memeorandum: Todd Akin was arrested at least three times during '80s abortion protests (Lee Enterprises/St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

11:30 AM ET, October 24, 2012

Top Items:

Register editor: Obama off-the-record comments deserve to be shared with voters — The Des Moines Register's publisher and I spoke with President Barack Obama this morning — but we can't tell you what he said. — Just four days before the Register's presidential endorsement is released …

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

White House told of militant claim two hours after Libya attack: emails — (Reuters) - Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.

Des Moines Register:

After editor's blog, President Obama releases transcript of Register interview — Without comment, campaign officials for President Obama this morning released to the Des Moines Register a transcript of an interview he had Tuesday with Laura Hollingsworth, president and publisher of the Register …

Discussion: The Hill, BuzzFeed, First Read, Election 2012, CNN and TheBlaze.com

Tom LoBianco / Associated Press:

Mourdock: God at Work When Rape Leads to Pregnancy — Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said Tuesday when a woman is impregnated during a rape, “it's something God intended.” — Mourdock was asked during the final minutes of a debate whether abortion should be allowed in cases of rape or incest.

Discussion: CNN, Hullabaloo, Shakesville, National Review, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos, Taylor Marsh, The Hinterland Gazette and Balloon Juice

ThinkProgress:

GOP U.S. Senate Candidate Calls Rape Pregnancies A ‘Gift From God’ … NEW ALBANY, Indiana — At a debate this evening with his Democratic opponent Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock claimed that raped women should be forced to carry their rapist's baby …

Discussion: Ballot Box, Dependable Renegade and Daily Kos

Kevin Robillard / Politico:

NRSC stands by Richard Mourdock — The chairman of the Senate Republicans' campaign arm is standing by Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock after he said pregnancies resulting from rape are “something that God intended to happen.” — “Richard and I, along with millions of Americans …

AP Member Choice Limited / Associated Press:
Indiana Senate candidate says pregnancy from rape is God's intent

Discussion: American Spectator and The Agonist

Aaron Blake / The Fix:
Mourdock: Pregnancy from rape can be ‘something that God intended to happen’

Discussion: First Read, The Caucus, The Greenroom, Power Line, AMERICAblog, BuzzFeed and Prairie Weather

Eric Bradner / Evansville Courier & Press Stories:
Romney disavows Mourdock rape comment

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Crooks and Liars, Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Mediaite, Sun-Times Politics and Ballot Box

Manu Raju / Politico:
Richard Mourdock under fire for rape remarks

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, AEIdeas, BuzzFeed and man boobz

Chad Pergram / Fox News:

State Department emails from day of Libya attack show Al Qaeda-tied group on radar — A series of internal State Department emails obtained by Fox News shows some some of the initial assessments of last month's deadly consulate attack in Libya, including one email within hours of the attack …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Hill, ABCNEWS, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, americanthinker.com, The Spectacle Blog, The Lonely Conservative, Scared Monkeys and The Jawa Report

Sharyl Attkisson / CBS News:
Emails detail unfolding Benghazi attack on Sept. 11

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and NewsBusters.org blogs

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Rogers: Emails make it ‘difficult’ to conclude Benghazi attack ‘spontaneous’

Discussion: Jammie Wearing Fools

Jeremy W. Peters / The Caucus:

Eastwood Is Back in a Campaign Ad for Romney — Clint Eastwood is back on the Republican stage. But this time there's a script, a 30-second time limit and none of the potential tripwires of live television. — Mr. Eastwood, whose long and sometimes incoherent monologue …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, Towleroad News #gay, GOP 12 and Taylor Marsh

MyFOX8.com:

Guilford Co. voters say ballot cast for Romney came up Obama on machine — GREENSBORO, N.C. -The presidential election is just around the corner and voting issues have already become a problem in Guilford County. — On Monday, several voters complained that their electronic ballot machine cast the wrong vote.

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative

Glenn Thrush / Politico:

President Obama's 11th-hour strategy shift — Everything was going great for Barack Obama until about 9:04 on the night of Oct. 3, when Mitt Romney startled everybody by refusing to live up to his caricature as The Worst Candidate Ever. — Romney's late-game comeback …

Discussion: Hot Air, GOP 12, The Monkey Cage and msnbc.com

Lee Enterprises / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Todd Akin was arrested at least three times during '80s abortion protests — • BY KEVIN McDERMOTT > kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8268 — ST. LOUIS • Congressman Todd Akin was arrested at least three times in the 1980s during anti-abortion protests, not just the one time he has publicly acknowledged.

Discussion: Salon, Washington Monthly and Roll Call

Kevin McDermott / Todd Akin for Senate:
Post-Dispatch Story — Claire McCaskill has a current sexual …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, New York Magazine and Politico

TMZ.com:

Mitt Romney — Court Battle Over His Involvement in Bitter Divorce — Court Battle Over His Involvement in Bitter Divorce — EXCLUSIVE — 6:45AM PT Gloria Allred is in court in Boston and she is representing Maureen Sullivan Stemberg (below). We just got the details about Romney's testimony in the Stemberg divorce.

Discussion: americanthinker.com, Gawker, Wizbang, CANNONFIRE, GayPatriot, The Hinterland Gazette, Riehl World News and Instapundit

Ethan Bronner / The Caucus:

Error-Filled Instructions Are Sent to Ohio Voters — A Republican-run election board in a northern Ohio county sent out voting instructions to several precincts with the wrong date for Election Day and an incorrect description of the polling place location, leading state Democrats …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Suburban Guerrilla, Daily Kos, Firedoglake, Addicting Info and msnbc.com

Aviva Shen / ThinkProgress:
Ohio County Mailer Sends Wrong Voting Location And Date To 2300 People

Discussion: Plain Dealer and The Raw Story

Jason Kuznicki / The League of Ordinary Gentlemen:

The Towering Legacy of George W. Bush — Conventional wisdom errs when it says that George W. Bush was incompetent. He was a president of overwhelming influence, the most effective chief executive since FDR. We live in the world that W. created, for good or — mostly — for ill.

Elisabeth Bumiller / The Caucus:

About Those Horses and Bayonets ... Yes, the American military still uses bayonets, and quite a few. There are horses too. — When Mitt Romney complained during Monday night's presidential debate that the Navy “is smaller now than at any time since 1917,” President Obama shot back with …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, msnbc.com, The Volokh Conspiracy, AMERICAblog and ABCNEWS

Julian E. Barnes / Washington Wire:
Not to Be a Stickler on Bayonets, But ...

Discussion: White House Dossier, Weasel Zippers, National Review, Power Line, Daily Kos, Fox News, FP Passport, The Lonely Conservative and Election 2012

Daniel Bates / Daily Mail:

Donald Trump to reveal ‘divorce papers of Michelle and Barack Obama’, claims respected financial pundit — Donald Trump is to claim that he has unearthed divorce papers of Michelle Obama and the President, according to a respected financial pundit with links to the tycoon.

Greg Miller / Washington Post:

Plan for hunting terrorists signals U.S. intends to keep adding names to kill lists — This project, based on interviews with dozens of current and former national security officials, intelligence analysts and others, examines evolving U.S. counterterrorism policies and the practice of targeted killing.

Discussion: Guardian, The Atlantic Online, Lawfare, Hit & Run, Foreign Policy and Taylor Marsh

Jack Healy / New York Times:

‘Castle’ Law at Issue After Fatal Montana Shooting — KALISPELL, Mont. — The last mistake Dan Fredenberg made was getting killed in another man's garage. — It was Sept. 22, and Mr. Fredenberg, 40, was upset. He strode up the driveway of a quiet subdivision here to confront Brice Harper …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

New York Times:

Obama Is Prominent in ‘SEAL Team Six,’ Weinstein Film — LOS ANGELES — Thanks to the magic of editing, President Obama will have a starring role in a television drama about one of his biggest accomplishments — the killing of Osama bin Laden — that will be shown just two nights before the presidential election.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Jammie Wearing Fools and Weasel Zippers, more at Mediagazer »

PoliPundit.com:

Could this be a wave election? — The conventional wisdom is that the presidential race is perched on a knife's edge, and that the parties will be even in the Senate. — But what if that's not the case? — Barack Obama has been exposed as just another politician, and a failed one at that.

Discussion: GayPatriot