Don’t Panic*, Continue Doing What We’ve Been Doing

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Two key data points and a message for worried DEMs and other Obama supporters:

1) In today’s Gallup poll President Obama’s job approval rating is 54%, the highest he’s ever had in that poll.

2) Also, in CBS’s snap poll overnight, while it did show improved numbers for Romney on the question of who you think can most help the country (from 30% to 63%), for the president the same figure went from 53% to 69%, still a 6-point edge.

The president’s got most of the country with him. I believe he can keep the people with him. Even though he didn’t do as well in the debate as we hoped he would–I think he was befuddled, unfortunately caught off guard by Romney’s ambidextrous shape-shifting and unabashed dissembling, as TPM’s Brian Beutler’s written–but I would add the president has no small reservoir of goodwill, the truth, and a skillful campaign, all on his side. My message is don’t panic, keep doing what we’ve been doing, especially all the truthtelling and fact-checking that the campaign has done all day–with the blogger community, including this one, pushing out that information–and things will be okay. And we get another crack at Romney/Ryan next week. It’s still a race, but the president remains in a strong position.

*Thanks to the late Douglas Adams for his book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its valuable nostrum, “Don’t Panic.”

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Who “Cares About Your Needs and Problems”?

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While Romney evidently gained more from the first debate, this CBS poll shows President Obama still holds edge on the question of who “Cares About Your Needs and Problems”.

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Sanctions on Iran are Working, Preventing War

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Feeling bad for the Iranian people who are enduring hardship wrought by the West’s economic sanctions, but the majors demos in Tehran today–inveighing against the Ahmadinejad government and religious establishment–show the whole sanctions policy is working. President Obama has insisted they be given a chance to work, and he’s being proven correct. Mitt, Bibi, and other wingers all look silly, having insisted on imminent war. Even Bibi is now altering his stance to favor sanctions. The mullahs have a growing currency crisis on their hands, while the cost of consumer goods has increased four-fold. Instability is brewing. Sanctions that result in curtailment of their nuclear ambitions are a far better option than bombing. Painful though the sanctions are for Iranians, the people are taking their anger out on the regime, where it belongs for their autocratic rule.

Think my outlook is too rosy? Read what Tod Robberson, editorial writer at the Dallas Morning News published yesterday:

“Mitt Romney and his pal, Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, face an increasingly uphill battle arguing that the tough sanctions regime put in place by the Obama administration isn’t working. The pressure on Iran’s government to cease its uranium-enrichment program and abide by its international treaty obligations has never been more severe than it is today.

The value of Iran’s currency, the rial, is in free fall. According to Reuters, the rial reached a record low value of 37,500 to the dollar on the free market. A week ago it traded at about 24,600. Between 2010 and 2011, the rial’s value remained relatively steady at between 10,300 and 10,800 to the dollar. According to one report, Iranians lost 660 trillion in rial-based assets because of the plummeting market. This marks an enormous financial crisis for the country.

Heck, things are so bad that, instead of sightseeing in New York last week, the Iranian delegation headed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went on a shopping trip to Costco to buy stuff like shampoo that they can’t get in their own country. One member of his delegation reportedly has defected.

What has happened since last year to make the currency plummet to less than half its 2011 value? Sanctions, that’s what. . . .

And now, there can be no argument that the sanctions are taking a steep toll on Iran’s government. This helps explain why Israel’s foreign ministry issued a report last week calling for the government to give sanctions more time — in spite of the constant drumbeat of war coming from Netanyahu and Romney.

Yes, Romney can ask for proof that Iran has curtailed its uranium enrichment program as a result, and that’s a fair question. The answer almost certainly is: There is no proof — yet. That’s what the sanctions are all about. At a certain point pretty soon, Iran’s isolation and economic strife are going to reach a breaking point, at which time Tehran will seriously enter negotiations on inspections and agree to international limits on its enrichment activities. Sure beats war.

Romney is going to have to come up with another argument heading into tomorrow’s debates. He can’t even rely on backing from Netanyahu, who appears to be backing away from the hard-line stance he had maintained barely three weeks ago. Read more on that at ForeignPolicy.com,” in a Joel Rubin story headlined Netanyahu Aligns with Obama on Iran.

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Did You Hear the One about a Bigoted Christian Who Walks into a Synagogue on Yom Kippur?

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I thought this was a parody or an Onion story, but evidently it’s not.

Word comes via the Chicago Tribune that congregants of Anshe Emet Synagogue in Lakeville, IL, were upset by the unexpected appearance in their sanctuary of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann during Kol Nidrei, the service that began the solemn Yom Kippur holiday last Tuesday. According to reporter Manya A. Brachear’s story, there is “No word on why Bachmann was in Chicago or why she chose to attend the Jewish service. Calls and emails to her campaign and congressional office were not returned.”

Rabbi Michael Siegel, following his congregation’s practice of acknowledging the presence of public officials as guests in their sanctuary, welcomed the conservative congresswoman from the pulpit. But according to Brachear,

“The formality enraged more than a few congregants, prompting some to walk out and one to start a campaign of his own in support of Bachmann’s opponent in the race for her congressional seat, Jim Graves. ‘The holiness of the room and the holiness of the evening was greatly diminished for me, if not completely destroyed,’ said Gary Sircus, who stormed out of the synagogue where he has observed the High Holidays for 25 years. ‘Our congregation values and embodies tolerance, compassion, respect for individual rights, intelligence, science—all of the things that I think Michele Bachmann stands against.’ 

“Later that night, [Sircus] composed an email to Graves’ campaign and sent it to others, urging them to donate. His words have since gone viral. ‘I felt that the best way to ‘honor’ Ms. Bachmann’s visit was to make a contribution to your campaign,’ Sircus wrote [to Graves]. ‘Even though I do not vote in Minnesota, please do everything in your power to take away this evil woman’s soapbox.'”

I’ve seen reports that Bachman is in the closest race of her congressional career, and really may be ousted on November 6. Also reportedly in very close races are Bachmann’s fellow right-wing extremists Joe Walsh of Illinois, the deadbeat who failed to pay his wife her child support; Steve King of Iowa, as demeaning a congressman as there is toward new Americans and immigrants looking to catch a foothold our country; and Alan West of Florida who routinely demeans female politicians.

 

 

 

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Paul Ryan–Mending Fences, Planting Seeds

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According to a brief item by Robert Costa in the National Review, Paul Ryan has recently

” . . . called several conservative commentators. In those conversations, he has expressed confidence about the Republican ticket’s chances, fielded questions, and asked for frank assessments. Ryan has made the calls one by one from the trail. The private press talks, which are ongoing, have often been lengthy and candid. Sources close to the Romney campaign tell National Review Online that Ryan has reached out to George F. Will, the Washington Post columnist; Paul Gigot, the editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page; and CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, among others. A source close to the Romney campaign says the calls simply reflect Ryan’s warm relationships with many conservative media figures.”

While these calls are depicted here as all about the current campaign, I think the real subtext here is 2016, with Ryan probably eager to run on his own, without what he may perceive as the stultifying dullness of the Romney campaign weighing him down.

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Wendy Weil, Book Agent Extraordinaire, RIP

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Very sad to read about the passing of longtime book business friend, literary agent Wendy Weil. During my days as a bookseller with Undercover Books in Cleveland, from 1978-85, we had hosted a couple of big launch parties that were very successful for one of her author clients. Then, when I moved to NYC in 1985 to work in publishing she was very kind to me and I got to know her even better. Just saw Wendy recently when she told me of her delight at placing a new novel by this same client, who had left her agency for several years, but then had returned to her fold. She told me how good this had made her feel. She was very happy that day and seemed very well. I was startled to read this death notice in today’s NY Times. Wendy Weil was 72. She died last Saturday, on what happens to have been my birthday. My heartfelt condolences to her family and many friends in the book world. She was a tall, willowy woman, a dear person with a warm sense of humor. I will miss her, as will many others, I’m sure.

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“Life is a Carnival”*

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The Bard Graduate Center on West 86th Street is a gem of a small New York museum. On my birthday last Saturday, Kyle asked me what I wanted to do for fun. I suggested we go view Bard’s current exhibit, “Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010.”

I’ve loved the circus for years, and have even collected artwork on it, like the print below of high-wire artists on a bike, by Dame Laura Knight. I bought it  in 1987 from my late art dealer friend Robert Henry Adams when I was editing and publishing the splendid circus novel, Suite for Calliope: A Novel of Music and the Circus, by Ellen Hunnicutt, who won the Dru Heinz Literature Prize that same year for her short fiction collection, In the Music Library. Ellen’s novel centers around a young female protagonist who’s a runaway from a bizarre custody battle in her family. Holed up in the safe harbor of the Florida winter quarters of a circus troupe, throughout the novel she’s using their calliope to compose a musical work in memory of her late mother. The novel’s theme is how we may turn our mourning and loss to the service of art and creativity. For the record, Ellen passed away in 2005. I hope some day to republish her novel.

Much as I’ve read about circus lore, I had not understood a key aspect of the historical record as documented by the exhibit: the central role that NYC played in the growth and development of the circus throughout North America. Many of the biggest promoters were headquartered in Manhattan, the continent’s entertainment capitol. Once the circus began moving from town to town via train cars, Gotham’s status as a rail hub, as well as its large, diverse population, made it the essential city for promoters and performers alike.

The 20th century was covered on the third floor of the exhibit, with great photographs by Weegee, best known for his lurid crime scene photography, here depicting circus audiences enthralled by performances. There was also a video monitor showing a film of female stunt artist Tiny Kline performing the “Slide for Life,” in which she clamped down on a kind of leather bit she’d placed in her mouth, then slid on a cable for a 1,000 feet hanging above Times Square.

Along with the exhibit, which comprises more than 200 works displayed on three floors of the museum, there will be nine public talks given beginning October 11 and stretching into 2013, ending on January 31, discussing female equestrians; performance photography; the design and typography of circus posters; P.T. Barnum and Ralph Waldo Emerson; Alexander Calder; clowning; and the circus of the future. I hope to be there for one or more of these presentations. Meantime, here is a gallery of images from the exhibit. Please click through to view art and images from the exhibit.

*Thanks to The Band, for use of the title of their song, “Life is a Carnival, written by Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and J.R.R. Robertson, from their 1971 album, “Cahoots.”

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Whoa, Don’t Get So Testy!

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From a media outlet friendly to the Romneys called Radio Iowa, here is Ann Romney’s response to fellow Republicans who’ve been criticizing her husband’s candidacy over the past few weeks.

“’Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring. . . . This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.’”

I’m sure it’s hard to listen to your spouse be criticized so much, but really, the sting in her words, and tone in her voice are very unappealing. When she barks, “Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it. Get in the ring,” I practically shrunk back into my seat. You can hear her words for yourself via this audio link.

Elsewhere, in a Washington Post profile of D.C. Repub socialite sisters Georgette and Lyn Mosbacher, there are these gems:

Both sisters wear gold Eagle pins on their lapels, identifying them as Romney mega-donors, and a stack of VIP credentials around their necks. At the convention, they could be seen bickering outside exclusive donor powwows (“Don’t be upset,” Georgette pleaded with Lyn outside a brunch organized by billionaire Paul Singer. “It was an honest mistake.”) or giddily relaying how Ann Romney, for whom Georgette has served on the host committee for several fundraisers in New York, privately reacted to Democratic attacks on her dressage-competing mare. (“My horse has more style and more class in its hoof than they do in their whole deal,” Lyn recounts.) 

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