"It comes down to numbers. And in the final days of this presidential race, from polling data to early voting, they favor Mitt Romney. ... 

"Desperate Democrats are now hanging their hopes on a new Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll showing the president with a five-point Ohio lead. But that survey gives Democrats a +8 advantage in turnout, the same advantage Democrats had in 2008. That assumption is, to put it gently, absurd. 

"In addition to the data, the anecdotal and intangible evidence -- from crowd sizes to each side's closing arguments -- give the sense that the odds favor Mr. Romney. They do. My prediction: Sometime after the cock crows on the morning of Nov. 7, Mitt Romney will be declared America's 45th president. Let's call it 51%-48%, with Mr. Romney carrying at least 279 Electoral College votes, probably more."

"The attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi has become a political football in the presidential campaign, with all the grandstanding and misinformation that entails. But Fox News has raised some questions about the attack that deserve a clearer answer from the Obama administration. 

"Fox’s Jennifer Griffin reported Friday that CIA officers in Benghazi had been told to 'stand down' when they wanted to deploy from their base at the annex to repel the attack on the consulate, about a mile away. Fox also reported that the CIA officers requested military support when the annex came under fire later that night but that their request had been denied. ... 

"So what did happen in Benghazi on the night of Sept. 11, when Woods, Ambassador Christopher Stevens and two others Americans were killed? The best way to establish the facts would be a detailed, unclassified timeline of events; officials say they are preparing one, and that it may be released later this week. That’s a must, even in the volatile final week of the campaign."

"We still don’t know exactly what happened between the Pentagon, the State Department, the CIA and the White House as Americans in Libya requested support for Ambassador Stevens and his team in their final hours, and we almost certainly won’t before the election.

"But that doesn’t do the administration much good. As various departments and officials leak to save their careers and retaliate against rivals, grenades keep getting lobbed and emails and memos keep getting leaked. ...

"President Obama needs Benghazi to go away. Even with hurricanes and tsunamis it appears unlikely to do so; count this as another factor that has risen up to complicate what once looked like a relatively smooth campaign to renew President Obama’s White House lease."

"President Obama, plowing into the final week of what he calls his last campaign, cannot realistically gauge how Hurricane Sandy might change his fortunes in a election so close it could shift in a breeze, let alone a gale. 
 
"What meteorologists dubbed 'Frankenstorm' is expected to be gone by Nov. 6, but its effects on voters’ thinking may linger -- and could affect the president’s chances for a second term. Research has shown that public distress after disasters and grim economic events can make voters select their leaders based on how they feel about life in the moment, more than what they know over time. 

"With a presidential election eight days away, Sandy’s unsettling impact -- including any U.S. fatalities -- could make a difference in some voters’ thinking during this final week, particularly because up to 50 million people could experience the storm’s effects."

"Romney’s fortunes appear inextricably linked to Ohio. GOP strategist Mike Murphy says that the key metric there is the white vote. Romney remains in the low 50 percent range and needs to move higher. 'If Ohio keeps moving up to a more "normal" range of the white vote, say within the 55 percent to 57 percent range, I think Mitt can win,' Murphy said. To prevent that, Obama is pressing the issues of his tariffs against Chinese tire imports and expansion of the GM and Chrysler bailouts. Both play specifically to white voters in northern Ohio. In 2000, GOP voters outperformed Democrats 50 percent to 46.5 percent in turnout. In 2004, the GOP prevailed 50.8 percent to 48.7 percent. In 2008, Democrats triumphed 51.4 percent to 46.8 percent. Where Romney and Obama fall in this turnout continuum will, in all likelihood, determine the winner in Ohio and nationally." 

"As an artifact of the diminishment of President Barack Obama, it is hard to top his newly released pamphlet, 'A Plan for Jobs & Middle-Class Security.' 

"The plan purports, first, to be a plan, and second, to outline a second-term agenda distinct from his first-term agenda. It fails on both counts. It cobbles together his current policies with some ill-defined new bullet points to barely cover 20 pages largely devoted to nice pictures of the president. 

"Make no mistake: What the Obama agenda lacks in substance, it makes up in graphic design. The pamphlet has as much gloss and as many soft-focus photos as a copy of Playboy. The seriously besotted Obama fan might have to assure friends, 'No, really — I only read the Obama second-term plan for the policy details.'"

"(Reuters) - Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show. 

"The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks. ... 

"Administration spokesmen, including White House spokesman Jay Carney, citing an unclassified assessment prepared by the CIA, maintained for days that the attacks likely were a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim film."

"[A] mom of two Marines just put it to me very well: 'Amb. Stevens would have loved a horse or a bayonet or a Marine with either one.'  

"Quite."

"The argument about Obamacare is often framed as a moral issue. It's the caring and compassionate against the cruel and heartless. That's the rhetoric; the reality is different. Many of us who oppose Obamacare don't do so because we enjoy seeing people suffer. We believe that, in an ideal world, everyone would have insurance. But we also think that Obamacare has huge drawbacks that outweigh its plausible benefits. 

"It creates powerful pressures against companies hiring full-time workers -- precisely the wrong approach after the worst economic slump since the Depression. There will be more bewildering regulations, more regulatory uncertainties, more unintended side effects and more disappointments. A costly and opaque system will become more so."

"President Obama has declined to outline a second-term agenda. He doesn’t say what he would do about the fiscal cliff that looms in just a couple of months. He hasn’t addressed the glaring challenge of an aging population and entitlement spending that is careening toward insolvency. (On the contrary, he has significantly hastened the emergency by piling on new entitlement spending.) He hasn’t proposed policies to improve the economy. He promises nothing more on Iran than to maintain ineffective sanctions. 
 
"We can glean this much: He’d like to hire 100,000 new teachers and he wants to raise taxes on 'millionaires and billionaires.' That’s a flimsy agenda for a great nation. ..."