There is now consensus among computer models that a strong fall Nor’easter

will begin forming election night and then move up the Mid-Atlantic and

Northeast coast Wednesday and Thursday.

How close to the coast the storm tracks remains the looming question. That

will dictate how far west (inland) precipitation and strong winds reach.

But from the North Carolina Outer Banks to the shores of New England, it’s

becoming more certain that the storm will whip up high seas and gusty winds,

leading to a new round of coastal flooding and beach erosion on the heels of

Superstorm Sandy - though not as severe.

MOVIE director Oliver Stone claims Hurricane Sandy, which hit the north-east coast of the United States last week, was Mother Nature casting an early vote in Tuesday’s election.

And Her verdict? A pox on both their houses.

The storm was “punishment” for President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney because they have not addressed climate change in the campaign, he said.

Ridiculous though the claim is, yesterday’s opinion polls, showing Romney’s momentum has stalled, suggest the storm has been a Godsend for Obama, allowing him to appear presidential, non-partisan, and engaged.

He has edged ahead of Romney, 47.5 percent to 47.2 percent in the Real Clear Politics average of national polls.

Obama has been bounding around in his Air Force One bomber jacket, taking on the role of “First Father”, hugging storm victims in hard-hit New Jersey and being embraced by his new best friend, Republican governor Chris Christie, who Romney supporters accuse of throwing their man “under the bus”.

Romney meanwhile, was sidelined for three days, reduced to organizing canned food drives at subdued rallies.

But where it counts, in the marginal or “swing” states, Romney may already have achieved enough, simply by not being the monster his enemies have claimed, especially to women.

If Obama loses, his “war against women” campaign theme will have been his greatest miscalculation, and one with lessons for Australia.

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/index.php/daily

telegraph/comments/what_we_can_learn_from_the_us_election/

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Ahah Miranda... Good one... Oliver stone was certainly kidding... He probably did not mean "punishment" but he would have meant "Sandy being a consequence of not doing anything about climate change". Correct though hard to pinpoint this as a full certainty — as storms happened there before... The record would show that since 1900, such storms would have been increasing in numbers and damage (remember Irene last year?)...  I won't go into global warming here, in detail — all to say that Miranda tries to make sense out of her biased viewpoint that never ever makes sense. Thus she understands the world very well, according to god sense... which does not make any sense at all, anyway.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/telnaes?hpid=z5

MITT ROMNEY'S bid for the US presidency failed because voters saw through him – as a candidate the man was a political chameleon.

On his second bid for the White House, Romney held nothing back – last week, a flip-flop; yesterday, a backtrack; today, a retreat; and tomorrow, a sidestep of what he had said last week or last year.

He needed to put Americans at ease about his vast wealth, but whenever he did his foot usually ended up in his mouth. 

A sharply worded editorial in The Washington Post on Sunday argued that the only consistency in the Romney campaign had been the candidate's contempt for the electorate. But that he went so close to becoming president reveals more than we might have expected about the people and politics of the global superpower.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-election/defeat-for-a-man-of-contradictions-20121107-28y50.html#ixzz2BWR06IP4

At least, Obama mentioned the dirty word in his speech:... The planet is warming...

...

But these are sins of chart-play rather than outright lies – although they still deserve to be called out. In the Romney camp however the final weeks have shown no such cares for subtlety. For example in Romney speeches and advertisements he has claimed that President Obama "took General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China."

The claims were so egregiously wrong that Chrysler's CEO put out this statement:

"Chrysler Group's production plans for the Jeep brand have become the focus of public debate. I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China....It is inaccurate to suggest anything different."

A spokesperson for General Motors similarly noted: "We've clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days."

Did this stop the Romney camp? Hell no. Instead it broadened the scope of the advert – including the lies in radio advertisements.

In Australia the area most likely to see this truth stretching occur is with respect to the carbon price. We've already seen it in play in parliament, such as on October 10 and also on October 29 where Abbott asked:

"Can the Prime Minister confirm that power prices have now risen 90 per cent under the Labor government, including 15 per cent in the last quarter, the largest quarterly increase on record, because the carbon tax is starting to do its job?"

Expect advertisements linking 90 per cent increases in prices due to Labor and the carbon price regardless of the fact that such a statement is utter bollocks.

It will require a media to be on the game – such as was Daniel Piotrowski in The Punch when he tore to shreds claims that NSW electricity price increases were due to the carbon price. But the US election experience suggests even media coverage won't prevent the lies unless the liar is confronted with them publicly – such as in the leader's debate.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4355750.html?WT.svl=theDrum