Image Credit: MTV
With the election a mere 12 days away, President Barack Obama’s media blitz continued today when he answered young voter questions on MTV.
In the half-hour special, MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway sat down with with the President in the Oval Office (one of three interviews Obama is conducting at the White House today) to ask questions submitted via Facebook. READ FULL STORY »
“There has storm clouds come over the United States. There is thunderstorms over Europe. There are hail storms — and I mean major hail storms — in the Middle East. There are storms brewing through China, through Asia, through everywhere.”
Spoken word poetry? Dialogue from a video game that was poorly translated from English to Japanese, then back to English? Nope — those are the actual words Meat Loaf used Thursday night during a Romney rally in Defiance, Ohio.
In a video that has since been taken down, the singer followed his weather report with a straightforward Romney endorsement: “There is one man who will stand tall in this country and fight the storm and bring the United States back to what it should be — Governor Mitt Romney!” And then he wailed a few bars of “America the Beautiful.”
With the election only 12 days away, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are embarking on the final legs of their campaign tours. Both candidates have plans to appear in battleground states like Ohio and Florida, but they’ve also been paying their dues — Obama especially — to the entertainment beast with recent stints on The Tonight Show, The Late Night with David Letterman and Live! With Kelly and Michael. The latest is Rolling Stone, which, not surprisingly for the historically liberal publication, features a cover-story interview with the President. Conducted by presidential historian Douglas Brinkley — who is staunchly anti-Romney — the interview covers many of the campaign’s familiar talking points: women’s reproductive rights, the economy, Obamacare. But there are indeed some surprises, even for those of us who watched all three debates (or at least saw the highlights). Take a look after the jump at the 10 points that stood out the most.
Image Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBC
President Barack Obama made his fifth appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight. After a lighthearted chat about the MLB World Series and Air Force One, the conversation took a more serious turn over half-way in when discussing women’s health care rights.
Obama, who was fresh-faced despite traveling 5,300 miles in one day, addressed his underwhelming performance during the first presidential debate, crediting his low energy and poor presentation skills for the upset. He also made an effort to crack jokes throughout the night. When Jay compared the debate to his conversations with the First Lady, Obama pointed out a significant difference: “With Michelle, I just concede every point. That’s why we celebrated our 20th anniversary.” READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In an age when partisanship is starker than ever, poor Ann Coulter has to act more and more outrageous just to get people to pay attention to her. This may explain why the outrage-generating machine sent the following tweet after Monday’s presidential debate:
I highly approve of Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard.—
Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) October 23, 2012
Oh, and then there was this one:
Obama: "Stage 3 Romneysia" – because cancer references are HILARIOUS. If he's "the smartest guy in the room" it must be one retarded room.—
Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) October 23, 2012
Eeeesh. While we’d love to just pretend this never happened, Coulter’s offensive words did at least inspire Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens to write a moving open letter in response. Stephens hasn’t let his Down syndrome stop him from living life to the fullest — and he, perhaps more than anyone, is the perfect person to point out how wrong Coulter’s tweets were. Here’s the most poignant part of the letter:
Image Credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
There are renewed concerns about Lindsay Lohan’s welfare. Her dad recently attempted an intervention, a screenwriter accused her of skipping work, she seemingly can’t drive two blocks without bumping into someone or something, and she still likes the nightlife. So I was relieved yet surprised last night as I settled in with my iPhone for last night’s presidential debate to read a Tweet from Lohan nestled in between ones from my close personal viewing buddies, Chuck Todd, Albert Brooks, and The Fix’s Chris Cillizza. “OMG it is HAPPENING!!!!!!!! The Final Debate!!!!! I’m so nervous!” she wrote.
It was happening and she was nervous. How nervous? Fourteen exclamation points worth! READ FULL STORY »
Submitted by KR:
“Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets.”
–President Barack Obama during the final presidential debate, in response to Mitt Romney’s comment that the U.S. Navy has fewer ships now than it did in 1916
Check out the rest of your quote submissions from Monday, Oct. 22 and come back tonight to share your pick for best sound bite!
Read more:
The final Presidential debate review: Obama scores TKO: Romney ‘doesn’t have different ideas’ from the President
Who made the better Peter Berg reference in final presidential debate?
ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz on the art of national debate moderating
Peter Berg may be the big winner in tonight’s debate — as both President Obama and Governor Romney perhaps unwittingly made reference to the director’s work.
When President Obama attacked Romney for calling Russia the biggest geopolitical threat, Romney responded with part of his favorite campaign slogan, cribbed from Berg’s Friday Night Lights. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Charles Dharapak/AP
There was an episode in the recent first season of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom where Jeff Daniels’ contrarian “Republican” made a bid to moderate one of the Republican primary debates by pitching an aggressive, adversarial approach where he would basically cross-examine the candidates. Both Sorkin and Daniels’ Will McAvoy were being dead serious, but after two real presidential debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, that notion could not be more fantastical. First, PBS’s Jim Lehrer was figuratively stuffed into a locker by both candidates, and then CNN’s Candy Crowley was criticized by the Republicans for her real-time fact-checking.
In this tense, hyper-political atmosphere now steps CBS’s Bob Schieffer, a veteran of two previous presidential debates, in 2004 and 2008. His job will not be easy: Not only are the polls even, but the candidates have expressed a clear disdain for each other, resulting in frequent interruptions and sharp accusations of dishonesty. Schieffer is a revered Washington presence — he’s been with CBS since 1969 and hosted Face the Nation since 1991 — but he not only has to be aware of fairness tonight, he needs to keep the proceedings civil and focused. Speaking to the Palm Beach Post over the weekend, the 75-year old Schieffer said that he “won’t hesitate to say, ‘Can we get back on subject?’” if the candidates wander off course, but that generally, he expects more of the candidates than they’ve thus far displayed. “I think it would be great if I could pose a question and the two men could answer and the other guy says ‘That can’t be right,’ and they get into it,” he said. “They‘re free to ask each other questions [in those six 15 minute segments] and if they do it will be terrific.” READ FULL STORY »
