SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:45 P.M. ET:

WHO'S NEXT? – The Obama administration is great at one thing...blaming other people.  They've developed it into an art form, last practiced when they blamed the YouTube video and its creator for the attacks on our Mideast embassies.  Their latest challenge – finding someone to blame for Obama's debate performance.  The idea of blaming Obama is unthinkable, as the Prophet is never blamed.  But now the Obama team is focusing the blame on John Kerry, who prepped Obama as the stand-in for Mitt Romney.  The Obamans say that Kerry didn't do an adequate job, which apparently means that Kerry won't be named secretary of state if Obama is, perish the though, re-elected. 

GALLUP JOINS IN – The Gallup daily tracker, which averages seven days, and polls registered voters, is now starting to reflect the Romney debate bump.  Obama only leads Romney by three points in today's Gallup poll, and some of the respondents were polled before the debate.  In job approval, Obama is at 50%, with disapproval at 45%.  I'm guessing that will narrow as well.

ROMNEY SOARS IN COLORADO – Romney's debate performance turned a deficit in Colorado into a lead of about 3.5 points.  Colorado has nine electoral votes, an important sum in so close a race.  By the way, watch this week for possible movement in Wisconsin.  That's Paul Ryan's home state, and Ryan debates Biden Thursday night.  If Ryan does well, he might be able to pull Wisconsin into the GOP column, which would be a major victory.  Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes.

October 6,  2012