Press

After not seeing Barack Obama all weekend, the press are finally being let into the Floridian, the exclusive golf club that's hosted the president the last few days. Via the pool report: 

The president, down in Florida for vacation without his family, will spend the day golfing. The press, meanwhile, is on a "party bus," according to the pool report:

On its website, the Iranian propaganda outlet Press TV has an article titled, "Journalism is dead and buried in West." The propaganda reads:

Over the past six weeks, we have had hundreds of new bloggers and “media pundits,” most anonymous, none with qualification, none with verifiable bios, almost all with childishly obvious agendas that carry clear signs of “handlers.” None, however, have attributable sources, real access to inside information.

Steve Hayes, with Mara Liasson and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

In a letter to the White House, four members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence asked President Obama whether recent disclosures to the press of classified information on the Benghazi terrorist attacks were authorized by the Obama administration or illegal leaks subject to prosecution.

There are two U.S. economies. Well, not really. But there is the economy reported in the New York Times as part of its pre-election coverage, and far different one reported in the authoritative financial press.

The Tampa Bay Times, the paper that puts out (and funds) the supposedly unbiased PolitiFact, has just enthusiastically endorsed President Obama for a second term.  The Times writes that “[w]ithout hesitation” it “recommends Barack Obama for re-election as president.” The paper cites Obama’s “steady leadership.” It’s no wonder the Times is backing Obama.

One can’t help being in awe of the New York Times. The ingenuity it displays in running down Mitt Romney, if applied to a more useful project, would be a national treasure.

In today's headlines:

White House records reveal that the moderator of last night's vice presidential debate, Martha Raddatz, visited Vice President Joe Biden at his official residence on March 26, 2012. Raddatz is an employee of ABC News.

The White House has not held a press briefing in the last 15 days, according to records on the White House's website. The last one was held on September 24, 2012, by White House press secretary Jay Carney.

Most of the post-debate punditry has focused on Barack Obama’s failure to win last week's head-to-head match-up. Both the left and right seem to agree that Obama lost, with disagreement as to why that happened, naturally.

But perhaps it should be looked at in a different way: Obama did not lose so much as Romney won. A highly skilled, albeit vastly underrated, candidate showed what he was really made of on Thursday.