Organizations supporting Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have collectively aired more than one million ads over the course of the campaign, which is almost as much as Safelite. Joe Lieberman said there are a lot of interesting things under his shirt, but we couldn't confirm this as we had no beads to throw at him. And His name having been taken in vain, God smote Richard Mourdock's lead and the sampling error was +/- 3.5 percentage points and He saw that it was good. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, November 2nd, 2012:
THIRD PARTY GROUPS SPENDING MONEY LIKE HEAVILY LEVERAGED, ONCE-PROFITABLE, NOW-CLOSE-TO-BANKRUPT FIRMS PAYING OUT BAIN DIVIDENDS - Sam Stein: "American Crossroads has announced plans for a $4.5 million national network television ad buy. But a Democratic source in Washington, who requested anonymity to avoid involvement in the presidential campaign, emailed HuffPost to say anti-Obama ads were running on three Seattle broadcast stations in 'high volume' on Friday morning, including during 'Today' and 'Good Morning America.' The American Crossroads ad that the group said it was airing nationally wasn't the one that the source saw. Additionally, some of those ads were seen on Seattle broadcast stations." [HuffPost]
@samsteinhp: Biden interaction (pool): "the woman said "My name is Gorgeous." The VP responded: "Hello, Gorgeous."
The president is making a last-minute cameo in a Senate campaign ad. Luke Johnson: "President Barack Obama appeared in his first -- and likely last in this election cycle -- ad for a U.S. Senate candidate, showing support for Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)...Murphy has been edging Republican Linda McMahon in recent polls, but is underperforming relative to Obama in the deeply Democratic state." [HuffPost]
@CharlieRoseShow: RAY KELLY: "NEW YORK #MARATHON CANCELLED" #SANDY
ExpandTheMap.com was down today, as were Romney's chances of winning Democratic-leaning states like Michigan and Minnesota...or swing states, for that matter.
THIS TIMES MAGAZINE INTERVIEW WITH JOE LIEBERMAN IS FANTASTIC - "Q: On the subject of running mates, apparently the words 'Paul Ryan' and 'shirtless' have been Googled nine times more often than 'Paul Ryan' and 'budget.' Are you puzzled that more attention was not paid to your physique? A: I am. Because beneath this shirt, there is really a lot to behold that would give voters a sense of confidence about my capacity for balanced leadership." [NYT]
Fired up, ready to... something: "Obama advisers David Axelrod and David Plouffe spoke with reporters after President Barack Obama's last of three campaign events today...'You know, you can see in the speech that he's delivering that he, you know, that he, this is coming from his loins,' Axelrod said... He tried to recover quickly by joking about the comment.'And uh -- I just wanted to say loins. I wanted to see if I could get loins in the story,' he said." Happy to oblige, David! [HuffPost's Jon Ward]
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FORMER ABRAMOFF LOBBYIST PISSED AT THINGS GOES 47 PERCENT - HuffPost Hill's occasional anonymous disgruntled K Street contributor, the Former Abramoff Lobbyist Pissed At Things, interrupted his support group session with the instigators of the savings and loan crisis to send us his thoughts on the election. "I am ready for this election to be over. A lot of my friends say 'FALPAT, who do you support?'" FALPAT writes. "Well, since I can't vote and really don't make any money anymore I respond with I 'might as well support Obama and live off the system like the other 53% of the population.' Don't get me wrong, I'm not Ohmyf-ckinggodIgottagetthatnewTalyorSwiftalbum-excited about it, but when you are a loser you definitely vote Democrat. Sign me up!!" We're glad you have friends, FALPAT!
Paranoid Self-Loathing GOP Lobbyist, whose views on New York City fall somewhere between Pat Robertson and John Smoltz: "I support rescheduling the NYC marathon. The police have better things to do than monitor a race of yuppies when the tunnels in and out of NYC are still flooded." Thanks, PSLGOPL! You won this one!
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Political hacks hotly anticipated today's jobs report for any sign it could affect next Tuesday's presidential election, but what does the news mean for unemployed people who want jobs? The data suggest an improving economy, but Rosanne Bono, who has been unemployed off and on ever since the start of the Great Recession four years ago, said she doesn't think a rising tide necessarily lifts her boat. "I think at one time it would have, but I don't know that it does right now," Bono, 58, said in an interview on Friday. "I guess just because it's been so long." Bono's been working, but she hasn't had a full-time job in her field in a while. She used to be a product designer working for several companies that produced bedding and decorative home furnishings. When the housing sector crashed hard, Bono's career crashed with it. Since then, she's freelanced in her field and held a stream of part-time retail and sales gigs. Her most recent job ended last month when the inn where she'd worked as a hostess closed down for the winter. "I have bounced from one thing to another, not because it was something good for me, but because I was in a place of desperation," said Bono, who lives near Asheville, N.C. HANG IN THERE, ROSANNE! [HuffPost]
DOUBLE DOWNER - More than 1.8 million Americans had been out of work at least 99 weeks in October, essentially unchanged from October of last year. That seems crappy. [Hang in there!]
Don't be bashful: Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill
ROMNEY'S CLOSING ARGUMENT: I AM A REPUBLICAN, AND SO IS THE HOUSE SPEAKER - Forget out-of-work Americans, forget Benghazi, forget broken promises, forget "You didn't build that" or "guns and religion." Mitt Romney's coup de grace boils down to him being "a Republican" who is "running for president." Elise Foley: "Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will attack the president for the debt ceiling during his 'closing argument' in West Allis, Wis., on Friday, ignoring Republicans' role in bringing the country close to defaulting on its loans and putting the blame squarely on President Barack Obama's shoulders. 'You know that if the President is re-elected, he will still be unable to work with the people in Congress,' Romney will say, according to excerpts released by the campaign Friday, shortly before the rally. "He has ignored them, attacked them, blamed them. The debt ceiling will come up again, and shutdown and default will be threatened, chilling the economy. The President was right when he said he can't change Washington from the inside. In this case, you can take him at his word." [HuffPost]
Harry Reid is more confident of seeing Mitt Romney's tax returns than he is of cooperating with the guy. Mike McAuliff: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) -- who looks likely to keep his leadership job and would be the top Democrat for a President Romney to deal with -- said in a statement Friday that he and the Democratic caucus have already shot down most of the things over which Romney says he could find cross-aisle agreement. 'Mitt Romney's fantasy that Senate Democrats will work with him to pass his "severely conservative" agenda is laughable,' said Reid, paraphrasing Romney's assertion during the earlier part of the campaign that he was a severe conservative." [HuffPost]
@RalstonReports: Harry Reid tones it down, says Mitt Romney is a coward living in a fantasy world
OBAMA ATTACKS ROMNEY'S JEEP AD - Jon Ward: "President Obama ripped Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Friday for running a misleading TV ad implying that U.S. auto workers are going to lose their jobs because Chrysler is moving the production of Jeeps for Chinese consumers to China. It's a move by the president to capitalize on what, tactically, appears to have been a strategy by Romney's campaign in Ohio that has backfired. Obama is planning to press the issue all day Friday at three campaign stops in Ohio, including a midday rally in Lima, where there are about 1,600 jobs at a local Ford manufacturing plant. 'Everybody knows it's not true,' Obama said of Romney's ad to a crowd in a large barn at the Franklin County Fairgrounds, in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio... Obama cited reports of auto workers in Ohio calling their employer to ask if their jobs were in jeopardy after seeing Romney's ad... Obama pointed out that Chrysler is in the process of hiring 1,000 new workers for a Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio." [HuffPost]
ONE MILLLLLLLLLIOOON CAMPAIGN ADS - Elise Foley: "Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and the groups that support them have aired more than a million ads this campaign cycle, nearly 40 percent more than the amount aired in the 2008 election, according to a report released Friday by the Wesleyan Media Project...Those figures don't include the final week, meaning the number of ads aired by election day should be well over the million mark. A majority of the aired advertisements have been in support of President Barack Obama, whose campaign aired 503,255 ads between April 11 and Oct. 29, 2012. The Romney campaign, by comparison, aired 190,784 ads in that period." [HuffPost]
JOBS REPORT GOOD BUT SPINNABLE - AP: "U.S. employers added 171,000 jobs in October and hiring was stronger over the previous two months than first thought. The unemployment rate inched up to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent in September. The Labor Department's last look at hiring before Tuesday's election sketched a picture of a job market that is gradually gaining momentum after nearly stalling in the spring. Since July, the economy has created an average of 173,000 jobs a month, up from 67,000 a month from April through June...Investors were pleased by the news. The Dow Jones industrial average futures were flat before it came out at 8:30 a.m. EDT, and within minutes they were up 30 points...Most of the details in the report were positive. The government revised the jobs figures to show that 84,000 more jobs were added than previously estimated." [HuffPost]
Obama spin, via Alan Krueger: "While more work remains to be done, today's employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the Great Depression... Most pressing, President Obama has proposed, and the Senate has passed, an extension of middle class tax cuts that would prevent the typical middle class family from facing a $2,200 tax increase at the beginning of next year...To create more jobs in particularly hard-hit sectors, President Obama continues to urge Congress to pass elements of the American Jobs Act..."
Romney spin: "Today's increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill," he said in a statement. "The jobless rate is higher than it was when President Obama took office, and there are still 23 million Americans struggling for work. On Tuesday, America will make a choice between stagnation and prosperity."
@michaelscherer: MSNBC carries Obama live; Fox does storm coverage. Fox carries Romney live; MSNBC does storm coverage.
RICK SCOTT CONTINUES HIS STATE'S PROUD TRADITION OF SUCKING AT DEMOCRACY - Bradenton Herald: "Citing long lines, a former Miami Beach state senator, the Florida Democratic Party and the League of Women Voters of Florida urged Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday to extend early voting. But don't expect the effort to go anywhere. Top Republican officials in Tallahassee said Thursday an extension isn't needed. And in Miami-Dade, the county with the longest lines, the office of Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a Republican who appoints the elections supervisor, said he has no plans to ask the governor for more time. The likely result: more long lines for early voters and long lines for Election Day voters on Tuesday." [Bradenton Herald]
GOD PLANNED FOR RICHARD MOURDOCK TO TOTALLY TANK IN THE POLLS - CNN: "The survey from Howey Politics and DePauw University indicated [Joe] Donnelly, a three-term congressman, was at 47% among likely Indiana voters in the race for the state's U.S. Senate seat, compared to 36% who support Mourdock, the Indiana state treasurer. A Libertarian candidate, Andrew Horning, was at 6% in the poll...[Mourdock] drew fire earlier this fall for saying during a debate that pregnancies occurring from rape are intended by God. Mourdock was explaining his opposition to abortion in cases of rape or incest when he made his remark." [CNN]
AARON SCHOCK MULLING GUBERNATORIAL BID - As evidenced by Pat Quinn, Illinois likes its governors to be chiseled slices of man marble, so it's no surprised that the telegenic lawmaker is thinking about a run. National Journal: "On Wednesday, less than a week before he's favored to win a third term in Congress, Schock met with top officials at the Republican Governors Association in Washington, to discuss the possibility of running for Illinois's top job in 2014. Four sources in Illinois and Washington with knowledge of Schock's meeting with the RGA said his interest in the race is an open secret, and that he's told donors he is seriously considering the contest. 'He's made it pretty clear to a lot of donors,' one well-connected Illinois Republican told us. 'That's common knowledge around here.'" [National Journal]
WHY CAN'T REPUBLICANS TALK ABOUT OUTSOURCING IN A NOT COMPLETELY RACIST WAY? - Sam Stein: "A Democratic source passed along shots of a flier allegedly being distributed by Rep. Jim Renacci's (R-Ohio) congressional campaign attacking Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) for using 'our tax dollars to create jobs in China.' The standard-issue line of attack in Ohio does not stand out quite so much as the insensitivity of its packaging. Paid for by the Ohio Republican Party, the mailer includes shots of Chinese food containers with cash, chopsticks and stereotypical Chinese-style font." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Monkey cannonnnnnnnbaaallllllllll!!!!!!!
17th STREET'S BIG NIGHT -
HuffPost DC: "Hurricane Sandy may have postponed the 26th annual 17th Street high-heel race, but -- as you can see in these photos -- there was no shortage of costumes, makeup and treats at the Dupont Circle Halloween-time tradition on Thursday night." [HuffPost]
YOU'VE GOT THE POWER! - HuffPost DC: "If this year's storms and inclement weather have you longing for a home that is not completely reliant on public utilities, this slideshow's for you. Each of these properties comes with a back-up generator -- but that's about all they have in common." [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- Bunny eating a cucumber because internet. [http://bit.ly/QZbkYr]
- SoPo is New York's newest neighborhood. South of Power. Ba-dum-tish. [http://bit.ly/SCkSel]
- The iPad Mini versus the Nexus 7 in a crashtacular drop test. [http://tcrn.ch/Viyu08]
- A 16th century mechanical monk... kind of like the original C-3PO. [http://bit.ly/Tigpea]
- Pro skateboarder walks through a glass door, doesn't seem to care. [http://chzb.gr/StYQb7]
- Redneck is running for president. No taxes on moonshine. [http://bit.ly/TidMJv]
- "Music to help clean up stream pollution by" and other odd retro albums. [http://bit.ly/UnLRXo]
TWITTERAMA
@katherinemiller: Occasionally, Mitt Romney sounds like he's narrating an episode of A&E's Biography.
@dceiver: @jonward11 I am just getting a bunch of fundraising emails now that read, "Jason, you are $%%@ing DEAD to me..." :( :( :(
@ElBloombito: Yo would get helpo out there que mas rapido, pero el Crosso Rojo esta only tiene bottles de agua mas than 16oz, y pero those esta banñed.
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