Livable Future

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Right-wing media attacked NBC News and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell for not airing a 1998 tape of President Obama on Wednesday before the network could authenticate it, accusing NBC of a "double standard" and of being a subsidiary of the Obama administration.

In fact, in seeking to verify the full context of what Obama said 14 years ago, comments first publicized by the Drudge Report and subsequently distorted by right-wing media, NBC News was doing exactly what is required of news organizations: checking the facts.

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Interesting for some of the comments.

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Karen Ranoni woke in her Romeo farmhouse at 5 a.m. Tuesday, an independent voter whose mind was all but settled: She planned to vote Mitt Romney for president Nov. 6.

By 8 a.m., her decision changed. Ranoni, 38, who does community volunteer work, tends her chickens and takes care of her three young children, had switched her allegiance back to President Barack Obama -- whom she voted for four years ago but thought had too deeply disappointed her to win her support again this year.

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Americans are feeling markedly better about the country's future and about Barack Obama's job performance, but the president's re-election race against Republican Mitt Romney remains a neck-and-neck proposition as Election Day creeps ever closer, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

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Many key economic and mood indicators are more positive now than in February 2009 when President Barack Obama first took office. However, there have been significant ups and downs during his 44 months as president.

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The importance of income in the election was highlighted, at least indirectly, by a newly released video clip of Romney commenting at a fundraiser that President Obama's base supporters -- "47%" of Americans -- are people who pay no income tax and depend on government services.

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Who are these 46 percent* of Americans who pay no income taxes (but who do pay a variety of other federal taxes, including payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare)?

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Romney admitted that he has "two perspectives” on the issue. The first is that "the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."

“I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel,” he said.

The second perspective came from a former secretary of state, who Romney didn't name. "This individual said to me, you know, I think there's a prospect for a settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis after the Palestinian elections. I said, "Really?"

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"I didn't delve into it."

-Romney referring to details about a two-state solution offered to him by an unnamed former Secretary of State

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Monday, the Romney campaign held a conference call to address a need that it says doesn't exist. Senior adviser Ed Gillespie explained that in the coming weeks, Mitt Romney will offer more policy details. Last week, Romney aides dismissed conservative pundits who had called for that very thing. A senior aide told me only lazy cable-network hermits worried that Romney wasn't being specific enough. Today, Gillespie presented the move as a natural evolution required by a reasonable electorate. Voters "are looking for 'how is this going to make my life better?' " said Gillespie. "We also know that they'd like to know more about specifics. We are going to meet that demand."

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The reported host of a private $50,000-a-plate fundraiser that has come to haunt Mitt Romney this week is a prominent Florida private equity manager who has attracted media attention for partying with the rich and famous.

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Romney says that Palestinians are ‘‘committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel’’ and that the prospects for a two-state solution to Mideast peace were dim.

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Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade and owner of the Chicago Cubs, is planning a $10 million campaign through his super PAC to persuade voters to pull the lever for Republican nominee Mitt Romney, according to the Wall Street Journal. The ads, as well as some longer videos online, are part of a new campaign by the Ending Spending Action Fund called "Why I Changed My Vote." They feature a number of individuals explaining why, having voted for Obama in 2008, they will vote for Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, in 2012.

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Way to go, Mitt. You fucking asshole.

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I don’t want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share. That our civics classes never taught us that being American means that—sorry, kiddies—you’re on your own. That those who have received much must be obligated to pay—not to give, not to “cut a check and shut up,” in Governor Christie’s words, but to pay—in the same proportion. That’s called stepping up and not whining about it. That’s called patriotism, a word the Tea Partiers love to throw around as long as it doesn’t cost their beloved rich folks any money.

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In the regular, likely-voter version of our “now-cast,” Mr. Obama is estimated to have a 68 percent chance of winning the Electoral College in an election held today. But on the basis of registered voters, he would be a 91 percent favorite. Instead of being ahead in the popular vote by a hair over one point, he’d be expected to win by around four. And he’d be projected to win 322 electoral votes, rather than 291.

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As President Obama prepares to take the stage tonight at the Democratic National Convention, a media debate swirls around whether Americans are better off than we were four years ago. According to five esteemed business and finance reporters from top news outlets, the situation has improved in almost all economic sectors.