memeorandum: White House adviser: Romney ‘moved all over the place’ on issues, has ‘no core’ (Ben Geman/Ballot Box)

3:40 PM ET, October 30, 2011

Top Items:

CEPR:

Washington Post Discards All Journalistic Standards In Attack on Social Security — News outlets generally like to claim a separation between their editorial pages and their news pages. The Washington Post has long ignored this distinction in pursuing its agenda for cutting Social Security …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, Paul Krugman, Hullabaloo and The Reality-Based Community

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

The debt fallout: How Social Security went ‘cash negative’ earlier than expected — View Photo Gallery — Since the entitlement program's inception in 1935, many changes to Social Security have been enacted or attempted. Here's a look at some memorable moments in Social Security's history.

Discussion: Wake up America, Via Meadia, The Gateway Pundit, State of the Union, Hullabaloo and Prairie Weather

Jennifer Jacobs / Iowa Caucuses:

The Register's Iowa Poll: Herman Cain, Mitt Romney lead GOP pack; Ron Paul third — Former business executives Herman Cain and Mitt Romney lead the Republican field in Iowa in an election cycle in which likely GOP caucusgoers favor business experience over elective experience as a qualification for the presidency.

Discussion: USA Today, New York Times, Rick Perry 2012 Campaign …, Washington Monthly and Ballot Box

Des Moines / Iowa Caucuses:

Herman Cain, Mitt Romney lead new Iowa Poll — DES MOINES, Iowa - Herman Cain and Mitt Romney top The Des Moines Register's new Iowa Poll, with the retired pizza executive edging the former Massachusetts governor 23 percent to 22 percent in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

John Heilemann / New York Magazine:

The Temptation of Mitt — If he goes all out for Iowa, the nomination could quickly be his. But is it like Lucy and the football? — Mitt Romney made a trip to Iowa in October, and that in itself was news, for this was just the third time in 2011 that the Republican front-runner …

Discussion: Iowa Caucuses

Reid J. Epstein / The Politico:
Rick Perry flip-flops on debates

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Jamie Klatell / Ballot Box:
Bachmann touts Iowa straw poll win, downplays importance of Iowa caucuses

Discussion: Iowa Caucuses and The Politico

Kasie Hunt / Associated Press: Perry to attend at least 5 more debates

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Did You Hear the One About the Bankers? — CITIGROUP is lucky that Muammar el-Qaddafi was killed when he was. The Libyan leader's death diverted attention from a lethal article involving Citigroup that deserved more attention because it helps to explain why many average Americans …

Discussion: Swampland, Economist's View, Vox Popoli and Prairie Weather

New York Post:

Zuccotti perv — Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park battened down the hatches yesterday as the early October snow turned their tents into igloos, but the close quarters also made easy pickings for one predator. — A sex fiend barged into a woman's tent and sexually assaulted her at around 6 a.m. …

Discussion: Ironic Surrealism, Proof Positive, The Crawdad Hole, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Sister Toldjah, Pirate's Cove, Verum Serum, JammieWearingFool and Big Government

David Rose / Daily Mail:

Scientist who said climate change sceptics had been proved wrong accused of hiding truth by colleague — It was hailed as the scientific study that ended the global warming debate once and for all - the research that, in the words of its director, ‘proved you should not be a sceptic, at least not any longer’.

Discussion: thegwpf.org, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, BizzyBlog, The PJ Tatler, Watts Up With That? and The Lonely Conservative

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:

Obama: Pelosi was ‘one of the best’ Speakers, will be back in 2013 — President Obama on Saturday said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was a great House Speaker and that she will get that job back after the 2012 elections. — “I am biased, but I think Nancy was one of the best Speakers …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Wake up America, Weasel Zippers, The Lonely Conservative and Pundit Press

Denver Post:

Occupy Denver protesters, law enforcement officers clash; 20 arrested — In the most violent Saturday in more than a month of Occupy Denver demonstrations and marches, Denver police fired mace and pepper balls at a crowd of protesters in Civic Center today and arrested 20 people.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Latest Word, Scared Monkeys, Associated Press, Hullabaloo, The Gateway Pundit, TalkLeft, JammieWearingFool, The Crawdad Hole and OWS Exposed

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:

Let Children Vote — Via Jonathan Bernstein, Sally Kohn writes about a campaign in Lowell, Massachusetts to let seventeen year-olds vote in local elections. More power to them, but I say let any American citizen vote in any American election he or she wants to.

Discussion: American Prospect and A plain blog about politics

New York Times:

More Than Two Million Lose Power as Snow Coats Region — October, said the calendar. Before Halloween. And the 2.5 million trees occupying New York City's open spaces confirmed it was fall — not winter — with glorious canopies of leaves stretching along their boughs. — Yet snow was falling.

Discussion: Gothamist, Prairie Weather, Scared Monkeys, ThinkProgress and Gawker