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While Barack Obama was playing golf and going on vacation, Mitt Romney was getting an education in the debate school of hard knocks from Professor Newt Gingrich. While Obama was being asked fluff questions by his supporters in the mainstream media, Mitt Romney was facing a hostile media that wanted to rip his head off his shoulders. While Obama was being endlessly complimented for reading stale, barely updated speeches from 2008 off a teleprompter, Mitt was desperately trying to sell himself to audiences that had been told he was a cross between J.R. Ewing and one of the Replicants from...

The Cleveland Clinic is owned by doctors. But thanks to Obamacare it's illegal for doctors to own hospitals. Section 6001 of the health care law effectively bans new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) from starting up, and it keeps existing ones from expanding. It has already halted the development of 24 new physician-owned hospitals and forced an additional 47 to struggle to meet the deadline to complete construction, according to the Physician Hospitals of America (PHA). You couldn't build the Cleveland Clinic today if you wanted to.

When Errol Emrich drove by a Shell station in his San Jose neighborhood last weekend, regular gas was selling for $4.05 a gallon. On Monday, it was $4.15. On Tuesday, $4.25. And this weekend? Analysts say it could reach a whopping $4.40. Problems at California refineries have slashed supplies across the state, cutting fuel production and raising wholesale prices -- the price stations pay for their gasoline -- by as much as 73 cents, to levels not seen since 2007. And that almost certainly will boost prices at the pump again soon. "California gasoline prices may surge in the next...

Report finds that while the centers may lead to civil liberties violations, they don't do much to catch terroristsIn a new 146-page report released by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, a bipartisan panel of senators calls into question the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) claims that so-called "Fusion" data centers have successfully been employed to stop terrorists. I. Surprise! The Fed. Government Wasted Taxpayer Money on Abusive Scheme While the DHS claimed that the centers were used to stop the Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi's 2009 plot to bomb the New York subway, the Senate "could identify nothing that uncovered a terrorist threat,...

President Barack Obama’s campaign raised more than $150 million in September, which was a record haul for the 2012 cycle, but the campaign may be actively trying to block a story in the works about a “blockbuster donor scandal” that could put its fundraising numbers under intense scrutiny.

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As a young single woman, Michelle Robinson was a fixture in the home of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who along with Rev. Jeremiah Wright “arranged” her marriage to Barack Obama, according to sources in Chicago who know the couple. Jackson’s daughter, Santita, is still one of Michelle’s best friends. “It all relates back to Trinity and to the Jesse Jackson orbit of blacks here in Chicago who gave Obama legitimacy and helped him establish his identity as a black man,” Robyn explained. “The political left wanted to push a black to the presidency, and the key operatives in the...

With the presidential election a little more than a month away, political science professors from the University of Colorado have updated their election forecast with more current economic conditions and are standing by their prediction that Mitt Romney will win. The professors -- Kenneth Bickers of CU's Boulder campus and Michael Berry of CU's Denver campus -- project that Romney will earn 330 of the total 538 Electoral College votes. President Barack Obama is expected to receive 208 votes, which is down five from the initial prediction that the professors announced on Aug. 22. “We continue to show that the...

Debate loss shatters the president’s carefully crafted image The poet Robert Graves wrote, “One hard look can close the book that lovers love to see.” On Wednesday night, Americans saw Barack Obama in a new, hard light. He was not the smooth, confident leader they imagined him to be. He was rambling, unfocused and ultimately bested by another, more able man. His defeat defied what was expected, or what many believed was even possible. The scene was reminiscent of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King” where Danny Dravot, a British soldier with delusions of godhood, is bitten by...

On Morning Joe, David Axelrod asks the media for help taking down Mitt Romney.

THE TAKEAWAY: U.S. factory orders plummets in August by most since January 2009 > Demand likely to remain weak amid global slowdown and weak business spending > USDJPY bearish New orders to U.S. factories plunged in August by the most since January 2009, as a sharp slump in transportation weighed on manufacturing activity. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, orders for factory goods declined 5.2 percent in August, following a revised gain of 2.6 percent the previous month that was lower than the 2.8 percent growth initially reported. The consensus forecast of 66 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had...

Under the Obama Administration, Big Labor has seized control of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) to drive its self-interested agenda – a truly unprecedented development in the history of the NLRB. In the past, Board law has changed when control moved from one political party to another. But never before has a Board majority conducted itself in such unprincipled partisan manner, ramming through an extremist agenda and dissembling about it. Three examples demonstrate the point: The NLRB stripped workers of their right to a secret ballot election to challenge their employer’s recognition of a union by card...

A Philadelphia high schooler says she was humiliated after her teacher told her to remove a Mitt Romney T-shirt she was wearing, comparing it to “wearing a KKK shirt.” Samantha Pawlucy, a 16-year-old sophomore at Charles Carroll High School in the Port Richmond section of the city, says she wore a pink Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan T-shirt last Friday during the school's dress-down day.

The outrage and the violent protests organised by Islamists across the world have nothing to do with the supposed desecration of religion. Instead, these incidents are calibrated attempts by so-called religious leaders to firm up their politics, even at the cost of people’s lives Even before the crowd from the previous protest had returned home, a new mob had gathered on the streets. It had been gaining strength throughout the day as hundreds arrived loaded in trucks and buses, and more people from the outside kept pouring in. Over the next couple of hours, the crowd swelled in numbers and...

Now running on current TV: Romney the Mormon Candidate: http://current.com/community/93910303_romney-the-mormon-candidate.htm

"The squeeze is on, and people are doing desperate things," is how one independent described the situation in California. As Bloomberg reports, a shortage of supply along with drastically higher wholesale prices of gasoline has caused 'mom-and-pop' gas stations to close down as their margins are destroyed. Even larger firms, such as CostCo, are closing sites due to the shortages as Los Angeles and San Francisco gas prices jump 30-45c in a few days. As one owner noted: "I can get gas, but it’s going to cost me $4.90 a gallon, and I can’t sell it here for $5," and...

Back in August, a poll showed Obama with just a 12 point lead over Romney in Cook County, Illinois. While he posted a huge lead in the city of Chicago, the poll found him actually losing to Romney in suburban Cook County. It was a shock that I set aside as an outlier. A new poll of Illinois' 10th Congressional District, which includes parts of Cook County, however, suggests the August poll might not be such an aberration. The poll, from WeAskAmerica, finds Obama with just a 2 point lead over Romney, 47-45 in the suburban district. Obama won the...

(CNN) -- A forceful Mitt Romney went toe-to-toe with President Barack Obama on the dominant issues for voters, challenging the Democrat's policies on the economy, taxes and health care in the first of three debates ahead of the November election. In exchanges full of policy proposals, facts and figures, the Republican challenger was more aggressive in the 90-minute encounter in criticizing Obama's record and depicting the president's vision as one of big government. Photos: Preparing for first debate Photos: Preparing for first debate Create viral moments from debate 'October surprise' could be game changer Romney's past rival: Don't count him...

The Barack Obama who stood on the debate stage in Denver Wednesday night was virtually unrecognizable to the person who swept to victory in 2008 or even the man who had built a narrow-but-clear edge in the 2012 race. In the wake of the debate, Democrats conceded that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney had dominated the proceedings and quickly moved on to a deeper — and harder to answer — question: What the hell was wrong with the president? Theories abound — up to an including that Obama, who had done debate prep in Las Vegas, struggled to adjust to...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has become the chief attack dog against his co-religionist Mitt Romney, but on Wednesday that attack went even further when his official Senate office released a statement that attributed a quote to Mr. Romney, even though he said the exact opposite. Mr. Reid's release quoted the Republican presidential nominee's staff as telling the Boston Globe that Mr. Romney would "not honor deportation exemptions" that President Obama has granted under his new non-deportation policy. But that phrase doesn't appear in the Globe's article. In fact, the newspaper said Mr. Romney's staff specifically "said he would honor...