memeorandum: Frankenstorm: Has Climate Change Created A Monster? (Adam Frank/NPR)

6:20 PM ET, October 29, 2012

Top Items:

James Hohmann / Politico:

Battleground Tracking Poll: Obama retakes lead — MARION, Ohio — With eight days to go until the election, President Barack Obama has recaptured a narrow national lead over Mitt Romney, riding increased support from women and an edge in early voting. — A new POLITICO/George Washington …

Discussion: The Caucus, National Review, Connecting.the.Dots, Hot Air, Washington Wire, GOP 12, Taylor Marsh and msnbc.com

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:

Presidential Race Dead Even; Romney Maintains Turnout Edge — Obama 47%-Romney 47% — OVERVIEW — As the presidential campaign enters its final week, Barack Obama has failed to regain much of the support he lost in the days following the first presidential debate and the race …

Discussion: CNN, Talking Points Memo, The Other McCain, Taylor Marsh and Politico

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Impact of Hurricane Sandy on Election Is Uncertain — I'm not sure whether I render the greater disservice by contemplating the political effects of a natural disaster — or by ignoring the increasingly brisk winds whipping outside my apartment in Brooklyn.

Discussion: The Queue, The Moderate Voice, Wonkblog, The Hill, The Monkey Cage, American Prospect, nation.foxnews.com, CNN, The Daily Caller, The Daily Dish and Althouse

Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:
New Projection of Election Results: Romney 52, Obama 47

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Other McCain, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Lonely Conservative, AEIdeas, Brad DeLong and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:
CNN Poll: Romney 50% - Obama 49% in Florida

Discussion: LifeNews.com and Orlando Sentinel

Gregory Wallace / CNN:
Romney campaign aids Sandy relief effort

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Politico and Texas on the Potomac

Eric Morath / Real Time Economics:

Labor Department ‘Working Hard’ to Ensure Jobs Report Released on Time — UPDATE: The U.S. Labor Department on Monday said it is “working hard to ensure the timely release” of the October jobs report, saying it intends to released the report on schedule Friday despite Hurricane Sandy.

Rebecca Leber / ThinkProgress:

GOP Senator Alleges Obama May Delay Friday's Jobs Numbers To Boost Re-election Prospects — When last month's jobs report showed a dramatic drop in unemployment, some conservatives invented a new conspiracy that the Labor Department numbers were politically motivated.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

John Nolte / BREITBART.COM:
OUTRAGEOUS: LABOR DEPARTMENT MAY DELAY JOBS REPORT

Discussion: Politico, Hot Air, Pat Dollard and Vodkapundit

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:

Mitt Romney In GOP Debate: Shut Down Federal Disaster Agency, Send Responsibility To The States … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Elections 2012, Mitt Romney, Elections 2012, Video, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Politics News, Fema, Frankenstorm 2012, Hurricane Sandy 2012, Hurricane Sandy Fema …

Andrew Restuccia / Politico:

Team Mitt: He wouldn't cut FEMA — The Romney campaign stressed Monday that states should take the lead in responding to emergencies like hurricanes. But the campaign said Romney would not abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency. — “Gov. Romney believes that states should be in charge …

Discussion: msnbc.com, AMERICAblog, theGrio, Daily Kos and Crooks and Liars

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:
Romney Wants To Cut FEMA

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Addicting Info, The Atlantic Online, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and AMERICAblog

Wonkblog:
FEMA loses nearly $900 million if sequester cuts hit

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Daily Download

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Nate Silver: One-term celebrity? — Nate Silver could be a one-term celebrity. — The New York Times's resident political predictor says President Barack Obama currently has a 74.6 percent chance of winning reelection. It's a prediction that liberals, whose heart rates continue to fluctuate …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, The Daily Dish and Lawyers, Guns & Money, more at Mediagazer »

Samuel Popkin / American Prospect:

Nate Silver, Artist of Uncertainty — We're heading into the last week of a tight presidential campaign, and polls are coming in too fast to count. Partisans everywhere are desperate for omens. But at moments like these, it's people who care most intensely that the “right outcome” …

Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:

Misleading Romney Auto Ad Backfires With Media — Mitt Romney's final attempt to swing Ohio polls in his direction is a bit too much for a number of political reporters, and is now facing an aggressive response from the Obama campaign. — In news articles, tweets, and other media …

Discussion: Detroit Free Press, Election 2012, Little Green Footballs and The Moderate Voice

Keith Laing / Ballot Box:
New Obama ad fires back at Romney over Jeep claims

Discussion: Politico and The Raw Story

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard: Clinton: Obama's Feelings Most Hurt Over Jeep Ad

BuzzFeed:
Romney Camp Defends Auto Bailout Ad

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, ABCNEWS, Business Insider, The Daily Beast, Politico, NationalJournal.com, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, FishbowlDC, Daily Kos, New York Magazine and No More Mister Nice Blog

JohnMcTernan / John McTernan's Insights:

URGENT: Prayer Tonight — The Solemn Assembly — Joel 1:14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, — Commentary — The hurricane that is going to hit 21 years to the day from the Perfect Storm

Discussion: The Huffington Post, AMERICAblog, Crooks and Liars, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Addicting Info, Gawker, Mediaite, Towleroad News #gay, The New Civil Rights Movement, Wonkette, Advocate and The Daily Dish, more at Mediagazer »

Joe Morgan / Gay Star News:
Christian preacher blames gays for Hurricane Sandy

Discussion: Feministing

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Romney campaign bus to deliver supplies to storm-relief centers

Discussion: First Read, Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo, AMERICAblog, Metropolis, Addicting Info, ABCNEWS, Washington Free Beacon, Mashable!, Pat Dollard, Daily Kos, Weasel Zippers, Influence Alley and This Just In

Michelangelo Signorile / The Huffington Post:

Shocking Footage Emerges of Mitt Romney Spouting His Bigoted Bile Against Gays (VIDEO) … Mitt Romney , Gay Marriage , LGBT , Politics , Gay Marriage , Video , Gay Parenting , Romney-Ryan 2012 , Election 2012 , Evangelicals , Gay Adoption , Gay Voices , Marriage Equality , Massachusetts …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Gawker, The New Civil Rights Movement, Towleroad News #gay, BuzzFeed and Hullabaloo

Zack Ford / ThinkProgress:
Video Surfaces Of Romney Defending Birth Certificate Discrimination Against Same-Sex Couples

Discussion: The Daily Beast

David Corn / MoJo Articles:

Romney to Business Crowd: Obama Sees You As an “Evil” — The GOP candidate—and his wife—are caught on tape at a private fundraiser dismissing the president as not a “grown-up” and an arch foe of commerce. — Ever since I revealed Mitt Romney's 47 percent rant, tips and tapes have come through the transom—including this and this.

Discussion: Addicting Info, Little Green Footballs, Washington Monthly, Weasel Zippers, The Maddow Blog, Wonkette, The Hinterland Gazette and The Raw Story

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
Ann Romney: America needs a ‘grown-up’ who understands the economy

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Ballot Box

Adam Frank / NPR:

Frankenstorm: Has Climate Change Created A Monster? — It was not a good year for people, weather and climate. The winter was strangely warm in many places and the summer ridiculously hot. As a large fraction of the country suffered through extreme or even extraordinary drought …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Wonkblog, Dot Earth, AMERICAblog, Cagle Post, PlanetSave, Weasel Zippers, New York Times and Instapundit

Rush Limbaugh:
Weather Gods Interfere in the Campaign — and the Left Prays the Storm Helps Obama

Discussion: Politico

Gregory J. Krieg / ABCNEWS:
Hurricane Politics: Obama and Romney Play It Safe

Discussion: Reuters, Politico and ABCNEWS

Noah Bierman / The Boston Globe:

Senate race in dead heat, new Globe poll shows — A new Boston Globe poll shows the race between Senator Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren in a dead heat, with ample opportunity for both candidates to win the nation's most expensive Senate race eight days from now.

Discussion: Ballot Box, CNN, Weasel Zippers, EBL, Politico, American Prospect, WBUR, The Fix, Hotline On Call, Election 2012, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Weekly Standard

Alexandra Jaffe / Ballot Box:
Brown drops out of Mass. Senate debate, citing storm

Discussion: CNN, The Hill and The Hill

Peter Schroeder / The Hill:

Obama floats plan for a ‘secretary of Business’ if he wins second term — President Obama says he would like to establish a “secretary of Business” if he wins a second term. — In an interview with MSNBC, the president said he wants to consolidate a number of business and trade-related agencies …

Discussion: National Review, The Hill, Hot Air and The PJ Tatler

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Court grants four cases, seeks government views (UPDATED) — UPDATED 1:14 pm. The Court has set the Voting Rights Act case, 12-96, along with a companion case, 12-81, for consideration at its private Conference on Friday. In addition, the Court has now scheduled all of the same-sex marriage cases …