memeorandum: Obama has strong lead in Pa., Mercyhurst U. poll finds (Thomas Fitzgerald/Philly.com)

3:05 PM ET, September 25, 2012

Top Items:

Sen. Scott Brown staffers caught on video chanting Indian war whoops, making tomahawk chops — Rally video surfaces after campaigns release ads about Warren's heritage — Staffers for Sen. Scott Brown chanted Indian “war whoops” and made “tomahawk chops” during a rally for the Republican senator this week in Boston.

Michael Levenson / Boston Globe:

Dems: GOP staffers mocked Warren with chants, ‘chops’ — At least two Republican staffers, including a member of Scott Brown's US Senate office, apparently mocked Elizabeth Warren's claims to Native American ancestry by making tomahawk chops and war whoops outside one of Brown's campaign events …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Balloon Juice and The Fix

David / Blue Mass Group:
Scott Brown staffers do “Indian war whoop”, “tomahawk chop” - YouTube

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, Gawker, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Ballot Box, Mother Jones, Business Insider, WBUR, Election 2012 and The Fix

Washington Post:

Washington Post polls: Obama lead in Ohio, edge in Fla. hamper Romney path to victory — President Obama has grabbed a significant lead over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in Ohio and holds a slender edge in Florida, according to two new polls by The Washington Post.

Discussion: The Fix, emptywheel, Little Green Footballs, GOP 12, Outside the Beltway, Battleground Watch, Althouse, Hot Air, Washington Wire, Naked Politics, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Hinterland Gazette, Business Insider, Taylor Marsh, Politico, Election 2012 and National Review

Alexander Burns / Politico:

Romney's problem: Ohio, Ohio, Ohio — Of all the hurdles in Mitt Romney's path, there is none as daunting - or as alarming to other members of his party - as the state of Ohio. — This morning's Washington Post poll found Obama leading Romney by 8 points in the Buckeye State.

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Outside the Beltway and The Other McCain

Peter Kirsanow / National Review:
Why Isn't Romney Up by Ten Points?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CANNONFIRE, Vodkapundit and The Talking Dog

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
Pluralities Say Press is Fair to Romney, Obama

Discussion: Politico and Washington Post

New York Times:

Obama's Speech to the United Nations General Assembly — Text — Following is a text of President Obama's speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, as released by the White House: — Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentleman …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Weekly Standard, CBS New York, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The Agonist, Weasel Zippers and The Daily Dish

Washington Post:

President Obama's 2012 address to U.N. General Assembly (Full text) — Video: President Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York Tuesday, urging leaders to condemn the violence over an anti-Muslim film in the Middle East that led to the death of U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Discussion: CNN, Hit & Run, The Heritage Foundation, Hot Air, Newsy, This Just In and Radio Iowa

Congressman Allen West / Facebook:

The President continues to offer up apologies....When tolerance becomes a one way street it leads to cultural suicide... In his speech today to the United Nations, President Obama stated six times that the attacks across the Islamic world are attributed to a silly video.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller and Daily Kos

Louis Charbonneau / Reuters:
In New York, defiant Ahmadinejad says Israel will be “eliminated”

Discussion: Wake up America, Business Insider, americanthinker.com, CBS News, Foreign Policy, Althouse, Newsy and Weekly Standard

Guy Taylor / Washington Times:
Muslim-led nations seek global ban on insults of Muhammad

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Hot Air

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Conservative Mind — When I joined the staff of National Review as a lowly associate in 1984, the magazine, and the conservative movement itself, was a fusion of two different mentalities. — On the one side, there were the economic conservatives. These were people that anybody …

Discussion: driftglass, The Agonist, Marbury, Taylor Marsh and Prairie Weather

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Brooks Misses the Boat

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Kia Makarechi / The Huffington Post:

Madonna: Obama Is ‘A Black Muslim In The White House,’ Deserves Votes (VIDEO) … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Madonna, Video, Madonna MDNA Tour, Political Hollywood, Madonna Barack Obama, Madonna Obama, Madonna Obama Black Muslim, Madonna Obama Endorsement, Madonna Obama Muslim, Madonna Obama Tattoo, Mdna, Mdna Tour, Entertainment News

Discussion: Angry Black Lady Chronicles and The Raw Story

Caitlin McDevitt / Associated Press:
Madonna gives odd Obama endorsement

Discussion: Mediaite, Towleroad News #gay and Weasel Zippers

Thomas Burr / Salt Lake Tribune:

Harry Reid: Mitt Romney is not the face of Mormonism — • Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he agrees with a fellow Mormon who wrote recently that Mitt Romney has “sullied” the LDS faith and that the GOP presidential candidate is “not the face of Mormonism.”

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Politico, USA Today, The Hinterland Gazette and The Raw Story

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Reid: I agree Romney has ‘sullied’ Mormonism

Discussion: New York Magazine

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

GOP takes aim at ‘skewed’ polls — The Romney campaign and other Republicans say polls showing President Obama with a significant lead over their candidate are inaccurate. — They argue many mainstream polls skew in Obama's favor because of sample sizes that base 2012 turnout projections on 2008 …

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Maddow Blog and BuzzFeed

Steven Shepard / NationalJournal.com:
Republicans to Pollsters: Too Many Democrats In Your Surveys

Discussion: Salon, NY Daily News, The Fix, Wake up America, Hot Air, National Review, Swampland, Battleground Watch and Gawker

Patrick Gavin / Politico:

Ralph Nader: Obama's a ‘war criminal’ — It's no surprise that Ralph Nader isn't a fan of former President George W. Bush. After all, the longtime activist ran against him in both 2000 and 2004. But Nader's even less a fan of President Barack Obama, if only because he thinks Obama was capable of so much more.

Discussion: Green Festival, Mediaite and Weasel Zippers

Bob Lewis / Associated Press:
Biden Campaigns in GOP-Voting Virginia Suburb

Discussion: CNN

Alicia Cohn / The Hill:

Ryan criticizes refs for call in disputed Green Bay Packers game — GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan on Tuesday criticized the replacement referees who made a disputed call that caused the Green Bay Packers to lose the Monday Night Football game. — “You guys watch that Packer game last night?”

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Kevin Robillard / Politico:
Bill Clinton: NFL refs blew the call!

Discussion: JSOnline, New York Magazine and The Atlantic Online

Kevin Robillard / Politico:

Bill Clinton: ‘Red flag’ on Mitt Romney's plan — Mitt Romney's refusal to get into the specifics of his tax overhaul should raise a “red flag,” former president Bill Clinton said Tuesday, adding he doesn't think Romney can avoid a middle-class tax hike. — “We know what Governor Romney says …

Discussion: Associated Press, CNN and Daily Kos

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Bill Clinton: Romney's refusal to share tax plan specifics a ‘red flag’

Discussion: Politico

Associated Press:

Police: Teen admits vandalizing NYC pol's office — NEW YORK — Police say a teenager has admitted vandalizing the campaign office of New York Congressman Michael Grimm. — NYPD spokesman Paul Browne says the eighth grader told a school counselor that he and a friend had broken a window …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill and Politicker

Michael Grimm for Congress:
Rep. Grimm Campaign Office Burglarized and Vandalized, Compromising Important Campaign Files

Discussion: New York Times, New York Magazine, Politicker, Gothamist, Daily Kos and Staten Island Advance

Bill Glauber / JSOnline:

News and Opinion Blogs — Obama on the NFL replacement refs — By Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel — It turns out President Barack Obama was a tad concerned about the NFL's replacement refs, even before the Green Bay Packers' stunning loss to Seattle.

Discussion: Political Capital, Washington Examiner and First Read

Politico:

President Obama's audacity-free campaign — Audacity is so 2008. — Barack Obama, reconciling the contradictory realities of Mitt Romney's hard fall with a race that remains stubbornly inside the margin of error, is running as the kind of careful, poll-watching politician he disdained …

Discussion: American Prospect, Booman Tribune and Reuters

Matea Gold / Los Angeles Times:
Obama campaign had twice the staff as Romney last month at same cost

Discussion: americanthinker.com, Taylor Marsh and Hullabaloo

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

‘Every Person Is Afraid of the Drones’: The Strikes' Effect on Life in Pakistan — Interviews with the civilians terrorized daily by American foreign policy — Tribesmen sit with Sadaullah Khan, a man from Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, who says he lost both legs and one eye in a 2009 drone strike on his house.

Noah Smith / noahpinionblog.blogspot.it:

I'm from the economics profession, and I'm here to help. — EconoTrolls: An Illustrated Bestiary — In your journey through the Econ Blogosphere, you will be beset by a great many curious and interesting species of EconoTroll. At first you may be intimidated by their voluminous use of insider jargon …

Discussion: EconLog