, former President Bill Clinton talked about bringing "this country together" and crossing "all of its diversity." Then, Clinton added this:

The Illinois Republican party claims early and absentee voting has precipitously fallen since the 2008 presidential election.

Bing West cuts through some of the new Benghazi articles to note that these questions still remain unanswered:

President Barack Obama told a Virginia crowd last night that he's "a prop in the campaign":

The Romney campaign seems to have committed to a late push into Pennsylvania, to the derision of Team Obama. The latter sees this as a desperation ploy by a foundering campaign, similar to John McCain’s late entrance into the Keystone State in 2008. Is that right?

Last night, on Special Report, I urged Mitt Romney to step up and address President Obama's failure to explain what decisions he made and didn't make on the evening of September 11, as Americans fought terrorists in Benghazi. This afternoon it seems that Romney, not having mentioned Benghazi in his…

Earlier today at an Obama rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, former President Bill Clinton said that American can't export Jeeps to China:

Early this morning, the Hill reported that the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is relying on a private company — a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group — to play a central role in establishing and running Obamacare’s insurance “exchanges.”  As the Hill writes, the…

The lead editorials in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal today offer stinging critiques of the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi.

One thing is certain in these waning hours of the presidential and congressional election campaigns: it is Barack Obama and the current members of Congress who will have to make the initial decision on what to do about what we have come to call the fiscal cliff. By the time the new Congress and the…

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren told a local TV news reporter she had "plenty of pictures" that reflect her claim to Native American heritage, but quickly added that she wouldn't show them. "They're not for you," she says.

In a letter to the White House, four members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence asked President Obama whether recent disclosures to the press of classified information on the Benghazi terrorist attacks were authorized by the Obama administration or illegal leaks subject to…

The four polls taken this week in Iowa that are listed by RealClearPolitics show widely different results.  NBC/WSJ/Marist shows President Obama up by 6 percentage points — 50 to 44 percent.  Gravis Marketing shows Obama up 4 points — 49 to 45 percent.  WeAskAmerica shows Obama up 1.5 points — 48.8…

The Foreign Policy Initiative provides this fact-sheet to debunk President Obama's false defense spending claims:

The boss, sitting alongside Kirsten Powers and Charles Krauthammer, made the case on Special Report Friday that Mitt Romney should raise the issue of Barack Obama's failure to be forthright on the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. Watch the videos below:

Mitt Romney, speaking just now in Ohio:

Joe Biden revealed his vacation plans to a Miami radio station earlier today:

Republican House candidate Mia Love of Utah has a 12-point lead over her Democratic opponent, incumbent member Jim Matheson, in a new poll from the Salt Lake Tribune. According to the poll, 52 percent of voters in Utah's Fourth District support Love, while 40 percent support Matheson.

In the second poll released this week, Republican Scott Brown has a two-point lead over Democrat Elizabeth Warren in the Massachusetts Senate race. A new poll from Kimball Political Consulting, a firm based in Massachusetts affiliated with the GOP, finds 49 percent support Brown while 47 percent…

During a speech in Springfield, Ohio today, the president ad libbed a remark when his supporters started booing Mitt Romney: "No, no, no -- don’t boo, vote," Obama said. That's his standard response to booing at his rallies. But then he added this: "Vote! Voting is the best revenge."

In the final days of the campaign, the Illinois Republican party and allied conservative groups are hitting Democratic congressional candidate Bill Foster over allegations he abused his former wife. According to court documents from Foster's divorce proceedings in March 1996, the Democrat's…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

There are two new ads that use a different approach to convincing voters: silence.

Joe Biden, at a campaign event today said, "There's never been a day in the last four years I've been proud to be his vice president."

The newly released October jobs numbers reveal that, since President Obama signed Obamacare into law in March 2010, we have now gone 31 consecutive months in which fewer than 59 percent of Americans have been employed.  The Obama administration’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles such…

The New York Post reports that:

Scott MacFarlane reports on Twitter:

With the latest jobs report, it is now the case that "Under Obama, Food Stamp Growth [Is] 75 Times Greater Than Job Creation," according to statistics compiled by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee. "For Every Person Added to Jobs Rolls Since January 2009, 75 People Added To Food…

Rick Santelli got into a screaming match this morning on CNBC when he said that, under President Obama, the U.S. economy has had a net loss of 61,000 jobs since February 2009:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the biggest change in employment over the last month affected black workers. In September, the unemployment rate for blacks was 13.4 percent. In October, that number jumped to 14.3 percent, an almost a full percentage point change, according to the…

The unemployment rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is now 7.9 percent: 

Fred Barnes, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

Here’s a thought experiment. Let’s say you want to do a quality poll of 1,000 likely voters. How many people would you have to contact?

When I started making election predictions eight years ago, I had a very different perspective than I do today. I knew relatively little about the history of presidential elections or the geography of American politics. I had a good background in political science and statistics. So, unsurprisingly…

There's an interesting article on Benghazi in the Wall Street Journal, with some useful information, and lots of finger pointing and back-and-forth between the State Department and the CIA, and between Hillary Clinton and David Petraeus. Guess who's nowhere mentioned in the piece: The person who's…

Obama administration officials are feeling the pressure to answer some basic questions about their responsibility for what happened September 11 in Benghazi. As has become very clear, the administration doesn't want to answer the questions, such as what the president did and didn't do that evening;…

It is no surprise Barack Obama’s campaign is running ads to highlight the support of former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell. After all, for the most part, the military overwhelmingly supports Mitt Romney.

Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano will head to Staten Island tomorrow to view the clean-up from Hurricane Sandy.

Democratic hopes of capturing the House next Tuesday are long gone. And Democrats now could wind up actually losing seats.

Barack Obama will be calling on the star power of some celebrities during his final campaign push. The Obama campaign just announced in a press release:

Green Bay, Wisc.

At a campaign rally featuring First Lady Michelle Obama today in Daytona, Florida, supporters of President Obama were reportedly chanting "Hail Obama," according to one local reporter.

Sports fans in some important swing states this weekend will get a last-minute dose of politics with their football. Bankrupting America, a campaign project of the conservative group Public Notice, will be flying two banners over the fields at college and professional football games with messages…

It is close, we are told again and again.  And you can find someone with the expert credentials to confirm your hopes, whichever way you lean.  Karl Rove has it figured for Romney.  Nate Silver is willing to put a couple thousand, cash money, on Obama.  The BLS unemployment numbers come out…

President Barack Obama invoked the destructiveness of Hurricane Sandy--and the ensuing clean-up--in his campaign stop earlier today in Wisconsin.

There have been three new polls released in the past twenty-four hours in Wisconsin.

White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One today that President Obama "has not participated in the investigation" of the terror attack against Americans in Benghazi, Libya.

Republican senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts has a new 60-second ad touting his bipartisan, moderate record in the United States Senate. "I've kept my promise to be an independent voice," Brown says in the ad. "I put people ahead of politics. And now, I need your help to keep that independent…

Based on last week’s debate, both President Obama and Governor Romney believe that squeezing the Iranians economically is the best way—and perhaps the only way—to end their nuclear-weapons program without resorting to a military strike. Of course, nobody knows if sanctions will actually work. But…

Republicans often find comfort in the suburbs. But for long-time Maryland congressman Roscoe Bartlett, having a slice of Washington, D.C. suburbia added to his district means the biggest fight of his life. He now faces a tough challenge from Democrat John Delaney, the founder of a successful…

The latest ad from Mitt Romney's campaign hits President Barack Obama for floating the idea of adding a "secretary of business" in a second term: 

From December 1941 to August 1945, the United States of America joined the other Allied powers and fought against the Axis powers in Europe and the Pacific, during the greatest and most destructive war in all of human history.  Victory required the complete dedication of the American citizenry, as…

Eau Claire, Wisc.

Richard Carmona, the former surgeon general under President George W. Bush and the current Democratic Senate candidate in Arizona, recently came under scrutiny after Senator Jon Kyl revealed a memorable conversation the two had about the perks of being a member of Congress. It happened in the 2006…

Mitt Romney and President Obama are now tied in the RealClearPolitics average of recent national polling, thanks in large part to the United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll released Wednesday afternoon. That poll projects an 8-point advantage in turnout for Democrats…

Vice President Joe Biden was greeted with talk of a 2016 presidential run at a campaign stop for Barack Obama earlier today in Iowa. This happened multiple times during his visit to an Obama field office in Davenport, Iowa.