SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:35 P.M. ET: 

POSSIBLE? –  A new and respected Florida poll puts Mitt Romney up seven points over Barack Obama in the sunshine state.  We hope it's true.  However, please note that Florida has been somewhat volatile this year.  If Romney can pick up Florida, Virginia and Ohio, it's hard to see how he can lose.  Florida and Virginia are trending in his direction, but Obama apparently still leads in Ohio, although by smaller amounts than before the debate.

DISTRESSING – A new Gallup poll reveals that, for the first time, a majority of Americans, 52%, believe that government should not favor any values in society.  Some 44% believe government should advance traditional values.  I'm afraid this reflects the airheaded "nonjudgmentalism" being taught in our schools, which holds that all cultures have their own "validity."  Of course government should promote certain values, the fundamental values upon which the society, and the Constitution, are based.  Of course, those values can evolve over time.  But while we are based on the notion that all men (and women) are created equal, we have never been a country that believed that all ideas are created equal.

REALLY?  – An Obama campaign spokeswoman claims that the only reason that Americans care about the Benghazi attack, which killed four Americans, is that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan keep bringing it up.  Oh really?  In the immortal words of the great philosopher Jerry Lewis, "Bad looks you can change; stupid is forever."  The Obamans are increasingly clueless.  Not only does the emperor have no clothes, his advisers have no brains.

October 11, 2012