memeorandum: CAST DEFENDS TIMING OF BIN LADEN RAID MOVIE (John Carucci/Associated Press)

12:20 AM ET, October 26, 2012

Top Items:

Washington Post endorsement: Four more years for President Obama — View Photo Gallery — Washington Post endorsements in 2012: A roundup of the Post editorial board's picks for November 6, including Virginia's and Maryland's Senate and House races, Maryland's referenda, and the D.C. Council race

Discussion: CNN, New York Post, NewsBusters.org, KDVR.com, Election 2012, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Hill, The Caucus, Rumproast, GOP 12, The Lonely Conservative and The Hinterland Gazette

Kevin Liptak / CNN:

Sununu cites race as factor for Powell's Obama endorsement — (CNN) - John Sununu, a top surrogate for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, said Thursday that Colin Powell's repeat endorsement of President Barack Obama could be explained partly by the two men's shared race.

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette

CBS News:

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama for president — PLAY CBS NEWS VIDEO — (CBS News) Former Secretary of State Colin Powell broke with the Republican party during the 2008 election, to endorse then-candidate Barack Obama for president, calling Obama a “transformational figure.”

Kevin Robillard / Politico:
John McCain: ‘Gen. Powell, you disappoint’

Discussion: FOX News Radio, Reuters and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Quin Hillyer / American Spectator: The Dishonorable Colin Powell

Rolling Stone:

Obama and the Road Ahead: The Rolling Stone Interview — In an Oval Office conversation with a leading historian, the president discusses what he would do with a second term - and his opponent's embrace of ‘the most extreme positions in the Republican Party’

Discussion: Liberal Values, Washington Monthly, msnbc.com, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Election 2012 and Washington Free Beacon

Donovan Slack / Politico:

Obama: Kids know Mitt's a bullsh**ter — President Obama sat for an interview with Rolling Stone for next month's issue and Playbook has the first look at the story by Douglas Brinkley: … That's some frank language from Obama, who has a genuine disdain for GOP challenger Mitt Romney, as POLITICO's Glenn Thrush has reported.

Discussion: Hot Air, Sister Toldjah, The Daily Caller, Examiner, Sun-Times Politics, Weasel Zippers, BuzzFeed and Conservatives4Palin

Mike Allen / Politico:
ROMNEY TRANSITION PLANS: early Dem outreach; pragmatism over ideology …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Guardian, Yellow Hammer Politics, Hit & Run, CNN, Atlas Shrugs and Gawker

BuzzFeed:
Obama Says Ayn Rand Is For Teens

Discussion: alicublog, Hit & Run and TheBlaze.com

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Obama: Romney's a ‘Bulls—’

Discussion: CNN, Jammie Wearing Fools and Althouse

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Oct. 24: In Polls, Romney's Momentum Seems to Have Stopped — The term “momentum” is used very often in political coverage — but reporters and analysts seldom pause to consider what it means. — Let me tell you what I think it ought to mean: that a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, New York Magazine, The New Republic, Politicker, Princeton Election Consortium, Washington Post, The Other McCain, The Caucus, Taegan Goddard's …, Towleroad News #gay, Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog and Althouse

Jon Cohen / The Fix:

Post-ABC tracking poll: Romney 50 percent, Obama 47 — Republican Mitt Romney has edged ahead of President Obama in the new Washington Post-ABC News national tracking poll, with the challenger winning 50 percent of likely voters for the first time in the campaign.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Guardian, Taylor Marsh and Washington Post

The Fix:
2012 voters: The deepest racial split since '88

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Amy Sullivan / The New Republic:

Why Liberals are Misreading Mourdock — Let's get one thing straight from the start. I am not defending Richard Mourdock's position on abortion, including his opposition to a rape exception. So take that twitchy finger off the “send” button. However, I do want to examine …

Discussion: Morning Call, The Mahablog, Hullabaloo, The Agonist, The Daily Beast, Balloon Juice, National Review, Politico, Daily Download, Washington Monthly, Booman Tribune and AEIdeas

Jordan Zakarin / Hollywood Reporter: Tina Fey Blasts GOP, Richard Mourdock, Todd Akin on Rape Comments (Video)

Joshua Keating / FP Passport:

Is the Obama campaign taking commercial ideas from Vladimir Putin? — I see the Obama campaign has a new YouTube ad featuring Girls star (and fellow Oberlin alum!) Lena Dunham: — “Your first time shouldn't be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy,” she says, referring to casting your first ballot for Obama.

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Michelle Malkin, Power Line, New York Magazine, Hot Air, Gawker, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Lonely Conservative, Washington Examiner and Instapundit

Philip Giraldi / The American Conservative:

How to Bomb Iran — An Israeli attack is risky—and it might not even eliminate Iran's nuclear facilities. — Israel Defense Forces / Flickr — During the Napoleonic Wars, when it was reported that the French were preparing to invade England, Admiral John Jervis said …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Nick Hopkins / Guardian:
Britain rejects US request to use UK bases in nuclear standoff with Iran

Discussion: JOSHUAPUNDIT and The Agonist

Jason Howerton / TheBlaze.com:

JOE BIDEN TO FATHER OF FORMER NAVY SEAL KILLED IN BENGHAZI: ‘DID YOUR SON ALWAYS HAVE BALLS THE SIZE OF CUE BALLS?’ … The father of one of the former Navy SEALs killed in the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya says President Barack Obama wouldn't even look him in the eye …

Discussion: Nice Deb, The Jawa Report, Weasel Zippers and Pundit & Pundette

Scott Johnson / Power Line:
Who decided not to save Tyrone Woods?

Discussion: Investor's Business Daily and Weekly Standard

WZMX Hot 93.7:

The Naked Cowboy Announces Support For Romney — While Barack Obama has cornered the market on support from rappers and the hip-hop community, Mitt Romney has nabbed an endorsement of one of New York's iconic figures. The Naked Cowboy, the most recognized of all Times Square street performers …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

CBS News:

Haley Barbour: Mourdock's rape remark “kinda crazy” — PLAY CBS NEWS VIDEO — (CBS News) Former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour weighed in on the controversy involving Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's remark that rape is something “God intended.” He called the pronouncement “kinda crazy.”

Discussion: Guardian and The Raw Story

Michael Cooper / The Caucus:
Mourdock's Comments Pose Dilemma for Romney

Discussion: msnbc.com, NewsBusters.org, New York Times, ABCNEWS, NBC Latino, Daily Kos, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Guardian

Jonathan Martin / Politico:

Former Joe Biden aide writes angry tell-all — Adding another wild-card to the 2012 campaign's final days, a former aide to Vice President Joe Biden has written a tell-all Washington memoir in which he lacerates the former Delaware senator as an “egomaniacal autocrat” who was “determined to manage his staff through fear.”

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Fox News:

NYPD officer plotted to kidnap, cook and eat women, authorities say — NYPD officer Gilberto Valle was arrested Thursday after it was discovered that he had plotted to kidnap and cook over 100 women.FACEBOOK — A New York City police officer plotted to kidnap, cook and eat women …

Joseph Goldstein / New York Times:
Gilberto Valle Accused in Plot to Kidnap Women and Cook Them

Discussion: CBS New York, The Raw Story and Gothamist

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Keith Olbermann Casts A Wide Net In Job Search — What's next for Olbermann? (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) — Think Keith Olbermann has burned his last bridge in the television business? He doesn't think so. — Seven months after he got dismissed by Current TV …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Mediaite and The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »

Talking Points Memo:

Ryan: Contraception Coverage Rule A ‘Threat’ To Poor — Paul Ryan spoke on the subject of poverty in Cleveland, Wednesday, making the argument that the Republican ticket cares about the poor but has a different approach to alleviating poverty in America. Ryan argued that government gets …

Murray Waas / The Boston Globe:

Romney rejected new birth certificates for gay parents — As governor, he ordered review for each child — It seemed like a minor adjustment. To comply with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that legalized gay marriage in 2003, the state Registry of Vital Records and Statistics …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Addicting Info, AMERICAblog, Advocate, Poliglot, Towleroad News #gay and Daily Kos

Susan M. Cover / Portland Press-Herald:

Obama spokesman: President supports Maine's Question 1 — A spokesman for President Barack Obama released a statement today indicating the president's support for Question 1, Maine's same-sex marriage ballot question. — “While the president does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state …

Discussion: Advocate, Poliglot, Towleroad News #gay and AMERICAblog

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Obama Endorses Marriage Ballot Measures

Discussion: Baltimore Sun and Outside the Beltway

John Carucci / Associated Press:

CAST DEFENDS TIMING OF BIN LADEN RAID MOVIE — NEW YORK (AP) — The team behind “SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden” is saying the television movie was not recut to give a starring role to President Barack Obama two days before the presidential election.

Discussion: Politico and Weasel Zippers

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:

Biden To Oshkosh On Friday, Where Company Is Laying Off Workers Due To Defense Cuts — The Pentagon buys fewer vehicles from Oshkosh Corp. — A military vehicle passes by the Oshkosh plant in Wisconsin October 12, 2011. — Image by Darren Hauck / Reuters

Discussion: JSOnline

Thomas Joscelyn / The Long War Journal:

Al Qaeda-linked jihadists helped incite 9/11 Cairo protest — Osama bin Laden, Mohammed al Zawahiri, and Sheikh Tawfiq Al 'Afani, as seen in the Al Faroq video on the protest at the US embassy in Cairo on Sept. 11, 2012. Courtesy of SITE Intelligence Group.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

The Right Scoop:

DISGUSTING: New Obama ad asks who would you rather do it with, Obama or Romney? — Talk about desperation. They've finally sunken to a new low trying to get the youth vote by comparing voting for the first time to having sex for the first time. “You're first time shouldn't be with just anybody.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Conservatives4Palin, LifeNews.com, The Atlantic Online and Doug Ross