Final official electoral college vote is Obama 332-206
Romney’s Florida campaign has acknowledged their candidate lost in Florida as well. Romney already conceded the national race after he lost the other battleground states.
“The numbers in Florida show this was winnable,” Brett Doster, Florida advisor for Romney, said in a statement to The Miami Herald. “We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn’t, and for that I and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won’t happen again.” - Miami Herald
1) POTUS on Libya, Romney's Rose Garden response, POTUS rebuttal
PRESIDENT OBAMA:Secretary Clinton has done an extraordinary job, but she works for me.I’m the President, and I’m always responsible.That’s why nobody is more interested in finding out exactly what happened than I do.The day after the attack, governor, I stood in the rose garden, and I told the American people and the world that we were going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror, and I also said that we’re going to hunt down those who committed this crime.And then a few days later I was there greeting the caskets coming into Andrews Air Force Base and grieving with the families, and the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the Secretary of State, our U.N. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we’ve lost four of our own, governor, is offensive.That’s not what we do.That’s not what I do as President, that’s not what I do as Commander-in-Chief.
MODERATOR:Governor, if you want to reply quickly to this please.
GOVERNOR ROMNEY:I think it’s interesting the President just said something which is that on the day after the attack he went to the Rose Garden and said this was an act of terror.
PRESIDENT OBAMA:That’s what I said.
GOVERNOR ROMNEY:You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack it was an attack of terror.It was not a spontaneous demonstration?
PRESIDENT OBAMA:Please proceed.
GOVERNOR ROMNEY:I want to make sure we get that.It took the President 14 days before he called it an attack of terror.
MODERATOR:Let me call it an act of terror.He did call it an act of terror.
PRESIDENT OBAMA:Can you say that a little louder, Candy?
MODERATOR:
He did call it an act of terror.
2) POTUS immigration clip – (Romney’s advisor called Arizona’s plan a “model”)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I want to make sure we understand something. Governor Romney said he wasn’t referring to as Arizona a model for the nation. His top advisor is the one who designed the whole Arizona program, not just E-verify. It’s a bad policy and it won’t help us grow. Look, when we think about immigration, we have to understand, there are folks all around the world who still see America as the land of promise, and they provide us energy and they provide us innovation, and they start companies like Intel and Google, and we want to encourage that. Now, we’ve got to make sure that we do it in a smart way, in a comprehensive way, and we make the legal system better. But when we make this into a divisive political issue and when we don’t have bipartisan support -- I can deliver, governor, a whole bunch of Democrats to get comprehensive immigration reform done.
3) Romney "Binders of women" clip
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Thank you, an important topic, and one which I learned a great deal about, particularly as I was serving as governor of my state because I had the chance to pull together a cabinet, and all of the applicants seemed to be men, and I went to my staff and I said how come all of the people for these jobs are all men? And they said these are the people who have the qualifications. I said, gosh, can’t we find some women that are also qualified? And so we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women’s groups and said can you help us find folks? They brought us whole binders full of women.
CHICAGO -- President Obama will use tonight’s debate to talk about what we’ve accomplished over the last four years to rebuild our economy and restore middle class security, and his specific plans for the next four years to continue moving our country forward. He’ll also hold Mitt Romney accountable for dishonestly trying to mislead voters about his positions, which would take us back to the same failed policies that crashed our economy and punished the middle class.
To fight back against Romney’s dishonest practices during the debate, OFA will continue to fact check and respond to Mitt Romney’s statements in real time using the @OFAdebates Twitter handle. Followers of the campaign’s existing @TruthTeam2012 account will automatically receive tweets from @OFAdebates. Go to www.barackobama.com/OFAdebatesto follow.
Outside of the debate hall, the President’s grassroots supporters will be working to remind voters of what’s at stake in this election. Tonight, more than 1,500 grassroots voter contact events are scheduled across the country – and in nearly every battleground state, our margins in voter registration and early voting are bigger now than they were in 2008.
After the debate, the following campaign officials and surrogates will be in Hempstead to respond immediately to Romney’s performance:
· David Axelrod, Obama for America Senior Strategist
· Rep. Karen Bass (D, CA-33)
· Rep. Xavier Becerra (D, CA-31)
· Stephanie Cutter, Obama for America Deputy Campaign Manager
· Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), OFA national campaign co-chair
· Patrick Gaspard, DNC Executive Director
· Robert Gibbs, Obama for America Senior Advisor
· Senator John Kerry (D-MA)
· Jim Messina, Obama for America Campaign Manager
· Governor Martin O’Malley (D-MD), Chair of the Democratic Governors Association
· Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA), OFA national campaign co-chair
· David Plouffe, 2008 Obama for America Campaign Manager
· Jen Psaki, Obama for America Traveling Press Secretary
· Governor Ted Strickland, former Ohio governor and OFA national campaign co-chair
· Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D, MD-8)
· Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D, NY-12)
· Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles and OFA national campaign co-chair
· DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D, FL-20)
* For identification purposes only
Nice to see that OFA realized that sending out 4 people to talk to the media after the debate was a bad idea. If the media gets to talk to 30 Republicans and 4 Democrats who do you think is going to get more play? And no... it wasn't because of how Obama did in the debate. They only scheduled 4 people to come out before the debate.
While I will be at the debate today I'm not overly confident that I'll have any cell coverage. If I can get any kind of service I will be using Twitter from inside the arena. When possible we'll get pictures posted.
Watch a live event in anticipation of the first 2012 Presidential Debate between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney presented by Politico and hosted at The Denver Post on Wednesday morning. Participants include Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Obama senior campaign adviser Robert Gibbs, National Counsel for Romney for President Ben Ginsberg and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.
The first presidential debate will be one of the most important moments of this campaign. When the President is getting ready to go one-on-one with his opponent, he’ll be glad to know you’ve got his back.
There are thousands of debate watch parties happening across the country on Wednesday. Spend debate night with fellow supporters—find a watch party near you.
I wanted to make you aware of a live-streamed conversation the Shorenstein Center is sponsoring that we think will interest you. Organized around the theme “Politics as Theater,” the conversation will look at the election from a variety of angles – media coverage, political rhetoric, Hollywood and more. Please tune in for what we believe will be a lively – and engagingly rich – exchange with Academy Award–winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, former Senator Alan K. Simpson, political scientist Kathleen Hall Jamieson, and NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd, in Denver on Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 12:45 p.m. MST (2:45 p.m. EST).
DocJess just had her day made. The Voter ID law is now under injunction through the election.
A judge postponed Pennsylvania's controversial voter identification requirement on Tuesday, ordering the state not to enforce it in this year's presidential election but allowing it to go into full effect next year.
The decision by Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson on the law requiring each voter to show a valid photo ID could be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
However, Simpson based his decision on guidelines given to him days ago by the high court justices, and it could easily be the final word on the law just five weeks before the Nov. 6 election. - AP
Stay tuned for more news and analysis on this victory
President Obama will debate Mitt Romney for the first time Wednesday night in arguably the most anticipated event of the campaign season.
Who doesn’t like a good debate? (Here at The Fix, we certainly do.) Debates hold the potential to etch lasting impressions in voters’ minds about presidential candidates’ personalities and policy positions. And part of the appeal of debates stems from memories of past showdowns that have left enduring imprints on our collective political consciousness. (Though, as history shows, there are few examples of debates dramatically shifting the trajectory of a campaign.)
Below is our list of the top 10 moments from past presidential debates, in reverse chronological order. The rundown includes moments that shook up campaigns, others that revealed something telling about a candidate’s temperament, and the zingers and one-liners against which all campaign quips are compared. (Did we miss any? The comments section awaits): Click here for the list.
Following Wednesday's debate at the University of Denver, Obama will hold a rally in Denver on Thursday before jetting off to Wisconsin. His campaign has yet to announce when or where the event will be. But tickets for it will be available for free to the public starting at 5 p.m. Monday at one of the following campaign offices in Denver: 3867 Tennyson St., 3131 W. Alameda Ave. or 77 W 9th Ave. - Denver Post
Both candidates will hold their own rallies in Denver next week.
Romney will attend a rally at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver on Monday evening. He is scheduled to speak around 6:45 p.m. Tickets for the event will be distributed through his campaign. - Denver Post
Obama will hold a rally next Thursday morning in Denver, just hours after the debate, his campaign announced Thursday afternoon, although the details have yet to be released. - KDVR
Q: Can you describe the presidential debate's format?
A: There are six segments of 15 minutes each. Each candidate will get a two-minute answer to the first question in each segment and then there will be an open discussion. I selected the subjects for the six segments and all of the questions.
Q: How does this format differ from those you have moderated in the past?
A: This is a major change. Previous debates have mostly been more restricted on the timing of specific answers, responses, etc. This is the first time open discussion time of these lengths have been permitted.
Q: Why do debates matter?
A: They are the only opportunities the voters have to see and hear the candidates talk about the same things at the same time—and to take a real time comparative measure of them.
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