Why Obama's Money Is Worth More Than Romney's

When is a dollar not worth a dollar? In presidential politics.

According to a Bloomberg News analysis of the latest campaign finance disclosures, the Romney campaign, the Republican National Committee and allied conservative super-PACs together ended August with $165 million on hand. Their equivalents on the Democratic side had far less -- a combined $101 million.

Century Fox Report: Romney's Winning Edge

However, the two money pots may be closer in value than they appear. Obama's $101 million may even buy more than Romney's $165 million.

How? The price of television spots is influenced by reach -- how big is the market? -- but also by supply and demand. Markets in Florida and Ohio, for example, both of which also feature U.S. Senate races, have high and rising demand. One effect of the flood of super-PAC money is to make such advertising more expensive for everyone.

But not everyone pays the same price. Due to a surviving remnant of campaign finance regulation, television stations are required to offer candidates advertising time at the "lowest unit rate." They are not required to do the same for super-PACs or political parties.

Why does this matter?

The Obama campaign (excluding super-Pacs and the party) entered September with about $88 million compared with about $50 million for the Romney campaign (ditto on the exclusions). So almost all of the pro-Obama money -- $88 million of $101 million -- is eligible for lowest unit rate while less than one third of the pro-Romney money -- $50 million of $165 million -- is. In recent months, television rates for super-PACs have cost several times -- sometimes even five or six times -- the rate paid by candidates. As the election nears, station inventory contracts and prices rise for candidates, that differential will shrink. But super-PACs will still probably pay double or more what candidates pay for advertising time.

Expert Analysis: Romney can still win.

Not all of the campaign and super-PAC money is going to fund television ads. It also pays for campaign workers and consultants, phone banks, direct mail and more. But television will suck up an impressive share. So if you're running for president, a mass-donor funding base of regulated donations is significantly more valuable than an equivalent amount in unregulated billionaire bucks. This is one corner of the world where the little guy's dollar counts more.

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Sarah Palin: "America Needs Come To Jesus Moment"

Mitt Romney has been getting lots of gratuitous advice from fellow Republicans and conservatives worried about what they see as a presidential campaign that’s slipping toward defeat.

As usual, Sarah Palin is the most direct and colorful. In a statement to the Weekly Standard on Saturday, she put it this way:

"With so much at stake in this election, both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan should 'go rogue' and not hold back from telling the American people the true state of our economy and national security. They need to continue to find ways to break through the filter of the liberal media to communicate their message of reform."

 "America desperately needs to have a 'come to Jesus' moment in discussing our big dysfunctional, disconnected, and debt-ridden federal government," the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate told the conservative magazine.

Century Fox Report: Romney's Winning Edge

To some Republican kibitzers, “going rogue” means unleashing Rep. Paul Ryan, Mr. Romney’s running mate and a relative youngster who seemed to bring some pizzazz to an otherwise staid ticket.

“They not only need to use Ryan out on the trail more effectively, they need to have more of him rub off on Mitt because I think Mitt thinks that way but he’s gotta be able to articulate that…. I think too many people are restraining him from telling his vision,” Wisconsin Governor Scott Walkertold a radio interviewer Friday.

Where’s the evidence of Romney’s so-called “bold choice” in picking Ryan? others ask.

“Even in Wisconsin, I think he’s being underused,” Charlie Sykes, the radio host who interviewed Gov. Walker, told Politico. “I guess what’s frustrating is especially now that we’re embroiled in this conversation about the makers versus the takers, where is Paul Ryan? He is eloquent, he knows the numbers, he can frame this in a very compelling way. The fact that he is not front and center on some of this is, I think, a lost opportunity.”

Even in Wisconsin – Ryan’s home state – an NBC poll shows Obama leading Romney by 5 percentage points, and that’s just part of recent polling news the Romney campaign must find troubling.

As the Monitor’s Mark Trumbull reported this week, Obama leads Romney in eight out of nine swing states where the two are in tight contests: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin. North Carolina is the only one where Mr. Romney currently has an edge.

Expert Analysis: Romney can still win

Unleashing Ryan may not be the answer, of course. AsHouse Budget Committee chairman, he authored a plan that was controversial – particularly for what it portended for Medicare, the health care program for seniors. He tried to explain it at an AARP meeting this week, but was booed by many in the audience.

Apparently, that wasn’t just a one-time deal in a room full of retirees. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll this week shows Obama leading Romney by 10 points (47-37) in dealing with Medicare.

It’s a law of all organizations – including (maybe especially) political campaigns – that when things are tough, infighting and finger-pointing will ensue. Politico’s must-read scoop last Sunday – “Inside the campaign: How Mitt Romney stumbled” – set off something similar among conservative pundits.

Weekly Standard editor William Kristol called Romney’s comments about “the 47 percent” who presumably would never vote for him because they pay no federal income taxes “stupid and arrogant.” Rush Limbaugh complained that “every Democrat under the sun's retweeting that all over the place,” that too many conservative fellow travelers who once supported Romney “have bailed on him.”

Over at the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, columnist and former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan wrote, “It’s time to admit the Romney campaign is an incompetent one.”

Then she revised her estimation: “This week I called it incompetent, but only because I was being polite,” she wrote. “I really meant ‘rolling calamity.’"
 
 That left Chris Wallace at Fox News questioning Ms. Noonan’s “conservative bona fides.”

“Sometimes they’re New York City’s idea of conservatives,” Mr. Wallace said of Noonan and others similarly critical of the Romney campaign. Ouch. And here we thought such intramural squabbles were principally the province of Democrats

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Elisabetta Canalis' Bikini Body At Milan Fashion Week

Elisabetta Canalis may be more known for her love life than her modeling career (the 34-year-old famously dated George Clooney and has been in an on-and-off relationship with the MTV prankster Steve-O -- most recently off, in case you were wondering), but she definitely flaunted her modeling abilities on the catwalk during Milan Fashion Week.

More: Meet Marisa Miller, a Victoria Secret Angel

The "Dancing With The Stars" alum took to the Miss Bikini Spring/Summer 2013 runway yesterday and proved that she certainly doesn't need a dramatic relationship to get people talking about her. And since bikinis seem to be her garment of choice, what better way to get on the fashion week radar than by sticking to her style strengths?

But even though Elisabetta can pretty much look amazing no matter what she wears (or doesn't wear), we have to say that the corset-bikini-sarong-thing she modeled is definitely an interesting look. But, hey, we've definitely seen more cringe-worthy swimsuits...

Check out the photos from yesterday's Miss Bikini show and tell us what you think of Elisabetta's performance. Eat your heart out, Steve-O and George.

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Victoria Secret Photoshop Forgot The Other Breast

We enjoy perusing the Victoria's Secret website, both to shop and to have a giggle over the many inventive instances of Photoshop scattered across the site. The company has become famous (around these parts, at least) for its liberal use of airbrushing, utilizing the tool to slim down, bulk up and carve out its already gorgeous models.

Century Fox News: Victoria Secret's More Failed Photos

Most recently, Victoria's Secret appears to have used its airbrushing powers to give a model a lift -- literally. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Add 2 Cups Multi-Way Bra, part of the Bombshell collection, model Candice Swanepoel leans towards the camera and shows off her enhanced cleavage. But one side of her chest looks remarkably bigger than the other, as if the "Add 2 Cups" applied to one breast only.

If that's the case, Victoria's Secret should definitely specify that in the product description.

We can't know for sure how much Photoshop is afoot here... but last time we checked, Candice simply wasn't that lopsided.

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The Libyan Revolution Isn't Over Yet:Report

In a striking reversal of fortune, "people power" demonstrators marched on bases in Benghazi belonging to the increasingly powerful Ansar al-Sharia, driving it out of its strongholds.

They had the support of members of the regular police and army, whose absence from the streets was the target of an earlier protest by tens of thousands of city residents.

The 30,000-strong protest was called on Friday night out of anger at the death of the US ambassador, Chris Stevens, 12 days ago, and to demand that the country's newly elected authorities reclaim Benghazi from heavily armed militias.

Some of the crowd in the early hours of yesterday (Saturday) then turned on another Islamist militia, the Rafallah al-Sehati Battalion, stationed in the west of the city. But its leaders claim to be allied with pro-government forces, and fought back at what they said were "criminals and drunks".

In the fighting, at least 11 people died and scores were wounded, according to staff at two hospitals to which the injured were taken. One medical official claimed six bodies showed signs of having been subject to "execution".

The events divided Benghazi, the eastern Libyan city that considers itself the cradle of the revolution that overthrew Col Muammar Gaddafi but which is also far more devoted to conservative Islam than the more cosmopolitan capital, Tripoli.

"Ansar al-Sharia is finished now," said Abu Bakr Faraj, whose leg was broken when he was hit by a car full of what he said were Kalashnikov--toting Ansar al-Sharia supporters fleeing attack. "We hope they don't come back."

The killing of Stevens and three other American staff at the Benghazi consulate on September 11 has presented Libya with its biggest crisis since the death of Gaddafi, crystallising fears about the weakness of the government and the rise of Islamist and other militias.

Century Fox Report: Tension rises as Anti-US protests continue in Libya

Conspiracy theories, always prevalent in Libya, have been exacerbated by competing stories from the authorities in both Washington and Tripoli about the original attack. Washington at first insisted it was a protest connected to the anti-Islam film circulating the internet that got out of hand, but now accepts it was "terrorist" in nature, possibly carried out after communication with al-Qaeda.

Witnesses said they saw no demonstrators near the consulate before it was hit from three sides by scores of men wielding automatic rifles and grenade launchers.

It has also become clear that at least 30 Americans were evacuated from a previously undisclosed "safe house" half a mile from the consulate, raising questions about the nature of their work. Officials briefed The Wall Street Journal that they included "officials and security personnel involved in sensitive government programmes".

The new prime minister, Mustafa Abushagur, elected on the day after the attack, was forced to divide his time last week between trying to appoint a new government and holding crisis talks with military and militia leaders.

The anger of the Rafallah al-Sehati Battalion at being attacked on Friday was compounded by the fact that its leaders had offered to negotiate a peaceful solution with Ansar al-Sharia, whose members they acknowledged had a role in Stevens's murder.

But the demonstrators demanded an absolute end to the power of the militias. They called themselves the "Rally to Save Benghazi", held up banners saying "We demand justice for Stevens" and chanted "Libya, Libya" and "No more al-Qaeda".

In a sign of their fear of resurgent violence the prime minister, the chief of army staff, Gen Yousef Mangoush, and the interior minister, Fawzi Abdel-Al - the very leaders in whose name the crowds claimed to be acting - issued statements condemning what had happened.

Libya's acting president, Mohammed Magarief, also called on the demonstrators to go home.

-- A Pakistani cabinet minister has personally offered a $100,000 (pounds 61,600) bounty for the murder of the American maker of the film that sparked angry protests throughout the Muslim world because it was deemed offensive to the Prophet Mohammed.

"Whomsoever can kill the blasphemer will be covered in dollar bills by me," the federal minister for railways, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, said, after riots in Pakistan left 22 people dead and some 200 injured.

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Floods, Landslides Hit Northeast; 23 Dead

New Delhi: Nearly 20 people were killed in Sikkim, three in Arunachal Pradesh and over seven lakh people affected in Assam after days of incessant rainfall triggered landslides and flash floods in the region on Sunday. 

In Assam, 13 districts are said to be affected, the worst-hit being Tinsukhia. 

River Brahmaputra and some of its tributaries are maintaining a rising trend. Surging water disrupted surface communication at many places. Around 900 villages are reeling under the flood waters. 

In Jorhat district, Asia's largest river island Majuli was cut off from the rest of the country with the indefinite halting of ferry service due to danger posed by the swelling Brahmaputra. 

According to reports, the Army, the National and State Disaster Response Force and the Air Force will resume rescue and relief works in affected areas today. 

Century Fox News: 29 killed in Uttarakhand cloudburst
In Sikkim, sixteen people, including 12 Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel, were killed in flash floods. The incident occurred at Pegong, about 162 kilometres from Gangtok on Friday. The deceased security personnel were deployed in Chungthang Sub Division of North District when the mishap took place. 

In Arunachal Pradesh, flood waters submerged new areas forcing the people to shift to safer places. 

Heavy rain over past two weeks resulted in landslides causing disruption in road communication in eastern district. 

Road links in Dibang Valley, Anjaw, Upper Siang, West Siang, East Siang and Lohit districts have been disrupted as inter district roads and highways were either blocked by landslides or swept away by flood waters.


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World T20: 'One-day Bradman' Ignites India

England's game against India on Sunday in the World Twenty20 has no immediate import. Both countries have already qualified for the next stage of this tournament, or 'the Super Eight', as a result of beating up Afghanistan.

What makes today's match interesting is that England will have a close-up of the player well on course to become the next great batsman of world cricket. With the era of Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar passing away, nobody had appeared on the stage to take their place - until the arrival of Virat Kohli.

Kohli, at 23, has already won two World Cups. He captained India to the Under-19 World Cup, then went off the rails after signing an Indian Premier League contract that was far too big for one so young. Yet he came back to win the World Cup with India last year, and has kept maturing, so that when England make their four-Test tour of India later this autumn, Kohli will be the main batting threat.

He will not match Tendulkar for numbers - nobody will - but Kohli has the urge to dominate, in addition to the orthodox technique of the Indian masters. He is a child of his age, brought up in Delhi to be cosmopolitan, gelling his hair, ambitious to live in the fast lane, and blending very successfully so far the virtues of ancient and modern cricket.

Headline writers in India are already tempted to call him the one-day Bradman. In 87 innings in the 50-over format, he has scored 13 centuries - more than any England player, more than their whole team that played in their last international could claim - and at a strike-rate of 86, close to a run a ball. In his last nine one-day internationals, Kohli has made five hundreds.

But he isn't just a brash whizz-kid, like one or even two members of this Indian side which have come to Sri Lanka as favourites to win the World Twenty20 - but which has already revealed an alarming lack of pace bowling, which England could exploit today both in the opening overs and at the end of their innings.

Duncan Fletcher, now India's coach, recalls that the most strenuous fielding practice he has ever organised did not come when he was England's coach, or a consultant to South Africa. It came on India's tour of England last year, after the team had fallen apart in the Test series, losing 4-0.

Kohli came into the squad for the subsequent one-day series, and he was so keen to request fielding drills that the session at Chester-le-Street was the longest and most demanding Fletcher had ever conducted, surpassing anything even Paul Collingwood had done.

So the image of Indian fielding needs updating, thanks largely to Kohli.

The maharaja used to let somebody else run after the ball, and plenty of their batsmen have been loftier than maharajas in delegating this duty to servants. But sprinklers are installed in India's new stadiums, diving has become cool, and Kohli is not content with being a big, slow, fish in the Indian pond.

Another indication that England will have to deal with a champion, both today and on their Test tour of India, is the way Kohli reacted in Australia last winter. India were bombed out, much as West Indies were in 1975-6. One man decided he had copped enough verbal abuse and short-pitched bowling. The West Indian back then was Viv Richards. The Indian last winter was Kohli.

After two Tests of being bounced out by short balls and intensely frustrated with the abuse from spectators while fielding on the boundary, Kohli worked out his way to fight back. He would have top-scored in India's last four innings if he hadn't been run out in the fourth. While everyone's eyes were on Tendulkar, and whether he could make his 100th international hundred, Kohli scored 44 out of 161 and 75 out of 171 when India were blasted away by an innings in Perth, then 116 in Adelaide, the visitors' only century of the series.

Stuart Broad can be expected to target Kohli with an early bouncer under the lights of the Premadasa. Broad not only leads England but bowls the most precisely targeted bouncer; and Kohli's response, whatever it may be, will nicely set up the Test series.

Century Fox Post: T20 World Cup, England's Luke Wright steals the show

After beating South Africa amid the showers at Edgbaston, and Pakistan and Australia in warm-ups in Colombo, and Afghanistan on Friday night, England have built up a head of steam. The title defenders have a young team - only Graeme Swann is over 30 or anywhere near - and their fielding against Afghanistan was faultless apart from the customary fumble by Samit Patel.

To underline the increasing importance of the young players, Jos Buttler, 21, was given an incremental contract by the England and Wales Cricket Board yesterday having qualified through playing nine T20 internationals and one one-day international in the contract year.

But no opponent has yet fully probed England's Achilles' heel post-Pietersen: the hesitant way their batsmen start an innings against spin (and even Afghanistan bowled six overs of spin in mid-innings for only 28 runs). Fletcher might just play the ace today, starting off with Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh or Ravi Ashwin. Or else keep it back in case India come up against England in the semi-finals.

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Congress Walks Out, Mamata Banerjee Loses Voice In WB Assembly

Twenty-four hours after six Trinamool ministers marched into the Prime Minister's office in New Delhi and put in their papers signalling the end of the alliance, a similar scene was enacted in Kolkata on Saturday. In the afternoon, six Congress ministers walked into chief minister Mamata  Banerjee's office in Writers' and submitted their resignations.

Later, the group met the Governor, withdrawing support to the Trinamool government.

Wasting no time, the Congress, that had a rocky relationship with the Trinamool even while being a partner of the ruling alliance, geared up to play the role of an Opposition party. Congress leaders picked on issues like the deteriorating law and order situation and vowed to launch agitations against the government.

Century Fox Report: Cabinet Reshuffle Likely, Congress may keep Railways

Earlier in the day, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, while speaking at a function, threatened to continue her tirade against the Congress. "We're poor, but we have some respect. We have the right to retaliate. Please don't threaten us," she said at a function in Kolkata, hinting that she is ready to take on the Congress, both in the state and in Delhi.

"Now, we'll hit the streets against the government and highlight various issues, such as the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. We'll also reach out to the people and explain the policies of the Centre and the double standards of Mamata Banerjee," Pradip Bhattacharya, president of Pradesh Congress Committee, retaliated. He added that leaders in Kolkata were waiting for the high command's decision. After that, the state Congress will place its bid for the main opposition party in the state assembly.

State Congress leaders huddled in the afternoon at Bidhan Bhavan, the party's headquarters in the state. Senior leaders discussed the roadmap for anti-TMC agitation programmes throughout the state, apart from panchayat polls preparations. The Congress will have to take on the CPI(M), as well as the Trinamool Congress, in the coming rural polls.

By 5pm, Congress ministers of Bengal led by Manas Bhuniya reached Writers' Buildings and met the chief minister. Trinamool Congress leaders, such as Partha Chatterjee, Amit Mitra and Subrata Mukherjee, were also present. The rising rate of crimes against women and the deteriorating law and order situation, were given as reasons for their resignation. However, Congress ministers avoided the media at Writers'.

"For the sake of the people, we'll fight against this government," said Manas Bhuniya.

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