Like to laugh? Like to be informed? Then sign up for TheDC Morning email here.
1.) President Barack Bloomberg — President Obama is channeling his inner Mike Bloomberg with his latest nanny initiative, reports TheDC’s Caroline May.
“President Barack Obama has already promised not to smoke cigarettes in the White House. If his administration has its way, American college students will soon be required to follow suit while they’re on campus. Howard Koh, assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will announce a national initiative Wednesday at the University of Michigan School of Public Health to stamp out tobacco use on college campuses. ‘We are witnessing a public health evolution to make smoking history and protect people from tobacco dependence so that they have a fighting chance to enjoy their full potential for health,’ Koh said in a statement released by the University of Michigan, a smoke-free campus since last July.”
TheDC Morning is a rare breed at The Daily Caller: A hater of all things tobacco. But banning adults from choosing to even smoke outside on America’s campuses sounds just a bit draconian. What next? Banning 16 oz drinks in cafeterias?
2.) Oy vey — President Obama may have a Jewish problem, reports TheDC’s Caroline May:
“President Obama’s support among Jewish voters is down 19 percentage points since his 2008 election victory, a new poll reveals. A recent Investor’s Business Daily/Christian Science Monitor/TIPP Poll, released Monday, found that while President Obama leads in overall polling — 46 percent to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s 44 percent — his support among Jewish voters has dropped from 78 percent in 2008 to 59 percent today.”
It is clear that President Obama will win the Jewish vote in November. The question, of course, is by how much? Even if his numbers among Jews are better than this poll suggests, a loss of Jewish support in a state like Florida in a close election could throw the state — and perhaps the election — to Mitt Romney.
3.) Cairo catastrophe — The American embassy in Cairo was attacked by a mob Tuesday protesting an American film almost no one ever heard of which supposedly depicts the Muslim prophet Mohammed in a bad light. So the embassy releases a statement attacking — wait for it — the film! No, not the vigilantes, but some stupid film that if 15 people see that would be a lot. Former George W. Bush deputy national security adviser Elliot Abrams expressed consternation at the American response to TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein (ME!):
“Abrams, who advised President George W. Bush and is a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Daily Caller that he found the embassy’s statement ‘bizarre and unacceptable.’ ‘[I]nstead of a protest the embassy has responded with a statement that says nothing about this failure by the government of Egypt to protect our people and property,’ he wrote in an email. ‘Instead it criticized those who say mean things about Islam, when in fact in Egypt today it is non-Muslims, and Christians in particular, who feel threatened. So I find the embassy statement untimely on 9/11, bizarre and unacceptable.'”
The government needs to be reduced in size, starting with those who wrote the statement and those who approved it.
4.) Obama the law school professor * — Former University of Chicago Law School Dean Richard Epstein discusses President Obama’s time teaching at the law school.
5.) Poll of the Day: Presidential race remains tight — ABC News/ Wash Post poll of presidential election: President Obama 49%, Mitt Romney 48%. The RealClearPolitics average lists Obama up 3.6% over Romney.
6.) Never Forget — Yesterday marked the 11th anniversary of the greatest terrorist attack not only in American history, but in world history. TheDC Morning remembers all those who tragically fell that day. Though America was knocked to the ground for one uncertain moment, we quickly rose from our knees, brushed off our wounds and fought back. What a country.
*This snippet originally discussed an article on The Daily Caller that reported that former University of Chicago Law Dean Richard Epstein indicated that President Obama was not a constitutional law professor while at the University of Chicago. The original story has been updated to reflect that President Obama did teach a course on constitutional law.