memeorandum: Urgent Warnings as Hurricane Sandy Strengthens and Heads to Northeast (Marc Santora/New York Times)

10:35 AM ET, October 28, 2012

Top Items:

Oct. 26: State Poll Averages Usually Call Election Right — The FiveThirtyEight forecast model has found the past several days of battleground state polling to be reasonably strong for Barack Obama, with his chances of winning the Electoral College increasing as a result.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Volokh Conspiracy, Washington Examiner and The New Republic

Olivier Knox / Associated Press:

Obama did not deny requests for help in Benghazi: Aide — The White House on Saturday flatly denied that President Barack Obama withheld requests for help from the besieged American compound in Benghazi, Libya, as it came under on attack by suspected terrorists on September 11th.

Discussion: Power Line, The PJ Tatler, Ace of Spades HQ, Weasel Zippers, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, This ain't Hell … and Yahoo! News

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Will Obama's Benghazi Cover-Up Succeed? — Barack Obama's prospects for re-election have been fading for some time now. As Mitt Romney surges, Obama flails, embarrassing himself with silly trivialities that are often summed up as Big Bird, binders and bayonets.

Discussion: Althouse, Washington Post and Associated Press

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Ten Questions for the White House

Discussion: RedState, BREITBART.COM, Weasel Zippers, COMPLETE COLORADO 2012©, Viking Pundit, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Doug Ross, National Review, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and KUSA-TV

New York Times:

Barack Obama for Re-Election — The economy is slowly recovering from the 2008 meltdown, and the country could suffer another recession if the wrong policies take hold. The United States is embroiled in unstable regions that could easily explode into full-blown disaster.

Discussion: Althouse, Daily Kos, Weasel Zippers, The Hinterland Gazette, CNN, Poynter, New York Magazine, The Raw Story, Prairie Weather, Ballot Box, theGrio and Towleroad News #gay, more at Mediagazer »

Scott Lemieux / Lawyers, Guns & Money:

Third Party Nihilism: The Arguments Can Always Get Worse! — To its credit, the occasional inexplicable book-plugging interview aside Salon no longer promotes Camille Paglia. Alas, it is now fairly regularly publishing Matt Stoller, who is sort of Paglia but 1)with fewer references to Madonna …

Discussion: The Reaction, Booman Tribune and American Prospect

Matt Stoller / Salon:

The progressive case against Obama — Bottom line: The president is complicit in creating an increasingly unequal — and unjust — society — A few days ago, I participated in a debate with the legendary antiwar dissident Daniel Ellsberg on Huffington Post live on the merits of the Obama administration …

Josh Jordan / National Review:

The Two Polls That Have Chicago Terrified — For all of the polls that are flying out almost hourly now, there are two common trends emerging: Mitt Romney is leading independents by healthy margins, and who holds the overall lead is entirely dependent on the party split within the sample.

Discussion: The Daily Dish and GayPatriot

Ashley Killough / CNN:

Romney lands key endorsement in crucial swing state - Iowa — (CNN) - The Des Moines Register, Iowa's largest newspaper, endorsed Mitt Romney for president Saturday, reversing its 2008 support for President Barack Obama and marking the first time the paper has endorsed a Republican in 40 years.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Weekly Standard, The Hinterland Gazette, Scared Monkeys and Politico

Gregory Wallace / CNN:
Obama's birth certificate quip

Discussion: Politico

Washington Post:

House elections spell a Republican story and victory — President Obama remains at least an even bet to win reelection. Democrats are favored to hold on to the Senate — an outcome few prognosticators envisioned at the beginning of the year. And yet, with a little more than a week to go …

First Read:

Obama assails Romney's Massachusetts record — NASHUA, N.H. - During a New Hampshire campaign stop Saturday, President Barack Obama focused on Mitt Romney's record as governor of the state that's less than an hour south of here, Massachusetts: — “During Governor Romney's campaign …

Discussion: The Hill, Politico and The Gateway Pundit

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

Losing from Behind — On September 11, 2012, Rasmussen Reports had President Obama's job approval at 52 percent approve, 47 percent disapprove. Today, October 27, the numbers have reversed—47 percent approve, 52 percent disapprove. The economic news over these past six weeks …

Discussion: CNSNews, Power Line and americanthinker.com

Marc Santora / New York Times:

Urgent Warnings as Hurricane Sandy Strengthens and Heads to Northeast — With forecasts showing Hurricane Sandy and another powerful storm system likely to collide with devastating effect somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard as early as Sunday evening, tens of millions of people began to make preparations …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, The Caucus, TechCrunch and The Lede

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

David Axelrod On 2012 Campaign: Trajectory Of Race Is Set … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Elections 2012, David Axelrod, Barack Obama , Video, 2012 Campaign, Obama Axelrod, Obama Election, Obama Game Change, Axelrod Campaign, Politics News — WASHINGTON — The Obama campaign sees no major event …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland