Team Romney Sees Debates as Chance For Campaign Reset

At the Los Angeles Times, "Mitt Romney, struggling, makes a new effort to connect"

As Mitt Romney prepares for his pivotal first debate against President Obama, his campaign is struggling to regain its footing. By recalibrating his message and increasing his interactions with reporters, Romney is trying to reignite his presidential bid at a critical time, with just over a month until election day and early voting underway in many key swing states.

He is still struggling to connect with voters, a challenge that has confronted him since the primaries. And he has often spent more time fundraising than campaigning in battleground states, where recent polling shows Obama gaining ground.

A campaign that once gloated about expanding the electoral map for Republicans is now fiercely fighting to hang on to states that were once considered favorable territory for the GOP nominee, such as North Carolina.

Romney continues to be dogged by the release of a secretly taped video that shows him denigrating nearly half the population, forcing him to play up his empathy. And despite repeated pledges by his campaign to offer specifics, even some supporters say he is too vague about his plans. All this is why political experts say Wednesday's debate is so crucial.

"Mitt Romney has been defined by the Obama campaign over the course of the summer, and over the last couple weeks, by a series of mistakes. In the debates there's an opportunity to reset that because there's a massive audience share and Mitt Romney needs to go in there and needs to win," said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who worked for Sen. John McCain's 2008 campaign.

Despite unhappiness with Obama among some voters, Romney has struggled to convince the nation that he would be a better president. His advisors have tried in recent weeks to blend his economic message with a sharper critique of the president's foreign policy.

Russ Schriefer, a top Romney strategist, said the candidate was striving to strike a balance between responding to current events and driving a broader message about what four more years of an Obama presidency would mean for taxes, healthcare and the federal debt, an issue that has particular resonance for independents.

"What we'll be doing over the next five weeks is contrasting [Romney's and Obama's] views very specifically," he said.

It's been a rough few weeks. The debates will be crucial for Romney.

Mitt Romney: A New Course for the Middle East

An essay from the GOP nominee, at the Wall Street Journal:

Disturbing developments are sweeping across the greater Middle East. In Syria, tens of thousands of innocent people have been slaughtered. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has come to power, and the country's peace treaty with Israel hangs in the balance. In Libya, our ambassador was murdered in a terrorist attack. U.S. embassies throughout the region have been stormed in violent protests. And in Iran, the ayatollahs continue to move full tilt toward nuclear-weapons capability, all the while promising to annihilate Israel.

These developments are not, as President Obama says, mere "bumps in the road." They are major issues that put our security at risk.

Yet amid this upheaval, our country seems to be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them. We're not moving them in a direction that protects our people or our allies.

And that's dangerous. If the Middle East descends into chaos, if Iran moves toward nuclear breakout, or if Israel's security is compromised, America could be pulled into the maelstrom.

We still have time to address these threats, but it will require a new strategy toward the Middle East.

Continue reading for Romney's three-pronged plan.

Of course, Americans need to dump the Obama clusterf-k before we can repair U.S. foreign policy.

Paul Ryan: 'The Obama Foreign Policy is Unraveling Literally Before Our Eyes...'

Via Gateway Pundit:

Presidential Debates Will Be Crucial

If the polls are reasonably accurate (and I think they are), it's Mitt Romney who's got to come out on top in the October debates. He's got to remain calm most of all, which shouldn't be a problem given his past debate performances. And if he can get Obama rattled on a couple of key issues, that could be key. And he can't hold back. Obama's a cool customer and the press will call it an Obama win if neither candidate draws blood. This really is make or break for the GOP nominee. I think it's especially important for Romney to hammer Obama on foreign policy. I really, really hope this Los Angeles Times report proves false, that Romney's backing off his earlier criticism of the administration's Libya lies. There's a gold mine of vulnerability in foreign policy. Romney'd be foolish not to exploit it. We'll see.

The debates can be crucial:

RELATED: "John McCain: Debate will be most-viewed 'in history'."

More Libya Lies: Obama Stooge David Plouffe Denies Cover-Up, Claims Ambassador Rice Had 'Information From the Intelligence Community'

I watched it.

Plouffe argued that Ambassador Susan Rice was relying on extant intelligence reports in her Sunday comments on September 16th, discussed here.

He's lying.

Eli Lake reported that intelligence agencies knew it was a terrorist attack within hours, "U.S. Officials Knew Libya Attacks Were Work of Al Qaeda Affiliates." And see Twitchy, "David Plouffe: ‘Libya wasn’t intel failure,’ canoodling after terrorist attack is hunky-dory; Media enables lies."

The video is here.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And see the Washington Post, "David Plouffe defends Obama administration’s response to attack in Libya." Also at the Weekly Standard, "Plouffe Defends U.N. Ambassador, Axelrod Doesn't":

There were mixed messages from aides to Barack Obama this morning on the Sunday talk shows.

On the one hand, political adviser David Plouffe, who works at the White House, defended America's U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, for her handling of the terrorist attack in Libya. But on the other hand, David Axelrod, a top Obama political adviser stationed at the campaign headquarters in Chicago, threw Ambassador Rice under the bus.

There's video at that link (via Memeorandum and PJ Media).

Obama's advisors can't keep track of all the lies. This is an epic scandal. David Gregory and Candy Crowley deserve credit for raising questions most of the Obama-Media doesn't want to discuss.

BONUS: At American Freedom, "Obama Senior Advisor David Plouffe Says There's Nothing Wrong With Obama Fundraising After Terrorist Attack And Not Meeting With World Leaders VIDEO."

Added: Blue Crab Boulevard links. Thanks!

Also at Director Blue. Thanks!

Taking Community Out of Community Colleges

Well, looks like I've got a little series on the community colleges going now.

And here's a nice addition, from Bob Whiting at the Orange County Register, "Whiting: Community college budget cuts hit special classes":

There's a storm coming that we can't avoid, and with the death of wheelchair basketball at Cypress College the raindrops already are falling.

For years, community colleges have been just that – nearly as much about community as college. But as one expert tells me, tough decisions have to be made in a tough economic climate – and academics come first.

Yes, we'll see many programs at many two-year colleges canceled in the coming months. Still, it's a sad state when budgets are so tight that we can't afford to keep alive a 40-year wheelchair basketball team.

A team that includes people like John Watkins, a 29-year-old former Army sergeant paralyzed by a sniper's bullet.

We should be hearing story after story like this, as the bills come due in California's public education system. I mentioned previously that the state can't afford to serve everyone, and it's going to be painful to see how that plays out, and sad too.

More at the link, with photos.

Support the Savage

Via iOWNTHEWORLD and the People's Cube.

And at Pamela's, "Islamic Supremacists Demands Free Speech Judge's Removal," and "Dershowitz: Amended MTA Rules 'Unconstitutional' and 'It's Going to Encourage Violence'."

The Obama-Media's Tipping Point: The Middle East

From Walter Russell Mead, "MSM Tipping Point On Obama in the Middle East?":

The repercussions from 9/11/12—the day the roof fell in on the Obama administration’s Middle East policy—continue to rumble across the diplomatic and political landscapes. Before that day, much of the country’s political and media establishment had been studiously ignoring signs of trouble in the Middle East or, when problems were too serious to ignore, studiously refraining from drawing conclusions about the overall state of US policy in the region.

The anti-American riots that have been rocking the Muslim world since 9/11 have shaken the establishment out of its complacency. Increasingly, even those who sympathize with the basic elements of the administration’s Middle East policy are connecting the dots. What they are seeing isn’t pretty. It’s not just that the US remains widely disliked and distrusted in the region. It’s not just that the radicals and the jihadis have demonstrated more political sophistication and a greater ability to organize and strike than expected and that the struggle against radical terror looks longer lasting and more dangerous than thought; it’s that the strategic underpinnings of the administration’s Middle East policy seem to be falling apart. A series of crises is sweeping through the region, and the US does not—at least not yet—seem to have a clue what to do.

The New York Times and the Washington Post are both thoroughly alarmed by the state of the region after 9/11/12 and the reporters if not the editorial pages have moved on from the “Blame Bush” approach. The latest article by Helene Cooper and Robert Worth in the Times cites some pretty biting criticism about the President’s approach to the Arab Spring from (unnamed) top aides and associates. It even quotes an Arab diplomat who sounds nostalgic for the good old days of W to illustrate a criticism of the President made by an (unnamed) State Department official who said, speaking of the President:

“He’s not good with personal relationships; that’s not what interests him … But in the Middle East, those relationships are essential. The lack of them deprives D.C. of the ability to influence leadership decisions.”

This supposed cold fish is the man, we should remember, who came into office hoping that his personal magnetism and sincerity would heal the breach between the United States and the Muslim world. But here’s the (unnamed) Arab on The One:

Arab officials echo that sentiment, describing Mr. Obama as a cool, cerebral man who discounts the importance of personal chemistry in politics. “You can’t fix these problems by remote control,” said one Arab diplomat with long experience in Washington. “He doesn’t have friends who are world leaders. He doesn’t believe in patting anybody on the back, nicknames.

“You can’t accomplish what you want to accomplish” with such an impersonal style, the diplomat said.

To be fair to President Obama and his team, the Middle East is a challenge, and no president and no policy could solve all our problems there. There are plenty of armchair strategists around who will claim that there are easy and simple answers to America’s Middle East problems. This is delusional; American interests, values and ideas don’t work particularly well in this region and Middle Easterners and Americans have continually surprised and annoyed one another since Thomas Jefferson tried and failed to negotiate a peaceful solution with the Barbary Pirates.

The Israeli-Palestinian problem, for example, cannot be settled quickly; the consequence of the region’s lack of democratic traditions and liberal institutions cannot be overcome in four or eight years; the underdevelopment and mass unemployment afflicting so many countries has no known cure; the ethnic and sectarian hatreds that poison the region will not soon be tamed; the deep sense of grievance and injustice that shapes the attitudes of so many toward the Christian or post-Christian West will not soon fade away; the radical and terror groups now roaming the region cannot be easily stopped or mollified; the resource curse will continue to corrupt and poison large parts of the region; the resurgence of Islam, even in less radical forms, inevitably heightens a sense of confrontation with the US and its western allies; and Iran’s ambitions are hard to tame and impossible to accept.

Unfortunately, President Obama’s first and most fundamental mistake in the region was that he thought that he was an exception to this rule: he was the man for whom the Red Sea waters would part. His sincerity and sympathy would win him an initial hearing; his ability to pressure Israel to stop settlement building and reach a fair compromise with the Palestinians would restore such friendly relations between the US and the peoples of the Middle East that the terrorists would dwindle away—even as his sincere approach to Iran would induce the mullahs to lay down their nukes.

Right from the beginning this policy was doomed. As the Cooper/Worth story in the New York Times illustrates, Obama has lost the confidence of the Saudis. The peace process has largely given up the ghost on his watch. The Libya adventure was a costly sideshow that left the administration without viable policy options in the much more vital (and bloody) Syrian civil war. These things have been apparent for some time, but until the last couple of weeks there has been little appetite in the MSM for suggesting that the administration’s overall record in the region was one of failure and incompetence.

This is all changing six weeks before the election. While the MSM is still not interested in hammering home the picture of an administration reeling from one failed policy and faint hope to the next as it drifts inexorably toward a war with Iran it seems unwilling to fight and powerless to avert, the mainstream narrative has shifted decisively away from the old picture of cool-headed competence restoring order and promoting freedom and building peace. The turbulence in the region is impossible to miss, the problems for American interests and even security are disturbing to contemplate, and the failures of the Obama administration can no longer be ignored.

Continue reading.

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco at Legal Insurrection.

Jennifer Garner: My Husband's a 'Wonder Sperm Kinda Guy'

Ms. Garner's hubby is Ben Affeck, and she's pleased as punch that his boys can really swim.

See Babble, "Jennifer Garner Talks About Ben Affleck’s “Little Swimmers”." (Via Instapundit.)

I remember watching Jennifer Garner opposite Benjamin Bratt on "Law and Order" years ago, before she was starring in movies. She's got a lovely down home style, almost a schoolgirl-ish thing, although she's 40 now --- and obviously still quite fertile herself.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikipedia.

Kelly Brook Domestic Chore-Themed Photoshoot for Fabulous Magazine

Via The Sun UK:

The Best Navy in the World

Via America's Interests:

Ezra Levant Slams Mona Eltahawy

Ezra's always good:

And Oh ... I Been Thinkin' 'Bout You For So Long...'

I haven't heard much Billy Squier on the radio, although I always crank up "My Kinda Lover" when it comes on. I was reminded of Squier yesterday by Craig Ramsey, who tweeted the career-killing YouTube of Squier's "Rock Me Tonite." Rudolf Schenker of the Scorpions is quoted at Wikipedia's entry for the song, "I liked [him] very much ... but then I saw him doing this video in a very terrible way. I couldn't take the music serious anymore." Well, I still like "My Kinda Lover" actually. But no doubt that epic gay dance-strut meltdown rightly destroyed that guy's career. I mean, really, who would have ever thought something like that was respectable? I can think of someone, actually, but I'll hold off further comment on that idiot until later.

You got me runnin' baby
You give me somethin' way beyond revenue
You put the magic in me
I feel the magic when we do what we do
And oh...
I can't do without you for too long...you're my situation
You're my kinda lover...

You keep me all together
You take me out whenever I'm lettin' down
You got the motions baby
I got a notion maybe I'll stick around
And oh...
I can never doubt you for too long...I can't see no reason
You're my kinda lover...

When you come 'round I never get down---I fly across the floor
I can see you comin' on me...and I can't ask for more
Rock me, sock me, baby you got me ridin' to the end
Rake me, shake me, baby you make me--turn me on again

You got my motor racin'
I find my thoughts embracin' your every move
I wanna set you reelin'
I wanna make you feel the way that I do
And oh...
I been thinkin' 'bout you for so long
I don't wanna lose ya--you're my kinda lover...

Adorable Kayla Fitz

From Bikini.com:

President Eye Candy Visits 'The View'

Via Theo Spark:

Harsh Reality Hits California's Community Colleges

I shared my thoughts earlier on the declining support for Governor Jerry Brown's multi-billion dollar tax initiative on the November ballot. If the measure fails, the state's public education establishment's going to face another round of cuts, and they're starting to get down to the bone now. Long-cherished programs will be slashed --- and the long-employed faculty members who run them will be laid off. There's a lot of reasons for this, but one big one is poor leadership, especially among the state's Democrats who're beholden to the teachers' unions, and who haven't worked to rationalize state budgets and adapt to changing fiscal times. It's an old story that I've written about frequently.

In any case, here's this report from the Los Angeles Times from last week, "FADING DREAMS: California's community colleges staggering during hard times":

Marianet Tirado returned to Los Angeles Trade Tech community college this fall, optimistic that she would get into the classes she needs to transfer to a four-year university.

Of the courses she wanted, only two had space left when she registered in May. She enrolled in those and "crashed" others. In one of those cases, she lucked out when the professor teaching a political science class admitted additional students. But she couldn't get into a biology class because she was too far down on the waiting list.

If the math and English courses she needs aren't offered next spring, she may have to push back her plans to apply to San Francisco State, UCLA or USC.

Photos:  Community college conundrum

Her mother is puzzled that Tirado may spend three or four years at what is supposed to be a two-year college.

"Because that's what we think community college is," said Tirado, 24, a journalism major who lives in Watts. "It's hard to explain to my mom that I'm trying to go to school but the courses are not there."

This is the new reality for Tirado and about 2.4 million other students in the nation's largest community college system. The system is the workhorse of California's 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which promised affordability, quality and access to all.

Graphic:  Tough times

In reality, the state's two-year colleges are buckling under the stress of funding cuts, increased demand and a weak record of student success.

The situation can be seen on all 112 campuses — students on long waiting lists, those who take years to graduate or transfer and others so frustrated that they drop out. Most of them enter ill-prepared for college-level work. Eighty-five percent need remedial English, 73% remedial math. Only about a third of remedial students transfer to a four-year school or graduate with a community college associate's degree.

"We're at the breaking point," said Jack Scott, who served as chancellor of the California Community College system for three years until retiring this month.

"It's like a nice-looking car you've been driving for several years: It looks shiny, but the engine is falling apart," said Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president of Long Beach City College. "The wheels fell off the Master Plan 20 or 30 years ago. We're finally feeling the results because we have enormous needs for our educational system to produce qualified workers, and we're playing catch-up now."

The consequences of not meeting those demands are huge: About 80% of firefighters and law enforcement officers and 70% of nurses embarked on their careers in community college. By some estimates, California will need 2.3 million more community college degree and certificate holders by 2025 to meet the demands of employers.

More at that top link.

And note that my college president, Eloy Oakley, is quoted at the article. He's a hatchet man, and his administration brought in another hatchet man, Dr. Gaither Loewenstein, to help cut loose faculty and staff to save enough money to keep up with paying the college's bloated administration costs and wasteful perks, like the rarely-attended athletic programs. That's not the image you'll hear from top college officials, but then again, they're the ones with decisive power over the narrative and policy outcomes. The Long Beach Post has an article on what's coming down the pipeline. See, "LBCC Says Program Cuts Necessary As State Resources Shift."

And back over at the Times, readers respond in the letters to the editor, "Letters: Community colleges -- in a fix, but fixable":

The community college situation gets tricky as the traditional enrollment increase during an economic downturn has gotten crushed by the state's budget woes. California's 2.4 million community college students are a state unto themselves.

The state's economic mismanagement, complete with upcoming pass-me-or-else propositions, is an albatross around the neck. Additionally, funding is intertwined with K-12 education, and community colleges get pushed to the bottom (see 2008's failed Proposition 92).

The biggest deficiency in the system is its inability to use the brainpower and helpfulness of the people at the individual schools in crafting solutions. Figure out a way to harness them and the system will thrive.

Mason Malugeon
Huntington Beach

*****

According to the article, 85% of community college students need remedial work in English, and 73% need remedial math. This is a reflection of the failure of California's K-12 schools.

Standardized tests should indicate a student's progress in math and English over time and should be used to evaluate teachers and students. Any system that uses test scores to evaluate teachers should also include a way to asses student motivation (which is partly determined by a teacher) and improvement over prior years' results.

Overlooking the K-12 system is terribly shortsighted.

Frank E. Drsata
Huntington Beach

There's another letter-writer at the link, but her solution is privatization, which is Utopian, for one thing, and is simply not going to fly in blue-state California.

But I've highlighted the key passages from the second and third letter-writers. Faculty don't have input in ultimate decisions on fiscal policies and program termination. And even in other matters of the curriculum, outside forces push trends on the colleges that might not be beneficial to students in the end (student learning outcomes and assessment is a fad, for example, drawn from the standardized test movement, that's being implemented at the class level at my college this term, and they'll have absolutely no impact on how well my students do in classes or how well or quickly they'll be able to complete their coursework).

And while I agree with the last writer, Mr. Drsata, in addition to the issues at the K-12 level, the overriding concern is --- and should be --- the culture of learning at the family level. School districts like Irvine Unified --- where my kids attend --- send large numbers of students to the top universities, and the schools routinely rank among the best in the state, largely because the demographics include not just more affluent families, but many from groups that place high emphasis on academic achievement. It's not politically correct to say it, but those large numbers of students needing remedial classes at the community colleges are predominantly blacks and Hispanics. Other groups, whites and Asians, also have remedial issues, but their numbers are much smaller. The student population's frankly almost half Hispanic at my college at this point. And the greater Long Beach area has a large number of students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. These trends will continue as long as socio-economic inequality remains a major dividing line in the larger American society. For folks to do well in this environment, it's going to be up to the individual families to pull themselves up, to pass on a culture of learning and achievement to their children, because public resources will be strained for years while the U.S. and state economies continue to pull out of the long Obama Depression. Families can't just blame the schools for poor outcomes.

I'll have more on these issues as we move forward. And I especially hope for good news to report, but again, if the tax initiative fails at the polls, it'll be more cuts up front. It could easily be a decade until the state gets back to a fiscal environment where massive public funding can be devoted to restoring the education system to the status and stature that it enjoyed in earlier decades. I think that's possible, but it will take rationalizing services, along with changing some of the entitlement elements that have driven public expectations in the past. The community colleges are the weakest institution in all of California's educational sectors, so some of the final changes will be greatest at this level. I don't know, but the state ultimately may not be able to guarantee everyone a place in community college classrooms. It's too bad, but it's not as if it's not happening already.

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, 1926-2012

I can't find the entry now, but a few days back Walter Russell Mead noted that for all its faults, the New York Times remains the country's best newspaper for serious news reporting. And as my readers know, while I often flail away angrily at the Times' horribly biased reporting, I keep returning each and every day to read all the news that's over there, arguably "all the news that's fit to print," in the words of the paper's longstanding slogan.

In any case, I guess this makes the news of the passing of Arthur Sulzberger a bit more interesting and sad.

The obituary is here, "Publisher Who Transformed The Times for New Era":

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who guided The New York Times and its parent company through a long, sometimes turbulent period of expansion and change on a scale not seen since the newspaper’s founding in 1851, died early Saturday at his home in Southampton, N.Y. He was 86.

His death, after a long illness, was announced by his family.

Mr. Sulzberger’s tenure, as publisher of the newspaper and as chairman and chief executive of The New York Times Company, reached across 34 years, from the heyday of postwar America to the twilight of the 20th century, from the era of hot lead and Linotype machines to the birth of the digital world.

The paper he took over as publisher in 1963 was the paper it had been for decades: respected and influential, often setting the national agenda. But it was also in precarious financial condition and somewhat insular, having been a tightly held family operation since 1896, when it was bought by his grandfather Adolph S. Ochs.

By the 1990s, when Mr. Sulzberger passed the reins to his son, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., first as publisher in 1992 and then as chairman in 1997, the enterprise had been transformed. The Times was now national in scope, distributed from coast to coast, and it had become the heart of a diversified, multibillion-dollar media operation that came to encompass newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations and online ventures.

The expansion reflected Mr. Sulzberger’s belief that a news organization, above all, had to be profitable if it hoped to maintain a vibrant, independent voice. As John F. Akers, a retired chairman of I.B.M. and for many years a Times Company board member, put it, “Making money so that you could continue to do good journalism was always a fundamental part of the thinking.”

Continue reading.

Bret Baier Special Report: Evolving Narrative Over Benghazi Attack and Cover-Up

It's devastating. An absolutely devastating account.

Plus, at London's Daily Mail, "They DID know: Now White House admits they knew 'within 24 hours' that Al Qaeda was behind Libya attacks despite confusing public statements." (At Memorandum.)

Lacey Banghard Never-Ending L.A. Summer

An amazing woman, at Egotastic!, "Thank God It’s Funbags! Lacey Banghard Takes Off Her Swimsuit to Celebrate the Neverending L.A. Summer."

Canadian Held at Guantánamo Bay Is Repatriated

It's Omar Khadr, an al-Qaeda terrorist captured in Afghanistan in 2002.

The New York Times reports, "Sole Canadian Held at Guantánamo Bay Is Repatriated":

Born in Toronto, Mr. Khadr was mainly raised in Pakistan and Afghanistan by his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, who emigrated to Canada in 1977 from Egypt and eventually became a Canadian citizen. American and Canadian intelligence services identified him as a senior member of Al Qaeda. About a year after Omar Khadr’s capture, Ahmed Khadr was killed by Pakistani forces near the border with Afghanistan.

Omar Khadr’s mother, Maha, and his sister Zaynab lived on and off in Canada. In 2004, they provoked a sharp public reaction after appearing in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary about the family and seemed to condone the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and condemned Canadian social values. They briefly operated a blog that also contained provocative remarks.

F-king raghead terrorist, the kid became of symbol of "human rights" violations while held at Gitmo. BCF has more, "Khadr Back in Canada."

He could get parole in Canada as early as next year.

More at Atlas Shrugs, "GITMO jihad killer Omar Khadr repatriated to Canada after White House pressure for release #Savage." (At Memeorandum.)