REALLY OUTRAGEOUS – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:   We speculated yesterday on a possible "October surprise" from the Obamans.  We then relayed the New York Times report, late in the day, that the U.S. and Iran had agreed to new one-on-one talks about Iran's nuclear program, the story coming just 48 hours before the presidential debate on foreign policy.

That New York Times story has now been denied by both the White House and Iran.

What's going on here?

That is a major story.  It was clear from the Times report that it was sourced from officials of the Obama administration.  Did they lie to The Times?  Were they misled themselves?  What is behind this episode, whose obvious intent was to help the president politically?

It's bad enough when something like this happens on domestic policy.  On foreign policy, when you're dealing with a volatile regime about to acquire nuclear weapons, it's a scandal.  Romney should pounce on it as an example of one more damaging leak from the Obama White House.  (Even Democrats like Dianne Feinstein have criticized the Obama leaks.)  The New York Times owes us, but will probably not give us, a full explanation. 

This also makes us even more apprehensive about the possibility of some last-minute "revelation" by an in-the-tank-for-Obama news organization, just before the election.   You may be sure some "journalists" are out looking for something.

As we've noted, a recent Pew poll indicated that 60% of the American people do not trust the mainstream media.  You'd think the media would want to do something about that.  Apparently not.

This may come up at tomorrow night's debate.  Romney must have his thoughts in order and his memorized lines ready, unlike the case in last week's debate, when he clearly flubbed the segment on Libya.

October 21, 2012