memeorandum: Phony in Chief — When President Barack Obama and others … (Thomas Sowell/Townhall.com)

2:50 PM ET, October 9, 2012

Top Items:

Sesame Workshop / The Sesame Workshop Blog:

Sesame Workshop Response to Campaign Ads — Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Team Obama Big Bird ad mocks Mitt — ...and by serious, we mean not at all serious. — The Obama campaign is out this morning with a goofy video of the Big Bird variety, mocking Mitt Romney, as the president has put it, as going easy on Wall Street but heavy on Sesame Street.

Discussion: Politicker, CNN, nation.foxnews.com, The Week, Moe Lane, The Gateway Pundit, The PJ Tatler, Taylor Marsh, Weekly Standard and GOP 12

David Dayen / Firedoglake:

Obama Ad About Big Bird Cannot Find One Prominent Wall Street Criminal Prosecuted By Administration — This is an amusing ad by the Obama campaign, poking fun at Mitt Romney's comment in the first debate about eliminating funding for PBS and Big Bird. President Obama has been getting …

Discussion: Hit & Run, National Review, Riehl World News and Moe Lane

Toby Harnden / Daily Mail:
Obama ‘believed he had BEATEN Romney’ in Denver debate - after ignoring advice of top aides on preparation

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Byron Tau / Politico:
Sesame Street asks Obama to pull ad

Discussion: The Hill, Riehl World News and Orlando Sentinel

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Sesame Street asks Obama camp to take down Big Bird attack ad

Discussion: American Spectator, Mediaite, The Right Scoop, Business Insider and The PJ Tatler

CNN:
Team Romney word on the street for Big Bird tactics: ‘Troubling’

Discussion: Politicker and The People's View

William Kristol / Weekly Standard: Sesame Street Liberalism

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:
New Obama ad uses Big Bird to hit Romney on deficit, Wall Street

Discussion: ABCNEWS, GOP 12, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, Outside the Beltway, Riehl World News, Pundit & Pundette, Gawker, The Lonely Conservative and The Powers That Be

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Did Obama Just Throw The Entire Election Away? — The Pew poll is devastating, just devastating. Before the debate, Obama had a 51 - 43 lead; now, Romney has a 49 - 45 lead. That's a simply unprecedented reversal for a candidate in October. Before Obama had leads on every policy issue …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post, Power Line, American Prospect, The Atlantic Online, Ross Douthat, Firedoglake, Hit & Run, The Moderate Voice, The Monkey Cage, Questions and Observations, The Jawa Report, driftglass, PolicyMic, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, The Daily Beast, theGrio, The Fix, PoliticusUSA, The American Conservative, The Caucus, HillBuzz.org, The New Republic, Guardian, NewsBusters.org blogs, Business Insider, The Reaction, National Review, Belmont Club, The Agonist, American Power, New York Magazine, DCist, The Strata-Sphere, Sweetness & Light, The Page, The Week, Scared Monkeys, Da Tech Guy's Blog, Outside the Beltway, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Gothamist, The Gateway Pundit, Weekly Standard, Israel Matzav, Mediaite, Newsy, Bob Owens, Weasel Zippers, Wizbang, Online NewsHour, Hot Air, Vox Popoli, The People's View, BuzzFeed, Lawyers, Guns & Money, No More Mister Nice Blog, Riehl World News, Wonkette, CNN, New York Times, Hullabaloo, Althouse, Jammie Wearing Fools, Washington Wire, Politico, Taylor Marsh and Washington Monthly

Kos / Daily Kos:

Daily Kos/SEIU State of the Nation poll: Romney takes the lead in post-debate period — Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos & SEIU. 10/4-7. Likely voters. MoE ±2.72% (9/27-30 results) … Obama 47 (49) — Romney 49 (45) — That's a pretty disastrous six-point net swing in just a week …

Discussion: Spectator, iOwnTheWorld.com, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, Israel Matzav, Weasel Zippers, The Maddow Blog, Business Insider, The Strata-Sphere and Althouse

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Romney 49%, Obama 47% Among Likely Voters — Registered voter trend suggests Obama is recovering from post-debate drop — PRINCETON, NJ — Mitt Romney holds a slight edge over Barack Obama — 49% to 47% — in Gallup's initial “likely voter” estimate, encompassing interviews from Oct. 2-8.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Huffington Post, Politicker, The PJ Tatler, The New Republic, AEIdeas, Election 2012, Talking Points Memo, Christian Science Monitor and Brad DeLong

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Romney surges past Obama in second poll — Mitt Romney has overtaken President Obama in a Public Policy Polling survey released on Tuesday. — Romney won 49 percent support from likely voters in the poll, compared to 47 percent for Obama. — It's the first time all year Romney has led in the poll …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Outside the Beltway, The Hinterland Gazette, Instapundit, Jay Bookman, The PJ Tatler, Prairie Weather and Connecting.the.Dots

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Oct. 8: A Great Poll for Romney, in Perspective

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, The New Republic, Marbury, Outside the Beltway, Princeton Election Consortium, The Week, Examiner, Guardian, blog.sfgate.com, Prairie Weather and The Fix

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
The Pew Poll and Confirmation Bias

Discussion: American Prospect, The Reality-Based Community, Weasel Zippers and American Power

BuzzFeed:
Why The Gallup Poll Numbers Are Likely To Get Worse For Obama In The Next Two Days

Discussion: Guardian, GOP 12, Democracy Project and Politico

Gary Langer / ABCNEWS:
A Popularity High for Romney - but Ditto for Obama

Discussion: ABCNEWS, CNN, GOP 12 and Smartypants

Politico:

Inside the campaign: The Romney rebellion — For months, Ann Romney and her eldest son, Tagg, were dutifully supportive of the political professionals running Mitt Romney's campaign. All the while, their private frustration was mounting. — Shortly before the final debate, it finally boiled over.

Discussion: American Prospect, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, NY Daily News, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Daily Caller, TBogg, Wonkette, GOP 12, Taylor Marsh, The Hinterland Gazette, Washington Free Beacon, Detroit Free Press and White House Dossier

Stephen Gandel / Fortune:

Welch can't take the heat: I quit — The former top GE executive says he will no longer write for Fortune following coverage of his jobs conspiracy tweet. — FORTUNE — Jack Welch has left our building, metaphorically that is. — Welch said he will no longer contribute …

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, Media Decoder, Mediaite, Business Insider, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Raw Story and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:

“Nones” on the Rise — One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation — Executive Summary — The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public - and a third of adults under 30 - are religiously unaffiliated today …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Whispers in the Loggia, Via Meadia, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Talking Points Memo, Guardian, Washington Examiner, Althouse, Taylor Marsh, Mother Jones, Newsy, The Daily Beast, Prairie Weather and FOX8.com

BuzzFeed:

Paul Ryan Gets Testy And Ends Interview — When asked about guns and taxes in an interview with ABC12 in Flint, Michigan. Campaign: “Eventually you're going to see a local reporter embarrass himself.” — Source: youtube.com — Update: Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck tells BuzzFeed …

Discussion: Althouse, Crooks and Liars, Mediaite, FishbowlDC, The Fix, The Gateway Pundit, New York Magazine, Mother Jones, PoliticusUSA, AMERICAblog, Balloon Juice, The PJ Tatler, The Raw Story and Towleroad News #gay

Juana Summers / Politico:
Paul Ryan spars with reporter

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Mediaite, ABCNEWS and White House Dossier

New York Post:

Thug puts us on hook for 16G — Feds will pay for jailed terror fiend's hands — We're giving this hatemonger a hand — and probably two. — Taxpayers will foot the bill to replace radical Islamic preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri's infamous hooks, The Post has learned.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Mail, Jihad Watch, Weasel Zippers, New York Magazine and americanthinker.com

Ben Armbruster / ThinkProgress:

Giuliani: Ambassador Would Still Be Alive If Obama Administration Reacted To Libya Attack Differently — Mitt Romney campaign surrogate Rudy Giuliani suggested that the four Americas who died in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya last month were killed because the Obama administration …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Mediaite

Eric Kleefeld / Talking Points Memo:

Josh Romney: Dad ‘Learned How To Debate An Obstinate Child’ — Josh Romney, one of Mitt Romney's sons, told a pointed joke Tuesday about President Obama's debate performance, while warming up the crowd for his father at a campaign rally in Van Meter, Iowa. — “I don't know if you guys saw …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and Angry Black Lady Chronicles

Hollie McKay / Fox News:

Actress Stacey Dash hit with racially-charged attacks after endorsing Romney — March 7, 2010: Actress Stacey Dash arrives at the 18th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Award Viewing Party in West Hollywood, California.REUTERS — “Clueless” star Stacey Dash recently tweeted …

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Other McCain, Sister Toldjah, NewsBusters.org blogs and The Lonely Conservative

John Podhoretz / New York Post:

The day polling died — Results just make no sense — may go down in the annals of history as the day political polling died. — It was the most ridiculous polling day among many preposterous polling days in the course of this long campaign. — The ludicrous comedy began early in the morning.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Daniel W. Drezner and Betsy's Page

Wall Street Journal:

Goldman Turns Tables on Obama Campaign — When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, no major U.S. corporation did more to finance his campaign than Goldman Sachs Group Inc. — This election, none has done more to help defeat him. — Prompted by what they call regulatory attacks …

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, New York Magazine, The New Republic, Washington Wire and Business Insider

Patrick Caldwell / American Prospect:

Debate Prep with Joe — Even presidents need a little practice from time to time, something immediately clear to anyone who tuned into last week's debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Obama, busy with his day job of running a country, had supposedly been skimping on debate preparation sessions.

Discussion: Election 2012

Thomas Sowell / Townhall.com:

Phony in Chief — When President Barack Obama and others on the left are not busy admonishing the rest of us to be “civil” in our discussions of political issues, they are busy letting loose insults, accusations and smears against those who dare to disagree with them.

Discussion: Israel Matzav and Althouse

iowahawk:

White House Scientists Struggle to Contain Outbreak of Scrutonium — WASHINGTON DC - Engaged a relentless battle against time and fatigue, a select group of message scientists assembled by the White House's Center for Narrative Control say they will take “all steps necessary” …