memeorandum: Two Presidents, Smoking and Scheming (Maureen Dowd/New York Times)

2:30 PM ET, October 7, 2012

Top Items:

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:

Romney TV ad: Obama ‘not telling the truth’ about tax reform plans — Mitt Romney on Sunday unveiled a new TV ad pushing back on President Obama's claims the Republican challenger misrepresented the GOP ticket's tax reform plans in Wednesday's debate. — “President Obama continues …

Discussion: CNN, ABCNEWS, ABCNEWS, Taylor Marsh and americanthinker.com

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

Gingrich Concedes Romney Wasn't Honest About His Tax Plan During Debate — This morning on Meet The Press, Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs confronted Newt Gingrich on a fundamental inconsistency in Romney's description of his tax plan. During the primary debates, Romney insisted …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Peter Schroeder / The Hill:

Gibbs: Mitt Romney delivered ‘dishonest’ debate performance — Senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs on Sunday accused Mitt Romney of delivering a “fundamentally dishonest” performance during last week's first presidential debate. — Gibbs said President Obama ended up debating against …

Discussion: Politico

Kyle Balluck / The Hill:
After debate, Obama looks to move on

Discussion: CNN and Jammie Wearing Fools

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Biden Takes 6 Days Off Campaign Trail — With just about a month until Election Day, Vice President Joe Biden is in the middle of taking nearly a week off the campaign trail. He will return to doing campaign events on Thursday, when he will debate Rep. Paul Ryan in the vice presidential debate.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:

Priebus lowers VP debate expectations, describes Biden as ‘gifted orator’ — Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus expressed optimism that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would do well in Thursday night's vice presidential debate, but sought to downplay expectations, describing Vice President Joe Biden as a “gifted orator.”

Discussion: CNN, Politico and The Other McCain

Elise Viebeck / The Hill:
Campaign surrogates Ayotte, O'Malley spar on job numbers, presidential debate

Discussion: Politico

Simon van Zuylen-Wood / Washington Monthly:

Real Live Voter Fraud — Jaded by relentless GOP vote suppression efforts directed towards phantom voter impersonators, it's easy to forget that real fraud actually happens. Today Adam Liptak of the New York Times surveys some recent problems with absentee ballots, which now make up twenty percent of all votes.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

As More Vote by Mail, Faulty Ballots Could Impact Elections — An absentee ballot in Florida. Almost 2 percent of mailed ballots are rejected, double the rate for in-person voting. More Photos » — TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — On the morning of the primary here in August …

Discussion: Althouse

Sy Mukherjee / ThinkProgress:

Mary Matalin Calls Paul Krugman A ‘Liar’ For Telling The Truth — During a roundtable discussion on George Stephanoupolos' This Week Sunday morning, GOP political consultant Mary Matalin got into a heated exchange with Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, calling him a “liar” …

Discussion: The Raw Story and Hullabaloo

Washington Post:

Capitol Assets: Congress's wealthiest mostly shielded from effects of deep recession — If you could peer deeply into how the 535 members of Congress handle their money, what would you find? — You would see a diversity of investment strategies and results, from those who put their money into riskier …

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Two Presidents, Smoking and Scheming — AFTER the debate, I was talking to Aaron Sorkin, who was a little down. Or, as he put it, “nonverbal, shouting incoherently at a squirrel, angrier than when the Jets lost to the 49ers last Sunday without ever really being on the field.”

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Prairie Weather and Pressing Issues

Rasmussen Reports:

Ohio Senate: Brown (D) 46%, Mandel (R) 46% — The U.S. Senate race in Ohio is now a tie. — The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Ohio Voters finds incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown and his Republican challenger Josh Mandel each earning 46% support.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Scared Monkeys, Weekly Standard, nation.foxnews.com, The PJ Tatler and americanthinker.com

Ace / Ace of Spades HQ:

Mitt Romney is worth $250 million. Why so little? … The article then goes through his listed assets, suggesting that Romney might be understating his wealth, based on... well, nothing, really. — It then tries to dream up reasons why Romney shouldn't be richer. It doesn't credit any of them for being true.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Pirate's Cove, Washington Post, The Lonely Conservative and Instapundit