This, That and the Other

Ohio University’s College Green, Oct 17 (@BuzzFeedAndrew)

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Business Insider

This is really the big story of the moment: The full-on comeback in everything related to consumers and households.

Let’s just break it down really fast.

1. New housing starts are shooting straight up … 2. Retail sales growth: Re-accelerating …. 3. The Unemployment Rate: Collapsing (according to the government) …. 4. And the unemployment rate is collapsing according to Gallup …. 5. And car sales are surging …. 6. Revolving Consumer Credit. Back to growth …. 7. Gallup Economic Confidence is the best since May …. 8. Consumer discretionary stocks surging towards all-time highs …. 9. Homebuilder stocks highest since 2007 …. 10. Wal-Mart has finally busted out, and surged past its 2000 high …. 11. Even more impressive: Home Depot! Surging to multi-year highs …. 12. University of Michigan Consumer Confidence hits a 5-year high …. 13. Restaurant owners are saw a recent spike up in their outlook (they’re a great measure of consumer discretionary spending …. 14. Case-Shiller home prices are clearly on the rise.

Something really big is under way!

See the post for more, including graphs

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LA Times

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Reuters: Groundbreaking on new homes surged in September to its fastest pace in more than four years, a sign the housing sector’s budding recovery is gaining traction and supporting the wider economic recovery.

Housing starts increased 15 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 872,000 units, beating even the most optimistic forecasts on Wall Street, Commerce Department data showed on Wednesday.

It was the quickest pace of groundbreaking since July 2008…

More here

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Steve Benen: For all the Romney/Ryan efforts to convince Americans the economy is getting worse, reality stubbornly keeps getting in the way…

Groundbreaking on new homes surged in September to its fastest pace in more than four years, a sign the housing sector’s budding recovery is gaining traction and supporting the wider economic recovery…..

…. The unemployment rate is at its best point in four years; consumer confidence is at its best point in five years; the federal budget deficit is at its best point in four years. Just this week, reports on retail sales, industrial production, and new housing construction showed sharp and unexpected improvements.

This probably isn’t what Republicans wanted to hear…..

More here

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Cedar Rapids, Iowa (AP/Carolyn Kaster)

Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa (AP/Carolyn Kaster)

(Reuters/Jason Reed)

Ohio University, Athens, Oct 17 (Reuters/Jason Reed)

More photos tomorrow

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Cagle

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This and That

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Next up:

6:0: President Obama delivers remarks at Ohio University, Athens

8:0: VP Biden delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Reno Ballroom, Nev.

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Cagle

Cagle

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Back in a while, will post more bits and pieces – chat awaaaaaaay!

Rise and Shine

Photobucket – the photo of the debate! (Thank you Susan)

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EDT

9:25: The President departs the White House

CDT

10:50: Arrives Mt. Vernon, Iowa

11:45: Delivers remarks at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa

1:55: Departs Mt. Vernon

EDT

4:15: Arrives Athens, Ohio

6:0: Delivers remarks at Ohio University, Athens

7:35: Departs Athens

9:0: Arrives the White House

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Newseum

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Michael Tomasky: Well, Fox was calling it a draw, and its anchors started blaming Candy Crowley for how it all went down 32 seconds after it ended. Need to know anything else?

….. There were other moments. Obama won the immigration discussion. He won guns, to the extent anyone’s voting on that. He won taxes. Taxes — weird. I was shocked that Romney stood by his 20 percent and insisted that his math does add up.

…. and Romney not knowing that Obama called the Benghazi attack an “act of terror” the day after? He just didn’t know….

And finally, the 47 percent moment. Why would Romney stick out his jaw like that? The last question. Romney going first. Knowing he’d have no chance to respond. Knowing also (as it had dawned on me about 15 minutes before) that Obama was about to go through two debates without mentioning the 47 percent. And Romney mentions that he cares about 100 percent. Here’s my jaw, Barack. Unreal.

More here

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(Pool/Getty Images)

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Proud

(AP Photo/Pool-Shannon Stapleton)

Knock-out

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Full debate:

The Debate, Part 4

OFA * C-Span

The Debate, Part 3

OFA * C-Span

The Debate, Part 2

OFA * C-Span

All set?

OFA * C-Span

Sorry, only TOD regulars will be allowed comment here tonight, if you want to come back tomorrow to comment, you’ll be more than welcome – but check the rules here first.

Thanks.

‘Obama for president: A second term for a serious man’

St Louis Post-Dispatch: Four years ago, in endorsing Democrat Barack Obama for president, we noted his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure. He was unproven, but we found him to be presidential, in all that that word implies.

In that, we have not been disappointed. This is a serious man. And now he is a proven leader. He has earned a second term.

Mr. Obama sees an America where the common good is as important as the individual good. That is the vision on which the nation was founded. It is the vision that has seen America through its darkest days and illuminated its best days. It is the vision that underlies the president’s greatest achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Twenty years from now, it will be hard to find anyone who remembers being opposed to Obamacare.

He continues to steer the nation through the most perilous economic challenges since the Great Depression. Those who complain that unemployment remains high, or that economic growth is too slow, either do not understand the scope of the catastrophe imposed upon the nation by Wall Street and its enablers, or they are lying about it.

To expect Barack Obama to have repaired, in four years, what took 30 years to undermine, is simply absurd. He might have gotten further had he not been saddled with an opposition party, funded by plutocrats, that sneers at the word compromise. But even if Mr. Obama had had Franklin Roosevelt’s majorities, the economy would still be in peril…..

….. The question for voters is actually very simple. The nation has wrestled with it since its founding: Will this be government for the many or the few?

Choose the many. Choose Barack Obama.

Full editorial here

Thanks to @jidts07

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And then there’s this guy….