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1.) Match made in hell — Most Americans find Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nausea-inducing, but the pint-sized president of the Islamic Republic was embraced by at least one America during his sojourn in New York City. TheDC’s Caroline May reports:
“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with the Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and other religious leaders Tuesday, according to an English translation of the Iranian president’s webpage posted Wednesday. In a picture of the Tuesday evening meeting, Farrakhan — known for making brutally anti-Semitic assertions, and calling President Obama a ‘murderer’ for the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi — is seen smiling as he sits at a table with the Iranian president.”
But Mr. Ahmadinejad may want to be careful. Farrakhan is like a kiss of death — literally. His previous authoritarian buddies (see Hussein, Saddam and Gaddhafi, Colonel) flamed out unnaturally early.
2.) America’s royals — American taxpayers spend nearly 30 times more on the American president than British taxpayers spend on the royal family, reports TheDC’s Alex Pappas:
“Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks. In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family. Author Robert Keith Gray writes in ‘Presidential Perks Gone Royal‘ that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in. Gray told The Daily Caller that the $1.4 billion spent on the Obama family last year is the ‘total cost of the presidency,’ factoring the cost of the ‘biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,’ a 50 percent increase in the numbers of appointed czars and an Air Force One ‘running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.'”
TheDC Morning, for one, isn’t particularly enraged about the amount being spent on the president and his family — it’s one of the perks that comes with taking on the herculean task of being leader of the free world. But it would certainly be more palatable if the current president was doing a good job.
3.) Pennsylvania dreaming — Could a long-shot Republican Senate candidate upset Bob Casey in Pennsylvania? The race is tightening, reports TheDC’s Alexis Levinson:
“The Pennsylvania Senate race has flown under the radar for most of the election cycle, but new polling suggests that the race between Republican Tom Smith and Sen. Bob Casey could become competitive. A CBS/New York Times/Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday found political newcomer Smith trialing Casey by a mere six points. It is the third poll in two weeks to show the race moving into single digits. That’s a big improvement for Smith, who trailed Casey by 19 points in two late August polls. The last CBS/New York Times/Quinnipiac poll at the end of July had Casey ahead by 18 points. The gain is likely in part due to Smith being up on the air, where his ads are running more than twice as often than Casey’s ads.”
4.) Why not call it terrorism? — White House press secretary Jay Carney finally admitted that the attack on America’s consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans was a terrorist attack, but why has President Obama been so reluctant to call it terrorism himself? TheDC’s Matt Lewis lays out some possibilities:
“First, it’s possible Obama doesn’t believe it was a terrorist attack. This seems highly implausible, though, inasmuch as on Monday, Obama conceded on ‘The View’ that Libya ‘wasn’t just a mob action.’ Second, he may be making a political calculation based on the assumption that a terrorist attack on his watch might hurt his electoral chances. If that’s the case, it is hardly a profile in courage. There are other theories. Maybe Obama views these murderers as mere criminals? — a dangerous possibility with consequences that transcend mere semantic differences. Or maybe it’s a naive hope that burying his head in the sand and refusing to say the T-word will somehow change reality?”
5.) Poll of the Day: Brown up big in Ohio — RealClearPolitics average of Ohio Senate race: Incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown 49.2 percent, Republican Josh Mandel 41.7 percent.
6.) Tweet of Yesterday —Andy Richter: On my drive to work this morning, I ran over 3 undecided voters! They all said they needed more info on how the Walk light works.