Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Voter suppression laws continue to lose in court

NY Times:

'Every voter restriction that has been challenged this year has been either enjoined, blocked or weakened,' said Lawrence Norden of the Brennan Center for Justice, which is part of the New York University School of Law and opposes such restrictions. 'It has been an extraordinary string of victories for those opposing these laws.'

Yay, good guys!

WSJ:

A majority of voters want one party to control Congress and the White House next year, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll, a remarkable opinion shift that suggests deep frustration with Washington gridlock.

The Journal survey of registered voters, to be released in full at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on WSJ.com, found 52% want effectively one party to rule Washington, with 39% wanting a divided government. It's the first time a majority of voters supported the idea in the Journal poll going back to the mid-1980s.

How can anyone be frustrated with Washington gridlock? Isn't the Republican House beloved of the people?

Nate Silver:

There were nine national polls published on Monday, which are listed in the table below. On average, they showed Mr. Obama with a 3.5 percentage point lead over Mr. Romney.

That's smaller than the leads we were seeing in national polls last week, which seemed to be concentrated more in the range of a five- or six-point lead for Mr. Obama. It also suggests a smaller lead than recent state-by-state polls seem to imply...

On average, however, the polls showed only a 0.2 percentage point gain for Mr. Romney ' not a meaningful shift in either a statistical or a practical sense.

NBC/WSJ polled 'you didn't build that' line: 36% said it made them feel more positive/32% more negative. Romney's 47% comment got 23% to 45%
' @samsteinhp via TweetDeck
Gallup:

The Gallup Economic Confidence Index averaged -19 in September, up from -27 in August and nearly matching the -17 seen in May, the highest monthly reading since the start of Gallup Daily tracking in 2008.

Meanwhile a bad swing state polling day for Romney as well:

Here are the latest polls from the battleground states, updated as needed through the day:

Florida: Obama 46%, Romney 43% (Suffolk)

Nevada: Obama 53%, Romney 42% (We Ask America)

New Hampshire: Obama 51%, Romney 44% (Public Policy Polling)

Virginia: Obama 47%, Romney 39% (Roanoke College)


Meanwhile, it's not officially a battleground state where the campaigns are competing but...

Missouri: Romney 48%, Obama 45% (We Ask America)

Ron Brownstein:

Across most of the presidential battleground states, particularly in the Midwest, President Obama's lead rests on a surprisingly strong performance among blue-collar white women who usually tilt toward the GOP.

A National Journal analysis of recent polling results across 11 states considered battlegrounds shows that in most of them, Obama is running considerably better than he is nationally among white women without a college education. Obama's gains with these so-called 'waitress moms' are especially pronounced in heartland battlegrounds like Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin...

'Advertising matters, and a lot of the advertising is aimed at that group,' said Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, who is advising the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA. 'That's certainly been our No. 1 priority.'

Garin earlier this year described the movement of blue-collar women in battleground states toward Obama as 'the demographic development of the summer' and the Obama campaign has tracked the same shift.

I don't get how you can work somewhere like Breitbart or Drudge and not feel like you're doing something pathetic with your life.
' @jbarro via TweetDeck
Business Insider:

The Obama Video That Drudge And Others Are Freaking Out About Has Already Been Extensively Covered

If the present tension is not moderates against conservatives but reality-based Republicans vs. the other kind, many things make more sense.
' @jayrosen_nyu via web

Speaking of reality, check out Bibi and the Bombs from Buzzfeed.