memeorandum: Sen. Rob Portman: Romney ‘Probably’ Could Win Election Without Winning Ohio (Jake Tapper/ABCNEWS)

6:35 PM ET, October 14, 2012

Top Items:

Arlen Specter dies; he was Pennsylvania's longest-serving senator — View Photo Gallery — Former senator Arlen Specter dies: Specter, who represented Pennsylvania in the Senate from 1981 to 2011, died Sunday at his home in Philadelphia from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He was 82.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Booman Tribune, Outside the Beltway, Stinque and Business Insider

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

Arlen Specter, 82, Dies; Former Senator From Pennsylvania — WASHINGTON — Arlen Specter, the irascible senator from Pennsylvania who was at the center of many of the Senate's most divisive legal battles — from the Supreme Court nominations of Robert H. Bork and Clarence Thomas to the impeachment …

Discussion: Hit & Run and Daily Kos

Joe Sterling / CNN:

Arlen Specter dead at 82 — (CNN) — Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter — who embodied a dying breed of liberal Republicanism, switching to the Democratic Party at the twilight of his political career — died after a lengthy battle with cancer, his family announced Sunday.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Towleroad News #gay, Scared Monkeys and PoliPundit.com

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:
Arlen Specter, former Pa. senator, dies at 82

Discussion: Associated Press and Politico

Margaret Talev / Bloomberg:

Libyan Ambassador's Death Not a Political Issue, Says Dad — The father of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was killed in the attack in Benghazi last month, said his son's death shouldn't be politicized in the presidential campaign. — “It would really be abhorrent …

Discussion: AMERICAblog, ABCNEWS, Mediaite, The Political Carnival and The Raw Story

Ed Henry / Fox News:

Obama camp tips hand on debate, hints president will attack Romney on Bain — FILE: Oct. 3, 2012: President Obama and Mitt Romney shake hands with Ann Romney after the first presidential debate at the University of Denver, in Denver.AP — WILLIAMSBURG, VA. - As President Obama began …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and PoliPundit.com

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
What Happened In Benghazi — The State Department has released …

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, American Power, National Review, Fausta's Blog and BuzzFeed

Ben Geman / Ballot Box:
Axelrod defends White House on Libya, says Romney seeking to ‘exploit’ issue

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Sam Youngman / Reuters:
Romney closing gap in Ohio as poll numbers, crowds rise

Discussion: Da Tech Guy's Blog, Wake up America, The Other McCain and Scared Monkeys

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Obama leads 51-46 in Ohio

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The PJ Tatler, Examiner, American Power, Outside the Beltway, Ballot Box and Booman Tribune

Jonathan Amos / BBC:

Skydiver Felix Baumgartner lands highest ever jump — Baumgartner stood for several seconds before leaping into the stratosphere — Austrian Felix Baumgartner has broken the record for the highest ever skydive by jumping out of a balloon 128,000ft (39km) above New Mexico.

Discussion: The Impolitic, The Hinterland Gazette, Planetsave and The Agonist

John Tierney / New York Times:

Felix Baumgartner Was Just Thinking About Coming Home — ROSWELL, N.M. — Felix Baumgartner, the professional daredevil, said he was not thinking about setting records or collecting scientific data in the moments before he jumped from a capsule more than 24 miles high.

Discussion: CNN, New York Magazine, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air and Balloon Juice

David Rose / Daily Mail:

Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report quietly released... and here is the chart to prove it — The figures reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012 there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures — This means that the 'pause …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Power Line, Riehl World News, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Chicago Boyz, Watts Up With That? and Instapundit

Zack Beauchamp / ThinkProgress:

GOP Senator Denies Indisputable Facts On Obama's Employment Record — On ABC News' This Week Sunday morning, anchor Jake Tapper pressed GOP Sen. Rob Portman (OH) on Paul Ryan's false claim during the Vice Presidential debate that the unemployment rate is higher today then when Obama took office.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Andy Sullivan / Reuters:

Obama grabs wide lead among those who have already voted: Reuters/Ipsos poll — (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are neck and neck in opinion polls, but there is one area in which the incumbent appears to have a big advantage: those who have already cast their ballots.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Chrystia Freeland / New York Times:

The Self-Destruction of the 1 Percent — IN the early 14th century, Venice was one of the richest cities in Europe. At the heart of its economy was the colleganza, a basic form of joint-stock company created to finance a single trade expedition. The brilliance of the colleganza …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Middle Earth Journal, Washington Monthly and The Mahablog

Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:

Sen. Rob Portman: Romney ‘Probably’ Could Win Election Without Winning Ohio — Speaking to me this morning on “This Week,” Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney could “probably” win the White House without a victory in the Buckeye State, a feat that no other Republican has accomplished.

Discussion: Washington Wire and The Hinterland Gazette

Mercury News:

California's retiring state workers cash in vacation for big bucks — They could leave their hearts in San Francisco — or any of the Golden State's other big vacation spots — but thousands of California's state workers won't even leave their desks. — An analysis of the last three years …

Discussion: Doug Ross

Felicity Barringer / New York Times:

A Grand Experiment to Rein In Climate Change — LEGGETT, Calif. — Braced against a steep slope, Robert Hrubes cinched his measuring tape around the trunk of one tree after another, barking out diameters like an auctioneer announcing bids. “Twelve point two!” “Fourteen point one!”

Discussion: Pirate's Cove, The PJ Tatler and Hullabaloo

Andrew Kirell / Mediaite:

SNL's VP Debate: Belligerent Biden, Tough Gal Raddatz, And Water-Guzzling Ryan — Tonight's Saturday Night Live opened with a spoof of Thursday night's vice-presidential debate between Vice President Joe Biden and GOP challenger Paul Ryan, sparring no one and hitting everything …

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