SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:32 P.M. ET:

FRIENDS STICK TOGETHER – Mark Whitaker, managing editor at CNN, has sent out a memo praising Candy Crowley's performance as moderator at Tuesday's debate.  He called it a "superb job."  He even defended Crowley's intervening to save Obama on the Libya segment.  He even defended Crowley's giving Obama more time, actually saying that the reason was that Obama spoke more slowly.  It is rumored that Whitaker is writing a book defending the captain of the Titanic.  It's called "Captain Smith - Wrong Only Once."  Check your local bookstore.

YIKES – The Gallup tracker out today had Mitt Romney up seven points over Obama.  Like the Rasmussen report, issued a few hours earlier, there is no indication that Tuesday's debate changed any minds, but we'll get a clearer picture of that in the next few days.  We should point out that the Gallup survey swings more wildly than the Rasmussen poll, which has Romney up by two.  A few days ago, addressing Gatestone Institute in Manhattan, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma predicted that Romney would win by seven points nationally, basing his projection on what he's seeing in his own state.

DOUBLE YIKES – The Romney people were reported to have given up on Pennsylvania.  But a new statewide poll actually shows Romney ahead in the state for the first time.  From the Washington Examiner:   "Susquehanna Polling and Research provided The Washington Examiner with a poll it conducted for state party officials that shows Romney with a 49 percent to 45 percent lead over President Obama.  It's the first poll to show Romney leading among likely voters in the Keystone State."  We caution that this is one poll, and that a Quinnipiac poll taken at the same time shows Obama up four.  However, all polls show a tightening race in this once-safe Democratic state.

GEEZ – First, President Obama called the murder of four Americans at our consulate in Libya a "bump in the road."  Then he tried to blame the episode on a YouTube video that had actually surfaced four months earlier.  Today, on the Daily Show, Obama said that the deaths of four Americans was "not optimal."  No, I guess not, and that phrase may come back to haunt him.  The final presidential debate, Monday night, will be on foreign policy, and Romney will get a second chance to attack Obama on Libya.  I'm confident he'll be ready this time, assuming Candy Crowley doesn't rush in from offstage to front for Obama.

October 18, 2012