Our political Quote of the Day comes from the Christian Science Monitor’s Brad Knickerbocker, who raises the question of whether despite the new and old media political horse race coverage, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney doesn’t really have the Republican presidential nomination wrapped up: One by one, Mitt Romney’s GOP rivals have taken runs at him, trumpeting his failures as a true conservative and his flip-flopping. But one by one, they’ve stumbled, and at the moment...

Our political Quote fo the Day comes from The Daily Beast’s John Avlon who says Barack Obama should not try and use George W. Bush’s re-election strategy. Here’s how he begins his piece: The buzz is that President Obama is going to use Bush-Cheney ’04 as his re-elect model. This is a bad idea on at least five different levels. He then elaborates on these five levels, and ends his post with this: The balancing act in politics is inspiring the base without alienating the center...

Now he’s morphing into a birther. And, puh-leaze, spare me the comments saying that is not what his quote is all about. (The bar of soap in my hotel room in West Long Branch, NJ just read that link, turned to me and said, “Anyone can see he’s trying to position himself now as a birther.”)

Here’s another study — this one conducted by global warming skeptics — that global warming skeptics will try to ignore and discredit (who cares if those who agree with them conducted the study? Who cares if the Koch brothers money was involved in funding it? Our politics is now all around making assertions and cherry picking). From Newsy:

A new Gallup poll has more bad news for President Barack Obama, who would be pronounced burnt political toast if there was a strong Republican alternative facing him today: President Barack Obama’s 11th quarter in office was the worst of his administration, based on his quarterly average job approval ratings. His 41% approval average is down six percentage points from his 10th quarter in office, and is nearly four points below his previous low of 45% during his seventh quarter. These results...

If this announcement is to be believed, Spain has now made a shift nearly as important as the end of the Spanish civil war, the death of dictator Francisco Franco, the approval of Spain’s first post-war democratic constitution and the first democratic election in post-Civil War Spain: the Basque separatist ETA has announced that this time it’s for real: it’s is deep-sixing its use of violence to promote its ends: The Basque separatist group ETA announced Thursday a “definitive...

MailOnline is a British website (for the Daily Mail) that really has the profuse use of photos and videos down to an art. THIS POST on the final moments alive of Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi really is a classic — but not for the squeamish. It’s almost a class case of someone how behaved like he was in the gutter returning to the gutter, a dictator who seemed so brave when he ordered the murder of thousands of his countrymen over the years, in the end, begging for his life...

UPDATED: Reuters now reports that a captured, wounded Moammar Gadhafi has died of wounds that occurred when he was captured. This is on top of the Reuters website: “Breaking News: Libya’s Gaddafi dies of wounds suffered in capture near Sirte: NTC official” Reuters Tweet: FLASH: NTC official says head of Gaddafi’s armed forces Abu Bakr Younus Jabr killed during capture of Libyan ex-leader AFP is distributing A CELLPHONE PHOTO HERE of what looks like a gravely wounded or dead...

Tom Janssen, The Netherlands The political and financial turmoil continues in Greece. Bigtime. The context: yet another vote on a tough austerity plan. The political setting: the “mother of all strikes” before the vote. The Christian Science Monitor reports: Greece is today racked with protest and violent episodes in what is being called the “mother of all strikes,” ahead of another vote on austerity cuts and higher taxes. Those cuts will now start to reach into the core of...

7 blunders that may haunt Herman Cain HERE.

CNN offers us the five things we learned from last night’s feisty GOP debate: Why 9-9-9 was No. 1: A rise in the polls brings more scrutiny, so we knew that Cain’s “9-9-9″ tax plan would come under attack from his rivals. And we didn’t have to wait long for the full frontal assault…. …..Romney gave as good as he got: We knew Romney would be under the microscope, but the attacks from his fellow candidates seemed a bit more vicious in Las Vegas. Call it a Wild...

Here is live blogging of tonight’s CNN Western Republican Leadership Conference debate in Las Vegas, NV. This debate could have more serious consequences than others. Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain is surging in the polls and even the front runner in several but some analysts contend he is “strolling for President” — not taking seriously enough the need for solid policy positions that hold up to tough scrutiny, refusing to reveal core group of advisers, and not...

TMV will offer live blogging of tonight’s Republican 2012 Presidential nomination debate. Check back often.

NEW YORK CITY. — In these days of globalization it certainly fits our times: Occupy Wall Street has now gone global. Pat Bagley, Salt Lake TribuneWelcome to New York, a city with more stoops than a talk show host convention. “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere,” say the lyrics of “New York, New York,” and Occupy Wall Street has made it here. Local newspapers are crammed with long stories about it. But it goes beyond New York: Operation Wall Street incarnations are popping up...

Here’s then Godfather’s Pizza CEO singing “Imagine There’s No Pizza” in 1991 — beautifully. So now we have the answer as to whether Cain is qualified to be President. Once in office Presidents give voters a song and dance. He’s half way there.

As the continued intense scrutiny that any political front-runner undergoes continues, more info is coming out about former Godfather’s Pizza and 2012 Republican Presidential nomination top-tier candidate Herman Cain. The latest is from some investigative reporting by AP which reports that for Cain as with many Republican Party insiders, Things Go Better With Koch: Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who...

So much for the hopes of some that former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain will defy the conventional wisdom (even voiced now by conservative talk show hosts) and get the Republican nomination, and beat Barack Obama in the 2012 elections. He has now come out with an idea that will effectively send him in the eyes of MANY — and I repeat to some conservatives — m-a-n-y – to THIS AREA. His idea: an electrificed border fence to keep illegal immigrants out. He has voiced this...

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain can get lots of dough (for making pizza and campaign contributions) and poll numbers (they are increasing seemingly with each poll and he is the GOP front-runner in one) but — to use a now-trite Rodney Dangerfield line — he can’t get no response, from most pundits and even conservative talk show hosts. To be sure, pundits are impressed with how well he’s doing in the polls and how he’s capturing the hearts and minds of...

Rush Limbaugh has jumped himself: he has now jumped something bigger than a shark or a whale.

It sounds like the FAA is trying to keep the definition of “flying” in the air close to its original meaning: Federal Aviation Administration officials are investigating a videotaped sex stunt performed by two skydivers in California. The FAA is concerned that the pre-jump sex may have created an unsafe situation by bumping or otherwise distracting the pilot. Skydiving instructor Alex Torres, who moonlights in pornographic films, and a woman reportedly had sex in a plane while listening...

Amid almost daily bad political news from polling, President Barack Obama may have a new preoccupation: he’s not doing well with Latino voters: President Obama’s numbers are cratering with nearly every demographic, but the latest Gallup weekly tracking poll shows his approval dropping most steeply among Latinos. It portends poorly not only for the president, but for a Democratic coalition that increasingly depends on their strong support. Obama’s support among Latinos dropped 20 points...

Vice President Joe Biden says that “nothing is off the table” in the U.S. response to the Iranian plot: video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player Here’s some of the ABC News website report on the interview: Vice President Joe Biden said today that “nothing has been taken off the table” when it comes to the U.S. response to an alleged plot by Iran to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. and unleash deadly terrorist bombings in Washington,...

The conventional wisdom on last night’s GOP Presidential debate in New Hampshire is coming in. It’s three pronged. And not good news for Rick Perry. Three strands are emerging: 1. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney put in another good performance. It’s increasingly becoming easier for many conservative Republicans to envision him as a nominee who could not just hold the stage in a debate with Barack Obama but beat Obama. His debate performance is chipping away at some of the...

HOLDERNESS, N.H — Reports suggest New Hampshire voters haven’t focused on the national politics invading their state yet, and it’s hard to understand why. Republican Presidential nomination hopefuls are visiting here as dutifully, hungrily and reverentially as Republican politicos at a private Koch Brothers seminar. Rep. Michele Bachmann, ex-conservative-flavor-of-the-week and latest victim of changing Tea Party tastes, insisted on a four-day bus trip that she’s committed to winning the New...

Are local forces ready to take control in Afghanistan? Troubling questions are raised by a UN report, The Christian Science Monitor reports: Half of all detainees in Afghan intelligence service custody have been tortured, according to a new United Nations report that raises grave concerns about the Afghan security force personnel that the United States and its NATO partners are meant to be training and supervising. In a nearly year-long investigation that concluded in August, UN officials uncovered...