In answer to several emails today about my doing less posting. I’m in the middle of a 9 month national tour that entails me driving all over the country. Most of the time I can get online a few times during the day and can post regularly. On Sept 23 my laptop was damaged so I bought a new one at Best Buy on the road. On Oct 12 someone broke into my car in Hamden, CT while I was having dinner with my 90 year old mother and stole my NEW laptop, my GPS, Bluetooth and my phone charger. I had to...

A new Gallup Poll is good news for President Barack Obama or good news for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or good or bad news for both — depending on how you want to spin it. But the bottom line is this: Romney and Obama are now tied in key swing states: Registered voters nationally and in 12 key swing states are evenly divided in their preferences for president in the 2012 election between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. Romney is at least somewhat more competitive...

Did Congress waste its time and ours in affirming “In God We Trust”? Here’s a roundup on the topic.

Add this to another move by the Herman Cain camp that will be the equivalent of shooting Cain in the foot…with a shotgun: A Herman Cain aide said Thursday that the Cain campaign is considering its legal options over the original Politico story, which revealed that the former head of the National Restaurant Association was accused of sexually harassing at least two women during his tenure in the 1990s. “This is likely not over with Politico from a legal perspective,” a campaign official...

To many TMV contributors who do Guest Voices: due to travel and my laptop being fixed most of the contributions set to go on TMV will go on later today at the end of the day or tomorrow. We regret the delay.

What further sign can you see that Herman Cain is in trouble then the fact that the drip-drip-drip has now become closer to a flood of stories on the sexual harassment allegations and he publication by the conservative website Pajamas Media of more details of an alleged sexual harassment incident. This can’t be dismissed as that bad, ‘ol liberal media moving another step in a nefarious plot to go after a conservative, or a black conservative (to use the line Ann Coulter prefers). Just...

Our political Quote of the Day is actually a must-read-post of the day. In fact, in this instance we’ll give you part of the post and then request TMV readers to go to THIS LINK to be sure to read it all. From NYU journalism pro Jay Rosen, the latest target of one of the latest device on the 24/7 partisan, ideological war in polarized America: the “sting” not done to elicit news but to get at someone who sees things differently: A note to my conservative friends A few things about...

New polling data suggests that if the Herman Cain boomlet collapses in the GOP, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the one who would pick up the pieces.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll has bad news for both parties — but the news for Republicans is worse so the net result is good news for the also sagging Democratic Party: President Obama may be struggling with a bad economy and flagging poll numbers, but his party is still more popular than the alternative. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that 48 percent of people view the Democratic Party favorably, compared to just 40 percent who view Republicans in a good light. In addition,...

Is the Herman-Cain-Clarence Thomas comparison now being argued by conservative talk show hosts and some conservative new and old media pundits fair or not? Here’s roundup.

California’s high speed rail project has now generated sky high shock due to its new estimated price: In what transportation experts say could be a cautionary tale for the rest of the country, the estimates for the cost and finish date of California’s signature high-speed rail project have been dramatically altered. The new cost estimate, formally released Tuesday by the California High Speed Rail Authority, is $98.5 billion, more than twice the previous estimate of $43 billion. The finish...

I’ve always said what anyone who worked for a newspaper knows: many big stories have their genesis in either sources or tip-off sources that have a motive. Journalism has operated that way for many years. So it stands to reason that many have now said that the REAL story of the Herman Cain sexual harrassment story will be the identity of the person or group that provided the tip to The Politico, which put The Politico on the trail of the story. According to Robin Miniter, writing in Forbes,...

Some good economic news: employers cut fewer jobs in October than expected: In a positive sign for the US economy, governments and businesses did not cut jobs in October nearly has much as they had initially planned. At the same time, companies have announced many more hiring plans than layoffs, as they gear up for the holiday season, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based outplacement company. Economists view the news as an indication that the US economy may be getting...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from one of my favorite modern columnists (who is same quality as many legendary columnists of the past) Marueen Dowd. On Herman Cain and his scandal: We have the starchy guy — tall, handsome, intelligent and rich, with a baronial estate — who’s hard to warm up to. And we have the spontaneous guy, who’s charming and easy to warm up to — until it turns out that he has an unsavory pattern with young women and a suspect relationship with facts. It’s...

A new Gallup poll could be bittersweet news to former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, who is now enmeshed in a sexual harrassment scandal: it shows him as the only candidate whose image has improved. But the poll was taken before The Politico’s famous article about 1990s sexual harrassment allegations broke: Herman Cain is the only candidate whose Positive Intensity Score has increased in comparison to Gallup’s initial measurement earlier this year. In fact, each of the eight...

Here’s a video that shows Herman Cain’s conflicting accounts in the sexual harassment controversy:

Is the Tea Party starting to lose some steam? A new poll from Public Policy Polling indicates Maine’s Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe’s re-election prospects are looking brighter: Olympia Snowe’s prospects for winning the Republican nomination for another term as Senator from Maine are looking the best they have in two years, in what could be a sign of Tea Party fever dwindling. In October of 2009 only 31% of Maine GOP voters stood with Snowe, while 59% wanted to replace her with...

The crisis in Greece is threatening the European and American economies. Read Andrew Sullivan’s solid roundup HERE. Also be sure to read The Christian Science Monitor’s take on the crisis.

A new University of Missouri study finds that the political ferocity of weblogs has become a national polarizing force. Here’s the press release in full: A University of Missouri study of recent political blogs indicates politics are getting nastier due to digital media, which are segmenting people into polarized interest groups. The researcher recommends a balanced approach to finding information in order to return civility to political discourse, which is at the heart of democracy. “One...

RIDGE, M d. — I started my journey to Fredericksburg, Virginia after a bowl of exquisite spicy crab soup at Courtney’s Seafood Restaurant here in Ridge, on the southernmost tip of Maryland’s western shore. Then I ran into a problem: Route 234 was closed due to a sinkhole. So I took the detour but discovered it was also blocked off due to a traffic matter. So after two hours I returned to the hotel where I had been the night before. And so it goes for American politics. Once again we’re...

Due to a technical error, book review notes of Don Lemon’s book “Transparent” were on TMV. They have been removed. The actual review will appear in the next few days. We regret the error.

Fox plans to revive “In Living Color,” one of the better SNL descendent shows. But can it make a comeback? Comebacks are not always givens in entertainment since they must match or surpass the originals to survive comparison. GO HERE for a roundup.

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO and White House aspirant Herman Cain has not been giving a consistent response on his sexual harrassment allegations. In fact, it seems to be a constantly changing timeline. Look at THIS. What does this mean? It means any editors worth their journalistic salt will keep looking into this story because correctly or not the response of Cain and his campaign team are giving out the vibes that he has something to hide. And this sparks journalistic activity — not...

Is Texas Gov. Rick Perry about to remake himself on the national stage after a launch that will be studied by political science in recent years as a case study in how to obliterate a well-hyped entrance? Perhaps so. This video is making the rounds in the mainstream media, new media and on You Tube. It shows a relaxed, passionate, likable Rick Perry. If he can appear this way in debates, his numbers will go up. The contrast between the Rick Perry we’ve seen in debates and what we see in the...

Expect this to be a big political news week with a political story that has just been broken by The Politico, an online publication that’ll be hard for partisans to dismiss as part of the “liberal news media.” Major candidates get major scrutinty and so it has begun for poll-soaring Herman Cain who The Politico reports was accused by two women who worked at his company for sexual harrassment: During Herman Cain’s tenure as the head of the National Restaurant Association in the...