The Commentariat -- Sept. 8, 2012

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on David Brooks' "analysis" of President Obama's acceptance speech. The NYTX front page is here.

President Obama's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

New York Times Editors: "In a scalding opinion issued on Thursday, Judge Royce Lamberth of Federal District Court rejected new rules imposed by the Obama administration last spring that limit access to counsel for prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who are not actively challenging their detention.... Judge Lamberth ... is completely right."

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times writes the story behind the conviction of Bishop Robert Finn for misdemeanor failing to report suspected child abuse. Plea bargains save taxpayer money, but really -- misdemeanor, my ass. ...

... New York Times Editors: "At a minimum, Catholic officials concerned about church credibility should press for the resignation of Bishop Finn for having abetted the scandal."

"Freaky Freon Friday." Elisabeth Rosenthal & Andrew Lehren of the New York Times: smuggling a banned A/C coolant has become big business in the U.S. & Europe.

Presidential Race

Frank Newport of Gallup: "President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party look as if they are getting at least a preliminary bounce from their convention. Today's (Friday, Sept. 7) Gallup Daily tracking update puts Obama's job approval rating at 52%, the highest it has been since May 2011, after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Obama has also moved to a 48% to 45% lead over Mitt Romney among registered voters in the election tracking, up from Obama's 47% to 46% margin over the last nine days."

Republican know-it-all Joe Scarborough in Politico: "Maybe there seemed to be such a disparity between the two conventions because the Republican Party has never been the least bit excited about its nominee. Or maybe it's because Democrats were simply blessed with a deeper bench of political athletes in 2012. But whatever the reason, Republicans were lapped by their rivals and may ultimately pay in November for botching Mitt Romney's debut. And that means that these conventions will have mattered -- a lot." CW: hey, Scarborough gets some things right.

Howard Kurtz of Newsweek: "While the pundits are generally calling the president's Thursday night address mediocre, Obama and his advisers had taken great pains to avoid soaring rhetoric that might have been derided as empty. Indeed, they extensively tested the president's speech in dial groups, a type of focus group where voters twist dials to register approval or disapproval of specific passages, and say it tested off the charts." ...

... John Harris, et al., of Politico: "A surprisingly long parade of Democrats and media commentators described the [President's] speech less as a failure than a fizzle -- an oddly missed opportunity to frame his presidency or the nation's choice in a fresh or inspirational light. Even those who liked the president's performance generally went no further than saying that he was effective in doing a job that needed to be done, in a tough-minded if prosaic style." ...

... CW: my impression is that the speech holds up better on paper than it did in delivery -- which is kinda surprising in an Obama speech. But I also think Ken Winkes' commentary in today's Comments is exactly right. Winkes points to some critical facts that Obama should have included in his speech -- facts low-information (i.e., most) voters simply don't know. ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker titled on the front page (but not on the post), "How Obama Might Lose": "There was an odd mismatch between Obama's claim about the enormous stakes of this election and his own preview of what he would do if re-elected." CW: Lizza's analysis is in line with my own observation (see NYTX column, linked above) that Obama is promising only to be the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike. He's planning to save us from the flood but doesn't think he can actually effect flood control. ...

... Also in line with my NYTX column, Rick Hertzberg of the New Yorker: "... if Obama is re-elected, he will almost certainly face a Republican House and a Senate that, whichever party is nominally in control, is paralyzed by Republican filibusters. That is why there were no big plans, no sweeping visions." ...

... AND Hertzberg, Lizza, John Cassidy & Dorothy Wickenden discuss the conventions & the what-all to expect next:

Mark Warren of Esquire on Joe Biden. A lovely encomium, but the takeaway is Your Analogy of the Day -- Joe Biden : Violence Against Women Act :: Paul Ryan : forcible rape. That alone should tell all voters, women and men, who has the better judgment -- Obama or Romney.

Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from Alaska. Mitt Romney talks like he's only seen Russia by watching Rocky IV. -- John Kerry, speaking before the Democratic convention (video in yesterday's Commentariat)

Quote of the Day. I think he diminished himself by even mentioning my name. How does he even know my name? I mean aren't these guys supposed to be these big wig elites who don't waste their time on the little people like me -- me representing the average American who, yeah I did say in Alaska you can see Russia from our land base and I was making the point that we are strategically located on the globe and when it comes to transportation corridors and resources that are shared and fought over [in] Alaska and I as the governor had known what I was doing in dealing with some international issues that had to do with our resources that could help secure the nation. -- Guess Who (no prizes for this one!) on John Kerry's speech

Good question, Guess Who. How could a 2004 presidential candidate possibly find out the name of a 2008 vice-presidential candidate? Obviously, Kerry's research team did some deep diving. And you're right: mentioning you in beneath Kerry's dignity. And mine. Oops! -- Constant Weader

Afghanistan, U.S. Troops Aren't "Important" Enough to Mention. Ben Ambruster of Think Progress: "In an interview with Fox News..., Mitt Romney shot back at critics who complained that he didn't mention Afghanistan or praise U.S. troops in his convention speech last week....

When you give a speech you don't go through a laundry list, you talk about the things that you think are important and I described in my speech, my commitment to a strong military unlike the president's decision to cut our military. And I didn't use the word troops, I used the word military. I think they refer to the same thing. ...

     ... "His speech did mention the military, but only to say that he wants to 'preserve' a strong military (incidentally so does Obama)." ...

... Markos Moulitsas: "Wrong answer. You thank the fucking troops. They are not a laundry list. And while Romney might not think they are important, they kind of are. Romney then goes on to claim that he talked about a 'strong military,' which was totally the same as thanking the troops for their service. Except that it's not. One of them speaks to the institution, the other speaks to the individuals who do the work of the institution. It's the same distinction as corporations and the people who work for them -- a distinction that Romney famously fails to understand." ...

... CW: when Mitt talks about increasing "the military," what he's really talking about is increasing military contracts. And, yeah, I know military contractors, like all corporations, are people, too -- people like the ones that wacko leftie Ike warned about. Ike was warning about Mitt Romney, too.

Lady Romney Refuses to Answer Again. David Nelson of KWQC (Iowa): "Mrs. Romney ... said she wanted to speak about women's issues.... 'My message, really, was "women, I hear your voices."' ... When asked if she believes a lesbian mother should be allowed to marry her partner, Mrs. Romney said, 'I'm not going to talk about the specific issues.' ... When asked if she believes that employer-provided health insurance should be required to cover birth control, Mrs. Romney said 'Again, you're asking me questions that are not about what this election is going to be about.' ... [Nelson cited] an April 2012 Pew Research Center poll [which] found that 46% of women voters under age 50 said birth control is 'very important' to their vote this November.... Mrs. Romney responded 'but I personally believe, and this is what I'm hearing from women all across the country that they are going to look for the guy that's going to pull them out of the weeds and get them job security and a brighter future for their children. That's the message." The full transcript of the interview is here. The video is here. Quite a show. ...

... Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "... Ann Romney declin[ed] to address whether she believes women should have access to contraception through their employer-based insurance plans. Such questions are irrelevant, Romney said, because this election is not going to be about birth control.... In fact, women's access to reproductive health services is inextricably linked to the economic issues that countless women face." ...

... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: Mitt Romney's "women's ambassador" says women's issues don't matter.

Congressional Races

McCay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "At a rally in the most conservative county in Iowa, Mitt Romney enthusiastically endorsed conservative lightning rod Rep. Steve King.... Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith issued a statement: ... 'If his speech today praising Rep. Steve King -- who has questioned whether women get pregnant from rape and incest and said hateful things about immigrants -- is any indication, we know [Romney] wouldn't stand up to the most strident voices in his party.'" ...

... For more on King's immigrants = animals remarks, see Jillian Rayfield of Salon. And to get a fully picture of the Real Steve King, Hunter of Daily Kos has a good overview of the guy Romney wants to "partner" with in Washington.

Bob Salsberg of the AP: "Joseph Kennedy III, the first of his famous political family's generation to seek elective office, defeated two little-known Democrats in Thursday's primary in Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District. Kennedy, 31, will face the winner of a three-way Republican primary in the November election for the seat currently held by longtime liberal Democratic Rep. Barney Frank."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The bleak [jobs] report is all but certain to spur the Federal Reserve to expand its efforts to generate faster economic growth and lower unemployment. The central bank, whose policymakers meet next week, is strongly considering pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the mortgage market." CW: I'm not holding my breath.

New York Times: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged on Saturday that the United States would soon lift cold-war-era trade sanctions on Russia, but she did not address related legislation in Congress that has so far blocked the move, infuriated the Kremlin and become an unexpected issue in the American presidential race." CW: the presidential race part, spelled out in the story, is interesting.

Reuters: "Nearly seventeen years after O.J. Simpson walked away from his murder trial a free man..., former Los Angeles deputy district attorney Christopher Darden on Thursday accused Simpson defense lawyer, the late Johnnie Cochran, of 'manipulating' one of the infamous gloves that the prosecution said linked Simpson to the grisly double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 7, 2012

Presidential Race

C-SPAN covers the Democratic convention without commentary. C-SPAN's convention coverage is also online. Day 3 (Thursday) begins at about 4:30 pm ET. The schedule of speakers & events is here. ...

... Here's the New York Times liveblog.

President Obama's full acceptance speech:

... Helene Cooper & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama on Thursday night accepted the Democratic nomination for a second term, making a forceful argument that he had rescued the economy from disaster and ushered in a recovery that would be imperiled by a return to Republican stewardship." ...

... The Voice from Tomorrow presents the (prepared) text of President Obama's speech to the Democratic convention -- even as he speaks. Hey, it's a gift! ...

... "Downsizing the Dream." Glenn Thrush of Politico writes quite a balanced analysis of Obama's speech. ...

... "The Age of Diminished Expectations." Matt Miller of the Washington Post: "Obama's affirmative vision was largely rhetorical.... But when it came to actual policy, the choice Obama repeatedly framed calls on voters to avoid some very bad things that would happen if Republicans win and keep their promises.... But another choice -- a bolder, progressive agenda for real American renewal -- is not on the ballot this year."

... Steve Stromberg of the Washington Post: "Obama can point out that he is more reasonable than the Tea Party, more consistent than Mitt Romney and more mainstream than Paul Ryan. And he has a good shot at winning on those terms. But achieving the many fine social goals he favors will require more than a mandate not to be the other guys, but some sophisticated policy." ...

... Michael Grunwald of Time: "I didn't get that speech. It felt subdued and clichéd. It felt like a few speeches stitched together. It felt like after overpromising in 2008 he was determined to underpromise in 2012.... The speech felt like a downer, hope and all. Joe Biden made a better case for his boss, and Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama made MUCH better cases." ...

... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic makes three (or four) cogent points about Obama's speech.

Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: Malia & Sasha Obama will appear at the Democratic convention this evening. Kantor writes about the girls' life in the White House.

Vice President Biden's full acceptance speech:

... The text of the Vice President's remarks is here. ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: Joe Biden, son of a used-car salesman, takes on the son of an auto executive: "I don't think [Romney is] a bad guy. I'm sure he grew up loving cars as much as I did. But ... I don't think he understood that saving the automobile worker, saving the industry, what it meant to all of America, not just autoworkers. I think he saw it the Bain way. Now, I mean this sincerely. I think he saw it in terms of balance sheets and write-offs." Firestone writes, "Better than most speakers at the convention, [Biden] refuted the contemptuous Republican assertion that Democrats are constantly on the lookout for government handouts. People who need government help for a college loan or job training aren't trying to become dependent, he said, they are seeking their own path out of dependency." ...

... E. J. Dionne: "Biden was effective, and at times powerful, speaking as a witness who watched Obama up close. And because of his reputation for saying what's on his mind, which has often gotten him into trouble, he has a kind of credibility that doesn't come automatically to those who are always, always on message. Biden has a gut understanding of white working class and less affluent middle class voters whom Obama needs because, basically, that's where Biden comes from." ...

... Literally, Joe Biden.

John Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is not usually a great speaker, but he did an excellent job talking about Obama's foreign policy:

Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm "In Romney's world, the cars get the elevator; the workers get the shaft":

Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) speaks of his first visit to Charlotte & about voting rights today -- rights that the GOP is challenging across the country:

... Charles Pierce: "If I were running the president's campaign, I'd shut the hell up about Simpson-fking-Bowles and put John Lewis on an airplane and let him tell his story in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and everywhere else this atavistic authoritarian nonsense is going down. There's more at risk here than anyone knows."

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords [D-Az.] leads the Pledge of Allegiance:

Paul Krugman's column today is a balanced assessment of President Obama's stewardship of the economy. He adds, almost in passing, "... there's not a shred of evidence for the G.O.P. theory of what ails our economy...."

Oh, no! Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Big Shot Donors Packed like Sardines." This is so wrong. But it should make John Fund feel better.

(The Man from a Place Called) Hope Springs Eternal. Eric Weisbrod of CNN: on Facebook, Bill Clinton got more mention than words associated with the NFL opener. ...

... CNN: Hillary Clinton watched her husband's speech, in a taped version, while traveling in East Timor. Secretary Clinton has been working in Asia this week, & did not attend the convention -- the first Democratic convention she has missed in 4 decades. It is political tradition for secretaries of state not to attend party conventions. With photo. ...

... Dashiell Bennett of the Atlantic has a terrific post in which he illuminates the differences between what Clinton said & what his prepared text said. (A nightmare for the teleprompter operator!)

... Lori Robertson, et al., of FactCheck.org: "Former President Bill Clinton’s stem-winding nomination speech was a fact-checker's nightmare: lots of effort required to run down his many statistics and factual claims, producing little for us to write about. Republicans will find plenty of Clinton's scorching opinions objectionable. But with few exceptions, we found his stats checked out." ...

... James Fallows: Clinton's speeches succeed because he "treats listeners as if they are smart." ...

... Worse than I Realized. Jonathan Chait of New York: The "Associated Press 'fact check' of Bill Clinton's speech last night has attracted a fair amount of Internet abuse, but not nearly enough. It's not only a prime specimen of journalistic idiocy -- it's one of those documents that reveals the incredibly blinkered quality of conventional wisdom, so contemptuous of facts that challenge its assumptions." Read the whole post. ...

... Brad DeLong: "No. Glenn Kessler Doesn't Have Any Business Working for a Journalistic Enterprise That Wants to Have a Reputation. Why Do You Ask?" A short post. ...

... Paul Krugman: "Clinton did get one thing wrong, which he has persistently gotten wrong for years. He's stuck on the notion that we have a big structural unemployment problem [that is, reflecting supply factors, or whether it's mainly simple lack of demand]." Thanks to Victoria D. for the link.

Fluke-Bashing, Ctd. Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "After [Sandra] Fluke [appeared at] ... the Democratic National Convention last night to articulate the issues at stake in the ongoing War on Women, conservative media took to Twitter to bash her for 'whining' about needing free birth control for the activities that go on in her 'bedroom.'"

If I heard … the president is going to report on the promises he made and how he has performed on those promises then I would love to watch it. But if it is another series of new promises that he is not going to keep I have no interest in seeing him, because I saw the promises last time. Those are promises he did not keep and the American people deserve to know why he did not keep his promises. -- Mitt Romney, on why he wouldn't be watching the President's acceptance speech. Thanks to reader Judy K. for the link.

James Rosen of Fox "News": "Senior Romney-Ryan campaign officials tell Fox News the campaign will launch an enormous media offensive on Friday.... The push will include ad buys in several states that will cost tens of millions of dollars."

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times writes a lovely little piece about how hard it's been on Paul Ryan -- unassuming backbencher from Janesville, Wisconsin -- to unexpectedly find himself in the national spotlight where all-of-a-sudden people are picking on him for being a serial liar. Blechhh!

The Republican National Committee admits it's responsible for this lame ad:

     ... CW: And if you think the woman playing the former Obama supporter is a lousy actress, maybe that's because she isn't an actress at all: she's RNC staffer Bettina Inclan. Pema Levy of TPM: "Inclan began her current RNC post in January 2012, and has worked in Republican politics since well before Obama's 2008 election. She did Hispanic outreach for Rick Scott's 2010 Florida gubernatorial race worked on Capitol Hill for Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) and as national executive director of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly." Somehow I don't think Inclan & Obama were going steady in 2008.

Related News & Opinion

Paul Krugman: "I've spent most of the day with a parent in the hospital; and my thoughts turned to the GOP platform, which boasts that "Our reform of healthcare will empower millions of seniors to control their personal healthcare decisions." ... It's really amazing how this notion of patients as consumers, just like people buying furniture or gardening supplies, has taken hold; anyone with the least experience of actual medical situations, which means almost everyone, has to know how totally unrealistic it is."

Nina Bernstein of the New York Times: "The presidential election may decide Medicaid's future. But many states faced with rising Medicaid costs and budget deficits are already trying to cut the cost of long-term care by profoundly changing Medicaid coverage, through the use of federal waivers."

Congressional Races

Talking Points Memo has a pretty good poll-tracker. The current polls -- not so good, particularly the Senate races.

News Ledes

Bloomberg News: "Payrolls rose less than projected in August and the unemployment rate declined as more Americans left the labor force, indicating the U.S. labor market is stagnating. The economy added 96,000 workers last month following a revised 141,000 rise in July that was smaller than initially estimated...."

New York Times: The Obama administration has decided to blacklist as a terrorist organization the Haqqani network, the militant organization responsible for some of the deadliest attacks against American troops in Afghanistan, several American officials said late Thursday."

Guardian: "US forces will continue to hold prisoners in Afghanistan even after they transfer their main detention centre to Afghan authorities this week..., a report from a rights group said, in a decision likely to anger Kabul officials who believed they had won control of all Afghan detainees.... Afghan lawyers have warned that this is unconstitutional and sets a dangerous precedent for the country's security forces."

AP: "A series of earthquakes collapsed houses and triggered landslides in a remote mountainous part of southwestern China on Friday, killing at least 50 people with the toll expected to rise. Damage was preventing rescuers from reaching some outlying areas, and communications were disrupted."

Reuters: "Yosemite National Park doubled the scope of its hantavirus warning on Thursday to some 22,000 visitors who may have been exposed to the deadly mouse-borne disease as the number of confirmed cases grew to eight and a third death was reported. U.S. officials recently sounded a worldwide alert, saying that up to 10,000 people were thought to be at risk of contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome after staying at the popular Curry Village lodging area between June and August."

AP: "Drew Peterson -- the crass former Illinois police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger wife vanished in 2007 -- was convicted Thursday of murdering a previous wife in a potentially precedent-setting case centered on secondhand hearsay statements." Related Chicago Tribune story, videos here.

Space.com: "NASA's newest Mars rover Curiosity is taking its first tentative drives across the Martian surface and leaving tracks that have been spotted all the way from space in a spectacular photo snapped by an orbiting spacecraft." With photos. More from NASA.

BBC News: Britain's "Prince Harry has been deployed to Afghanistan for four months, the Ministry of Defence says. The prince, an Apache helicopter pilot, arrived on Thursday night at the main British base, Camp Bastion in Helmand."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 6, 2012

Presidential Race

C-SPAN has gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Democratic convention for those times you prefer to hear the speakers instead of talking heads. C-SPAN's convention coverage is also online. Day 2 (Wednesday) begins at 4:50 pm ET. The schedule of speakers & events -- it has times today! -- is here. ...

... Here's the New York Times' liveblog of the convention. Their report on speeches by Clinton, Warren & Fluke is here.

E. J. Dionne: The Democratic convention "should be seen as a three-day tutorial designed not only to defend President Obama's economic stewardship but also to advance a view of government for which, over the past 40 years, Democrats have often apologized ... with Republicans putting forward the most emphatically pro-business, anti-government agenda since the Gilded Age.... Building their convention around an out-of-context quotation from Obama, Republicans offered a counter-theme, 'We built it.' But the message of Tampa often came off more as: 'We own it.'"

Michael Crowley of Time: "Bill Clinton's blockbuster speech is the highlight of a week that so far feels like a home run derby. One after another, Democratic speakers have been making full contact with the ball -- and their audiences. Anyone who's been watching at home must sense how much more energy is roiling here than it was [at the Republican convention] in Tampa. Republicans have been the 'motivated' ones in recent years, but the past two weeks suggest something might be shifting."

Bill Clinton's speech is worth hearing in its entirety. It's a piece of Americana. The New York Times has the transcript:

... Tim Noah of The New Republic: "Clinton Is Better than Obama at Explaining Why Obama Is Better than Clinton." ...

... Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: Clinton's "commanding presence, his let’s-just-chat manner, the familiar sound of his southern growl were the perfect counterpoint to the Republican Party's assault on President Obama at its convention in Tampa last week. He skewered the Republicans gently, biting his lower-lip in characteristic fashion. He spoke more in sorrow than in anger -- while also making it clear that the Republicans had almost destroyed the country and now want to finish the job." ...

... Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "Bill Clinton tonight showed them all how it's done. He gave a master class in how to combine folksy and poetic language, stinging one-liners and policy nuance, empathy and rip-roaring partisanship. It was as good as it gets."

... Greg Sargent: "...it looks plausible that Clinton's unique role as 'referee,' and the authority he has among the undecided voters Obama needs, may have enabled him to go some way towards redefining this race." ...

... Joe Conason of the National Memo: Romney & Ryan must be sorry today they've been citing Bill Clinton as a model president. ...

... Ditto Joan Walsh of Salon: "Republicans will rue the day they dragged Bill Clinton into this fight with their welfare reform lies and their silly claims that Obama is a socialist defiling Clinton's centrist legacy. Clinton can say things Obama can't. He vividly laid out the depth of the economic challenge his successor faced, as well as the right-wing hatred."

Elizabeth Warren was the "warm-up act for President Bill Clinton":

... Sports! Steve Kornacki of Salon: Warren gave an excellent speech -- "the most direct attack on Wall Street yet heard at the convention" -- but she may have been upstaged by conflicting sports programming.

Sandra Fluke speaks to the DNC:

Sister Simone Campbell addresses the Democratic convention:

Thanks to Akhilleus for reminding us that Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, did indeed kick ass:

Rich Trumpka, President of the AFL-CIO, addresses the convention:

The Best Fucking News Team on Television develops a new Obama 2012 campaign slogan:

Obama will be in the convention hall Wednesday evening, according to MSNBC. (No link.)

Kevin Liptak of CNN: "In a rare display of just how quickly a tightly scripted national political convention can unwind, Democrats on Wednesday struggled to complete a voice vote amending their party platform to include language referring to Jerusalem and God. It took three attempts from Democratic National Convention Chairman Antonio Villaraigosa before the platform was amended, and a loud chorus of delegates yelling 'no' met each attempt to pass the changes by voice vote." ...

... Jessica Yellin of CNN: "Democrats voted to update their party's platform Wednesday evening at their convention to include a reference to Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, as well as the insertion of the word 'God,' neither of which was included in their platform this year but was in previous platforms. President Barack Obama himself intervened regarding the Jerusalem language...." ...

... David Atkins of Hullabaloo explains how the change went down. ...

... David Dayen of Firedoglake: "The Republican noise machine, then, successfully changed the Democratic platform document, a day after the fact. For context, there were lots and lots of liberals who spoke out about deficiencies in the platform, on housing, on civil liberties, on all kinds of subjects. None of them merited a change. But when one Weekly Standard writer and a group of trolls carp, Democrats leap to attention."

Gail Collins writes this & that about the convention. Eventually she gets around to endorsing higher taxes.... Collins' column has been totally updated to incorporate her reflections on Bill Clinton's speech. CW: first time I've ever seen that happen with a column.

The Pew Research Center has released public reactions to the Republican convention. Biggest highlight: Mitt Romney's Clint Eastwood's speech.

Women, you need to wake up. Women have to ask themselves who is going to ... be there for you. I can promise you, I know that Mitt will be there for you, he will stand up for you, he will hear your voices, he knows how to fix an economy, he's a can do kind of guy, he's a turnaround guy. -- Ann Romney ...

... Steve Benen: "There are ... key flaws to the pitch.... Mitt Romney's jobs plan doesn't really exist beyond vague platitudes and promises of tax cuts for the wealthy.... Romney's platform is a disaster for women's health; Romney doesn't have the spine to endorse the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; Romney won't endorse the pending Violence Against Women Act; Romney took the coward's way out when Limbaugh targeted Sandra Fluke; Romney has offered support for a 'Personhood' measure that's so extreme it would ban some forms of birth control; Romney intends to destroy the Affordable Care Act, which would be a huge setback millions of women; and Romney's running mate has one of the worst voting records on women's issues in Congress."

Travis Waldron of Think Progress: "San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro cited a well-known study from the Tax Policy Center when he stated that Republican candidate Mitt Romney's tax plan would 'raise taxes on the middle class.' FactCheck.org, however, found that claim to be misleading because Romney 'has promised he won't' raise middle-class taxes.... It is absurd to base that conclusion on the candidate's promises. Romney has, indeed, promised not to raise taxes on the middle class. But he has also promised that his tax plan will maintain current revenue levels. Those promises, by any measure, are totally incompatible, something the Tax Policy Center study made abundantly clear.... FactCheck.org needs to check its own facts instead of relying on baseless promises from political candidates." ...

... CW: I think FactCheck.org is just taking its place in the media-wide effort to be "bipartisan." Republicans lied, so they have to find some Democratic "lies," even if the only "fact" the so-called fact-checkers have on their side is Mitt Romney's promise to do the impossible. If you'd like to know how normal people can vote Republican, blame the "bipartisan" media. ...

... NEW. The Worst "Fact-Check" in History???. Matt Apuzzo & Tom Raum of the AP:

CLINTON: "Their campaign pollster said, 'We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.' Now that is true. I couldn't have said it better myself -- I just hope you remember that every time you see the ad."

THE FACTS: "Something, something, Monica Lewinsky, something."

We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers. -- Neil Newhouse, Romney pollster, way last week.

CW: I have no idea what the AP reporters are objecting to. I guess they're just being "bipartisan."

** Lee Fang of the Nation: while leading the charge against ObamaCare, Paul Ryan requested funds from the program. His plea: "The proposed new facility, the Belle City Neighborhood Health Center, will serve both the preventative and comprehensive primary healthcare needs of thousands of new patients of all ages who are currently without healthcare." CW: I expect that's true. Since Ryan has voted to repeal & defund the ACA, obviously that means he thinks it's okay to leave "patients of all ages ... without health care."

Chloe Albanesius of PC Magazine: "Hackers today said they gained access to the network file servers of Pricewaterhouse Coopers and stole tax documents for ... Mitt Romney. A spokeswoman for the firm, however, said there is currently no evidence of a hack.... A spokesman for the Secret Service confirmed that the agency was investigating the report."

Nicholas Kristof grades President Obama's job performance.

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones: the percentage of Guantanamo ex-prisoners who return to terrorist activities is much lower among those released during the Obama administration than during the Bush administration.

Ben Swann, a reporter at Fox 19 Cincinnati, shows the big boys how to analyze a politician's slick answers. Via Conor Friedersdorf (a libertarian) of the Atlantic. Swann really shows viewers how President Obama dissembles when Swann asks him about kill lists & drone strikes. Obama must think he can get away with it with a rube reporter; after all, network reporters let him get away with it all the time.

Other News & Opinion

Miranda Green of Newsweek reports on the "juiciest bits" from Bob Woodward's new book on the debt crisis. CW: Nothing very juicy. Woodward, top Very Serious Person, thinks we should care that President Obama hurt the feelings of those honorable fellas Eric Cantor & Paul Ryan. How did he hurt their wittle feewings? He said no to their nonsense. According to Green, "The president's arrogance is described many times in the book as having a negative effect." Why, oh why, am I reading "uppity black" into Woodward's white-bread interpretation. Arrogance, like every human trait, knows no color, but what Woodward -- perhaps vicariously -- describes as "arrogance" sounds to me like "standing his ground" against GOP intransigence, something most of us think the President did too little, not too much. ...

... Rick Klein of ABC News has a longer overview of Woodward's book. CW: doesn't sound to me as if there's a lot of news in the book; I've heard most of this before.

Turns out that even in Tennessee, you can't go around brandishing a loaded AK-47 in a public park.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A Roman Catholic bishop was found guilty on Thursday of failing to report suspected child abuse, becoming the first American bishop in the decades-long sexual abuse scandal to be convicted of shielding a pedophile priest. In a hastily announced bench trial that lasted a little over an hour, a judge found the bishop, Robert W. Finn, guilty on one misdemeanor charge and not guilty on a second charge.... Bishop Finn was sentenced to two years of court-supervised probation."

Washington Post: "Western spy agencies suspect Syria's government has several hundred tons of chemical weapons and precursor components scattered among as many as 20 sites throughout the country, heightening anxieties about the ability to secure the arsenals in the event of a complete breakdown of authority in the war-torn nation, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials say."

Washington Post: "Amazon sent a shot across Apple's bow Thursday with the introduction of a 4G tablet that's hundreds of dollars cheaper than the iPad. Actually, the company introduced four tablets and a new e-reader: the light-up Kindle Paperwhite e-ink reader, a new version of the Kindle Fire and three versions of an enhanced tablet called the Kindle Fire HD."

New York Times: "The European Central bank took its most ambitious step yet toward easing the euro zone crisis, assuming sweeping new powers to throw its unlimited financial clout behind an effort to protect Spain and Italy from financial collapse."

New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday approved a settlement with three major publishers in a civil antitrust case brought by the Department of Justice over collusion in e-book pricing, paving the way for a war over the cost of digital books in the coming months."

AP: "Human Rights Watch said it has uncovered evidence of a wider use of waterboarding in American interrogations of detainees than has been acknowledged by the United States, in a report Thursday that details further brutal treatment at secret CIA-run prisons under the Bush administration-era U.S. program of detention and rendition of terror suspects."

Space.com: "NASA's Dawn probe has departed the huge asteroid Vesta, its orbital home for the past year, to begin a journey to its next destination: the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn's asteroid-mapping mission aims to shed light on the evolution of our solar system by studying huge space rocks, which scientists think are its leftover building blocks."