President Obama with Jon Stewart

Here's the intro that the audience saw. It was cut from the show, as aired, because the President ran long:

Dana Milbank gives the President's performance a bad review: "... as in his MTV appearance a couple of weeks ago, Obama didn't try to connect with his youthful audience. He was serious and defensive, pointing a finger at his host several times as he quarreled with the premise of a question. Stewart, who struggled to suppress a laugh as Obama defended [Larry] Summers, turned out to be an able inquisitor on behalf of aggrieved liberals." CW: I thought the President did fine. Decide for yourself.

The Commentariat -- October 28

The middle class doesn't like to get welfare checks, so instead it gets tax credits and deductions for doing things middle-class people generally do anyway. -- Will Wilkinson, The Economist, via Andrew Sullivan

Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "Harvard historian James T. Kloppenberg sees President Obama "as a kind of philosopher president.... To Mr. Kloppenberg the philosophy that has guided President Obama most consistently is pragmatism, a uniquely American system of thought developed at the end of the 19th century by William James, John Dewey and Charles Sanders Peirce.... Mr. Obama was ultimately drawn to a cluster of ideas known as civic republicanism or deliberative democracy .... In this view the founding fathers cared as much about continuing a discussion over how to advance the common good as they did about ensuring freedom." Princeton University Press will publish Kloppenberg's book Sunday. Harvard Magazine publishes "A Nation Argues with Its Conscience," an adaptation of part of Reading Obama here. A second section from the book, "From Hull House to the White House" is here.

Sewell Chan of the New York Times: "The uncertainty over the legal status of foreclosed homes in the nation could further depress home prices and delay the recovery of the housing market, the Obama administration said on Wednesday.... Most at risk, it appears, are communities in the states with the greatest concentrations of foreclosures — led by Nevada, Florida, Arizona and California — where the turnover of vacant properties could screech to a halt if a joint investigation being conducted by all 50 states, and reviews by the Obama administration and regulators like the Federal Reserve, uncover additional wrongdoing." ...

... It Could Be Worse. You Could Live in Spain. Suzanne Daley of the New York Times: in Spain, mortgage debt is specifically excluded from bankruptcy. "Not only are Spanish mortgage holders personally liable for the full amount of the loan, but throw in penalty interest charges and tens of thousands of dollars in court fees, and people can end up ... facing a mountain of debt.... Spain now has the highest unemployment rate in the euro zone — 20 percent — and real estate prices are dropping.... Many Spaniards [are] no longer able to pay their mortgages...."

Joe Klein of Time: "... this election cycle has exposed [Karl] Rove for what he is: man-servant to the oiligarchs. Rove's most significant activity this year has been raising big, secret donations from the Republican rich and turning them into the ugly, inaccurate negative ads that have been his stock-in-trade forever. ...

Speaking of Rove, here's Rove speaking of Palin: With all due candour, appearing on your own reality show on the Discovery Channel, I am not certain how that fits in the American calculus of 'that helps me see you in the Oval Office....

... Rove also criticized this promo for her show, in which Palin says, I would rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office.

Sam Stein: "On Wednesday, the president conducted what appears to be the first ever in-person sit-down with political bloggers, hosting a group of five in the White House.... An administration official confirmed that Joe Sudbay of AMERICABlog; Duncan Black ("Atrios"), who runs the site Eschaton; Barbara Morrill, who writes for the DailyKos; Jon Amato, who is the founder of Crooks and Liars; and Oliver Willis, who runs an eponymous site, spoke with the president on Wednesday. ... The Huffington Post has a transcript of the conversation.

The President Is "Evolving." I am a strong supporter of civil unions.... I have been to this point unwilling to sign on to same-sex marriage primarily because of my understandings of the traditional definitions of marriage. But I also think you’re right that attitudes evolve, including mine. And I think that it is an issue that I wrestle with and think about because I have a whole host of friends who are in gay partnerships. I have staff members who are in committed, monogamous relationships, who are raising children, who are wonderful parents. And I care about them deeply. And so while I’m not prepared to reverse myself here, sitting in the Roosevelt Room at 3:30 in the afternoon, I think it’s fair to say that it’s something that I think a lot about. That’s probably the best you’ll do out of me today.
-- Barack Obama, in response to a question from Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog

Dina Cappiello of the Canadian Press: "Some of America's largest emitters of heat-trapping gases, including businesses that publicly support efforts to curb global warming, don't want the public knowing exactly how much they pollute. Oil producers and refiners, along with manufacturers of steel, aluminum and even home appliances, are fighting a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency that would make the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that companies release — and the underlying data businesses use to calculate the amounts — available online."

A Kentucky Democratic Party Ad that's Hard to Watch:*

     * ... Update: Democratic "Party spokesman Matt Erwin said the ad will appear only after 10 p.m., when children are less likely to see it."

Tim Profitt, the man who stomped on MoveOn volunteer Lauren Valle prior to a Jack Conway-Rand Paul debate, has asked Valle to apologize. He calls the incident "no big deal" and says he stomped her because he has issues with his back. Here's the Louisville Courier-Journal story:

Stephen Colbert sympathizes with Profitt:

... ** Sex Abuse, Cover-ups, & Karl Rove's Secret Cash. Matthew Mosk of ABC News: "In the bitter U.S. Senate race in Kentucky, a local millionaire [Terry Forcht] has helped launch a barrage of ads attacking [Jack Conway] the Democratic candidate – a candidate who, as the state's attorney general, is prosecuting the businessman's nursing home for allegedly covering up sexual abuse, records show."

Adam Serwer in the Washington Post: "Voter fraud is a virtually nonexistent problem.... Even if you wanted to steal an election this way, it's logistically unfeasible. Swaying the numbers in any significant way would require such a large number of well-trained co-conspirators that getting caught is a virtual certainty.... [But] voter suppression is a very real phenomenon." ...

... Here's an Example. Molly Ball of Politico: Robert de Posada, "the man behind the controversial ad telling Hispanics 'Don't Vote' ... voted absentee in Virginia on Wednesday." Univision pulled the ad "after Democratic cries of voter suppression."

Joe Miller is a Nightmare on Nome Street, but his Halloween ad is pretty funny:

... CW: Even funnier: Democrat Scott McAdams is now ahead of him in the polls. Shira Toeplitz of Politico: "After several rough weeks on the campaign trail, a new poll out of Alaska shows Republican Joe Miller has fallen to last place in the three-way Senate race. A Hays Research Group poll released Thursday showed write-in candidates, presumably meaning Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in the lead with 34 percent, Democrat Scott McAdams with 29 percent and Miller with 23 percent." ABC News' Jonathan Karl tweets that McAdams could win with 29% of the vote because many write-in votes will likely be tossed. Via Ben Smith. ...

... AND while we're not doing polls, here's a good one from NBC-10 in Providence, Rhode Island: "Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio seems to have lost support since telling the president to take his endorsement and 'shove it,' according to an NBC 10-Quest Research poll released Wednesday night.... Caprio lost 12 points since an NBC 10-Quest Research poll released Oct. 12 showed him in the lead with 37 percent, followed by [Independent Lincoln] Chafee and [Republican John] Robitaille."

"End the War on Pot." Nicholas Kristof cites some good rationales for legalizing marijuana.

Bill Adair of the St. Petersburg Times: "After rating hundreds of claims in the 2010 election -- from TV ads, debates, interviews and mailings -- we're giving an overall Truth-O-Meter rating to the campaign. We rate it Barely True. In a majority of claims checked this fall by PolitiFact and our eight state partners, we found a grain of truth, but it was exaggerated, twisted or distorted."

Worst Congressional Candidate Ever

Gail Collins reflects on some of the great moments in Campaign 2010.

The Constant Weader joins the game, trying to pick the "Worst Congressional Candidate Ever," but finds that the field of nominees is crowded this year.

There are the usual suspects, of course: Christine O'Donnell, Sharron Angle, Sharron Angle, Sharron Angle, Rand Paul -- and my favorite, Carl Paladino. Never mind his inauspicious bathroom breaks or even his condemnation of homosexuality. Patrick McGeenhan of the Times reports today that at about the same time Paladino was named Buffalonian of the Year, a court named him conservator of his elderly aunt's affairs. Her main asset was her modest home, which she owned outright. According to public records, under Carl's supposedly conservatorship,

Anna M. Paladino’s finances deteriorated along with her health, so much so that she became dependent on Medicaid.... Her house, her most cherished asset, was sold — first to Mr. Paladino’s son, and later, for no money down and much less than its appraised value, to the woman who would become Mr. Paladino’s mistress and bear a child by him.

A conservator has a fiduciary duty to his ward, & his dealings must be above reproach. Even an appearance of self-dealing can be unlawful. You decide if you think Carl Paladino met his legal obligation to his beloved aunt.

This was supposed to be the Year of the Republican Woman. Frankly, it looks as if it's pretty dangerous to get anywhere near some Republican men. And I don't just mean Rand Paul aides & Carl Paladino.

Some Republican men had trouble with dirty, sexy things. In Texas' 27th Congressional District Republican nominee Blake Farenthold got caught on camera wearing rubber-ducky jammies while holding on tight to a buxom young lady in less modest bedtime attire. Farenthold's opponent, Democratic incumbent Rep. Solomon Ortiz, ran this oppo ad:

... And who can forget young Ben Quayle, who days after intoning in an artsy (& ever-so-mockable) campaign ad that "Barack Obama is the worst President in history," and promising to go to Washington "and knock the hell out of the place," was outed as the author of sexy, self-aggrandizing stories on a Scottsdale Website. Here's Quayle's ad, along with Andy Cobb's terrific parody:

Down here in Florida, let's skip over the biggest fraudster in the history of Medicare who may soon be our new governor. After all, his $1.7 billion crime (but who's counting?) was nice, clean white-collar stuff. The Republican candidate for Florida's 25th District (Miami) is notable for a 2002 incident in which he allegedly rammed a delivery truck with his own car to stop the truck from delivering a political opponent's campaign literature. He's got some white-collar problems of his own, too. This is one House seat the Democrats think they might pick up.

For a bad moment during the campaign, Arizona's Jan Brewer had a super-embarrassing live meltdown in her opening statement in her one and only debate. I guess we should be thankful when a politician is at a complete loss for words:

...Later Brewer "explained" that she only participated in the debate to qualify for $1.7 millions in public funds for her campaign. I guess that meant she didn't need to prepare.

For another bad moment, you might want to go to Maine, where the Times reported,

Paul LePage, the Republican candidate for governor in Maine..., walked out of his own news conferenceAnn, got permanent-resident tax exemptions on homes in both Maine and Florida last year, a violation of tax law. Monday in Augusta after reporters asked whether his wife was a permanent state resident.... Later in the day, Mr. LePage was caught cursing on camera when a reporter asked whether his children had paid in-state tuition at a college in Florida. The questions stemmed from a report in the Kennebec Journal last week that Mr. LePage’s wife,

Barney Frank's opponent, Sean Bielat, didn't help his case any when he told the Boston Herald that gays are just like short people -- neither has a right to serve in the military. As the Herald's Edward Mason observed,

Hmm. ... On the other hand, vertically challenged people are not forced to pretend they’re tall, then drummed out once it’s discovered they’re short in spite of their service record.

Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, it's hard to say how much Democratic gubernatorial nominee Frank Caprio helped himself by saying, upon learning that President Obama would not make an endorsement in the contest, that the President could "take his endorsement and shove it."

But for the worst moment of this campaign season, I'd pick Texas Republican congressional candidate Stephen Broden who, the Dallas Morning News reported, said

he would not rule out violent overthrow of the government if elections did not produce a change in leadership. In a rambling exchange during a TV interview, Broden, a South Dallas pastor, said a violent uprising 'is not the first option,' but it is 'on the table.'

To name a few.