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It's All Politics
12:36 pm
Thu November 1, 2012

If Presidential Election Held Today, Clint Would Beat Oprah

Credit David McNew / Getty Images
A life-sized cardboard cutout of actor, director and politician Clint Eastwood stands next to an empty chair cutout north of Los Angeles, California. Eastwood's 12-minute conversation with an empty chair representing President Obama sparked much attention at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Originally published on Thu November 1, 2012 2:12 pm

File this under "I didn't really think there was anything else I could learn about or care about swing state voters, and then came this."

Swing state voters by 42-38 percent would prefer a President Clint Eastwood over a President Oprah Winfrey.

Republican swing state voters would prefer President Stephen Colbert over President Jon Stewart by a 3-to-1 margin. Flip that for swing state Democrats.

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It's All Politics
12:31 pm
Thu November 1, 2012

Obama Returns To The Post-Sandy Campaign Trail

Credit Tom Lynn / AP
President Obama campaigns Thursday in Green Bay, Wis.

Originally published on Thu November 1, 2012 1:49 pm

Just five days before Election Day, President Obama returned to the campaign trail after spending several days preoccupied with overseeing the federal response to the devastation in the Northeast in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

Obama began his campaign re-emergence Thursday with a rally in Green Bay, Wis., a state where his once-substantial lead in polls over Republican Mitt Romney has narrowed to only a few points in a majority of the polls.

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Opinion
12:30 pm
Thu November 1, 2012

Even Americans Find Some Britishisms 'Spot On'

Credit Zdenek Ryzner / iStockphoto.com
Geoff Nunberg says that, like a lot of the Britishisms peppering American speech these days, "spot on" falls somewhere in the blurry region between affectation and flash.

Originally published on Thu November 1, 2012 2:26 pm

Mitt Romney was on CNN not long ago defending the claims in his campaign ads — "We've been absolutely spot on," he said. Politics aside, the expression had me doing an audible roll of my eyes. I've always associated "spot on" with the type of Englishman who's played by Terry-Thomas or John Cleese, someone who pronounces "yes" and "ears" in the same way — "eeahzz." It shows up when people do send-ups of plummy British speech. "I say — spot on, old chap!"

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The Two-Way
12:28 pm
Thu November 1, 2012

Pay Phones Are Suddenly Important Again Because Of Sandy

Credit Carlo Allegri / Reuters /Landov
A woman uses a pay phone in the Lower East Village in Manhattan on Wednesday.

Originally published on Thu November 1, 2012 1:24 pm

"After Sandy, Wired New Yorkers Get Reconnected With Pay Phones: Coin-Eating Retro Devices Baffle Some, Frustrate Many; Moment Merits a Tweet."

That Wall Street Journal story today, about folks in lower Manhattan who have been forced by the power outages and damages in the wake of Superstorm Sandy to seek out an old-fashioned way to make a call, has struck a chord.

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The Two-Way
12:22 pm
Thu November 1, 2012

Bloomberg Businessweek's Cover: 'It's Global Warming, Stupid'

Credit Bloomberg
Bloomberg Businessweek's latest cover.

Climate change is one of those important topics that has remained under the radar this election cycle.

Without a doubt, Superstorm Sandy has brought it back to the spotlight. That's evident when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo linked Sandy to global warming.

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