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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Oct 22, 2012
October 22, 2012
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Along the campaign trail:
With just two weeks and a day to go until Election Day and the race very close, tonight third and final debate is one of only a few chances left for PRESIDENT OBAMA and MITT ROMNEY to make their case to the sliver of voters who are still making up their minds.
Tonight's focus is on foreign policy. The president's edge in the polls on foreign policy has been shrinking. So Romney really needs to take advantage of that. He also gets a kind of a redo on the Libya question that he botched in the last debate, when he'd gone into a kind of semantic argument about what exactly the president said. He also gets a chance to say what he would do differently in foreign-policy, on a whole range of issues, other than merely criticize the president.
Obama will get a chance to remind voters why they had previously given him such high marks on foreign policy: The killing of OSAMA bin LADEN, the end of the Iraq War, the eventual drawdown in Afghanistan. And also, he has a chance to give a better explanation of the shifting stories from the administration on Libya.
The larger goals for both of these candidates in this debate are actually not about foreign policy. They're about Romney trying to close the edge with women. They're about the president trying to finally offer a rationale and an agenda for a second term. Watch to see how they use a foreign policy debate to segue into those issues. (Maiman)Halloween:
Seven in 10 Americans say they plan to celebrate Halloween this year, according to a new survey by the National Retail Foundation. That's up a bit from 68.6 percent last year and the most in the past 10-years. The average person will spend $79.82 on decorations, costumes and candy.
Bottom line: we'll spend $8 billion dollars on the holiday.
More than half (51.4%) will decorate their home or yard, and 45.0 percent plan to dress in costume, also up from last year (43.9%.) More than one-third (36.2%) will throw or attend a party and 33.2 percent will take children trick-or-treating.Favorite adult costumes this year:
10. Superman
9. Cat
8. (tie) Nurse, Ghost
7. Princess
6. Vixen
5. Zombie
4. Batman character
3. Pirate
2. Vampire
1. WitchCulture Shock:
As we mentioned Friday, the attendees at a London "Star Trek" convention were attempting to break the Guiness world record for fans dressed as characters from the TV series --and they did it. There were 1,083 "trekkies" who dressed up for the show, which beat the previous record of 1,040 characters, set earlier this year at the bigger, annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas.
The convention was also the site of the very first British Klingon wedding, as a couple of Swedes, 23-year-old JOSSIE SOCKERTOPP and 29-year-old SONNIE GUSTAVSSON, came to London and did their wedding entirely in the Klingon language.
The pair, who met four years ago at the retirement home where they both work, had already married in Sweden three days earlier. They said they were inspired by an episode of "Deep Space Nine" in which Worf marries science officer, Jadzia Dax.
Neither of them told their parents they were getting married until a couple of days before the convention started.
The BBC also says all five captains from the TV series showed up for just the second time ever --and did a panel to kick off the convention. In order to attend that talk, attendees had to pony up 150 bucks and a limited number of VIPs ponied up $48-hundred dollars for autographs and photos with all five.Like you really care:
"Mama JUNE" THOMPSON really knows how to have a good time. TMZ.com reports the "star" of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" hit up a bar called the Pickle Barrel Cafe to celebrate her daughter's 16th birthday, belted out a few karaoke tunes like "Sk8er Boi" by AVRIL LAVIGNE and "Real Slim Shady" by EMINEM and chugged down several shots with the family bodyguard. (Lee)
Fashion Emergency:
The world's largest shoe store opened for business over the weekend. The Level Shoe District store in Dubai has more than 96-thousand square feet of footwear, stocking up to 15-thousand different styles at any one time. According to Elle magazine, the store is double the size of the world's largest shoe floors. That includes Selfridges in London and Macy's in New York City. Brands for sale include top names like Prada and Gucci. It will also have the Louis Vuitton spring collection four to six weeks before anyone else in the world. (Bartha)
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