I'm a straight shooter. A liberal with bite. I took a lot of flack for my last diary post, titled "Sorry To Disagree, But We're Losing".
I know what my politics are and who I'm rooting for. I know that I'm not a troll. I am also not a knee-jerk partisan groupie, the kind of hypocrite who says the same stupid stuff that Republicans do when they don't like the polls.
I care more about cutting the crap, calling things the way they are, and offering a prescription.
Only one campaign can have the Big Mo. All along it's been with President Obama, until Mitt Romney grabbed the ball last Wednesday.
Blunting Romney's polling surge were Friday's job numbers, showing unemployment at 7.8%, effectively taking away a key talking point by Republicans about 40-whatever straight months of 8% unemployment or higher.
Obama appears to have quickly regrouped, catching fire at campaign events from Thursday through the weekend. His team smartly got out the Big Bird meme in funny fashion, using Romney's own debate performance against him.
The Big Mo would be stronger for Romney had he released a big ad featuring the debate first, and had the jobs number remained at 8% or higher.
But make no mistake, even though he told flat out lies during his foreign policy address -- like how the President had apparently not signed any free trade agreements when clearly he had just signed 3 not one year ago -- Romney still has the ball going into Tuesday because the bar was already set so low for him on foreign policy, all he has to do is sell low information voters on the idea that he looks presidential when it comes to matters of national security.
And in that, he succeeded. He sounded strong and tough, continuing to shoot first and aim later on things like his disjointed comments about wishing we could have stayed in Iraq indefinitely, as well as the Israel and Palestine stalemate.
The Obama team was quick to respond with two ads, a 30-second and a 2-minute, both of which hammered Romney for being "amateurish" on foreign policy.
Interestingly, both ads failed to mention Romney's infamous quote from over 4 years ago where he admitted he would not have sent troops into a sovereign country to get Osama Bin Laden.
Widely panned by a plurality of op-eds out there after 3 or 4 consecutive news cycles where they praised his zesty and commanding debate performance, Romney's day, however, did not result in a loss for him of Monday's news cycle since the PEW Poll put the wind back in his sails, showing him at 49% to Obama's 45%.
Later today, both candidates will be stomping around Ohio, which also marks the final day you can register there as a voter. The President will be at the Oval while Chris Christie will join Mitt Romney, ironically enough, at a massive fitness center called the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium.
Earlier in the day, Romney will be visiting the Koch Family Farm in Iowa.
If President Obama is going to take the ball back and start making people forget about his lackluster debate performance, today might be the day he wins the news cycle back if his campaign can exploit America's feelings about people like the Koch brothers. If the Obama team doesn't release a sharp ad today about that stuff, as well as an ad referring to the 10,000 jobs GM is going to create, it will be a lost news cycle and a wasted opportunity for him.
Best new thing in the world: The Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium tv commercial from Ohio.