The Golden Report

POST-DEBATE EDITION

BREAKING: The Trustees of Pennsylvania State University held a news conference at 10pm to announce that they have fired head football coach Joe Paterno and University President Graham Spanier amid a growing child sex abuse scandal with allegations of abuse facing a longtime assistant coach. Yesterday, Paterno announced that he had planned to retire after this season.

THE DEBATE:

The Ninth Republican Presidential Candidates Debate just concluded from the campus of Oakland University in Oakland (outside of Rochester), Michigan. The one-hour forty-five minute debate aired on CNBC and was moderated by John Harwood and Maria Bartiromo.

THREE Takeaway from tonight’s debate:

1/ Rick Perry suffered a seemingly devastating moment for his campaign when he suggested that he would eliminate three federal departments under his budget/deficit reduction plan, then turned to Ron Paul (who proposes eliminating five departments) to list them, and could not remember the third, after Education and Commerce.

Another candidate on stage said “EPA” in an attempt to help Perry recover. But then Perry was prompted by Harwood “seriously? seriously, EPA was the one you were looking for?” he asked. And Perry was still not able to come up with the third cabinet department…Harwood “but you can’t name the third one?” Perry “I would do away with education…with commerce..and..let’s see…I can’t..the third one…I’m sorry.”

Twenty minutes later, when answering a different question, Perry finally said that he was trying to remember that it was the department of energy.

Here’s the video of the full question (it’s about 2 minutes long, forward to 1:40 for the Perry “oops” moment)

2/ Herman Cain went through the debate nearly unscathed. Now in the second week of allegations of sexual harassment, and with four accusers who have come forward with statements alleging misconduct by Cain, this was the dominant campaign narrative going into the debate.

But we knew this debate was hard-centered around jobs and the economy. Indeed, although the first question (on the Italian debt crisis) did go to Cain, it wasn’t until 20 minutes into the debate that Cain was asked directly about the allegations. Moderator Maria Bartaromo was booed by the audience for asking the question and Cain gave what has become his standard response- blaming the media and saying that he does not deserve to be judged in the court of public opinion.

Harwood asked a follow-up question to Romney- asking whether he would fire Cain if he was CEO of his company. Romney ducked and avoided an opportunity to draw distance between himself and (for now) his chief rival for the Republican nomination. That was a telling exchange that ended the discussion of Cain’s allegations at the debate. And now with a Perry fumble, it is possible that Cain has escaped completely from allegations that threatened his candidacy.

3/ Mitt Romney looked and sounded like the Republican presidential nominee. With the exception of messed up hair tonight, Romney was in control when answering questions and gave solid, well-rounded answers on everything from taxes to the European debt crisis to Chinese currency manipulation. He avoided calling out other candidates by name, choosing instead to focus all criticism on President Obama. Likewise, only Jon Huntsman took a serious shot at Romney (continuing a theme he started on Meet the Press on Sunday), accusing Romney of waffling on his Chinese policy. Despite some edging by Harwood, the exchange did not result in any of the intra-candidate fireworks like we have seen in previous debates

THE EVENING REPORT DEBATE SCORECARD: Romney, Cain, Gingrich, Huntsman, Santorum, Bachmann, Paul, Perry.

IN OTHER NEWS:

AWFUL STORY FOR VETERANS DAY: Breaking tonight from the Washington Post- “Remains of war dead dumped in landfill”

“The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of portions of troops’ remains by cremating them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burial at sea.

The Dover, Del., mortuary, the main point of entry for the nation’s war dead and the target of federal investigations of alleged mishandling of remains, engaged in the practice from 2003 to 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was not disclosed to relatives of fallen service members.”

IS ITALY NEXT IN EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS? The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down over 3% today on new fears from Europe that Italy may be the next county to suffer from a growing sovereign debt crisis. Borrowing costs today hit 7% as the BBC reports:

“Italy’s cost of borrowing has touched a new record, a day after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would resign once budget reforms were passed. If Italy tried to borrow money today, payable in 10 years, it would have to pay an interest rate of more than 7%.

Investors fear that Italy could become the next victim of the debt crisis. In a bid to calm markets, President Giorgio Napolitano said reforms would be passed and Mr Berlusconi would resign “within a few days. The 7% level is widely viewed as unsustainable and was the point at which Portugal, Greece and the Irish Republic were forced to seek a bailout.”

WALL STREET

• Dow down 328
• NASDAQ down 106
• S&P 500 down 47

FINALLY- Today the federal government conducted the first ever nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS), broadcasting a 30-second alert at 2pm ET on all television and radio stations across the country. The FCC, other federal agencies, and the private sector are still reviewing the data from today’s test- which worked well in some places, and not so well in others, according to a statement from the FCC,

“The Nationwide EAS Test served the purpose for which it was intended, to identify gaps and generate a comprehensive set of data to help strengthen our ability to communicate during real emergencies. Based on preliminary data, large regions of the country received the test but some areas did not. We are currently in the process of collecting and analyzing data, and will reach a conclusion when that process is complete.”

Here’s how the test looked today: (scroll to about 2 minutes in this amateur video).

JUST IN: POLITICO’s Mike Allen is reporting that WH Deputy Senior Advisor Stephanie Cutter will leave the West Wing at the end of the year to move to Chicago and become to Obama 2012 “deputy campaign manager overseeing communications, press, policy and research, with responsibility for managing the long-term message plan” 

Cutter was born 10/28/1968 in Taunton, Massachusetts. A graduate of Smith College and Georgetown Law, she has worked as Deputy Communications Director for President Clinton, Communications Director for Sen. Ted Kennedy and the Democratic National Committee and was Chief of Staff to Michelle Obama during the 2008 campaign. At the White House, she was chiefly in charge of messaging strategy for the year-long health care reform effort.

HEALTH REFORM: Today the Justice Department declined an opportunity to have the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals review a ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. In August, a 3-judge panel of the Court ruled the law’s individual mandate section to be unconstitutional. The Administration could have had the full Court issue a ruling, but this decision sets up a likely Supreme Court decision as early as this coming term. The 6th and 4th Circuit Courts of Appeals have ruled the law constitutional and a ruling is still pending in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia

SHUTDOWN AVERTED?: Tonight the Senate voted 79-12 on a stopgap budget resolution which would keep the government funded through the middle of November, provided for additional funding for FEMA and avert a government shutdown by allowing the House to approve the funding in two waves- through next Tuesday (which would happen via voice vote in a pro forma session) and then by recorded vote through November. The level of funding for FEMA- $2.65B- is less than Senate Democrats had wanted- but the bill does not include the additional cuts in domestic discretionary spending that some Republicans demanded. Earlier today, FEMA announced they had enough funding to last through the end of the week- enough cover for a deal that has the auspices of bi-partisanship to be reached.

NEW CNN/ORC POLL (with changes from last survey): 

• Perry 28% (-2)
• Romney 21% (+3)
• Gingrich 10%  (+5)
• Cain 7% (+2)
• Palin 7% (-8)
• Paul 7% (-5)
• Bachmann 4% (-)
• Santorum 3% (+1)
• Huntsman 1% (-1)

President Obama Job Approval Rating: Approve: 45% (+2), Disapprove: 52% (-3)

ON WALL STREET: News from Europe that discussions were underway to expand borrowing authority as a potential solution to the Euro Zone debt crisis (although nothing has been confirmed) was enough to reverse last Thursday’s losses. 

• Dow up 272
• NASDAQ up 33
• S&P 500 up 27

ALSO.. “A technical issue kept the Dow from accurately updating for 12 minutes at the beginning of trading in New York. The index opened flat as its component stocks and other indexes rose in the minutes after the opening bell” the New York Times reports

PRESIDENT OBAMA was in Mountain View, CA today for the LinkedIn Town Hall Meeting and is in Los Angeles and San Diego tonight for DNC fundraisers. Tomorrow, he’ll be in Denver. 

WATCH THIS VIDEO the National Park Service released today- showing tourists racing down the stairs inside the Washington Monument at the time of last month’s 5.8 magnitude earthquake- as debris from the Monument fall from the ceiling. The Park Service said today that they have been assessing the damage since the quake and that the Monument will remain closed for an indefinite period of time.

FINALLY.. FACEBOOK FORMS A POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE: From Spokesperson Andrew Noyes (an American University alum!) “FB PAC will give our employees a way to make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” And- fun fact- Facebook’s COO Sharyl Standberg, who hosted last night’s fundraiser for President Obama attended by a who’s-who of Hollywood, including Lady Gaga, was mentioned four separate times in POLITICO’s Playbook this morning. For more on Standberg- see this New Yorker profile from earlier this year. 

FRIDAY EARLY EDITION

TOP STORY: SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN IN THREE PARTS

THE VOTES: The House of Representatives voted at 12:30am ET on a Continuing Resolution, their second attempt at a bill to keep the government funding beyond the end of the fiscal year: one week from today. The bill contained the “Solyndra Option”- increases in funding for emergency disaster assistance offset by cuts in a renewable energy program that gave a government-backed grant to the now-failed solar company. The party-line vote was the result of nearly two days of behind door talks with the Speaker and the Republican Caucus. This afternoon, on a 59-36 vote, the Senate failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to consider the House CR. Thereby making it dead. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today that the Senate will vote on Monday afternoon on a Democratic-sponsored continuing resolution, that is also expected to fail. 

THE DEADLINES: According to Congressional officials, the Federal Emergency Management Agency only has about $174 million left in disaster assistance funds. At current burn rates, the money will be expired by Monday at the earliest and Wednesday at the latest. The Federal Government would begin a shutdown at midnight next Friday night, into Saturday morning. A partial shutdown would occur over the weekend (many offices are closed anyway) and a full shutdown on Monday morning. The House of Representatives was supposed to adjourn tonight for a week-long recess, that is now in question- the House would appear to have to stay in session in order to pass a bill to meet both of these deadlines. Both the House and Senate have adjourned for the weekend- delaying any action until next week.

THE NEXT STEP: Far from clear. What we do know is nothing is going to get done this weekend. The Senate could still try to pass the House approved continuing resolution- and by staying in Recess, that is a bargaining chip that House Republicans can play. The obvious next step is for both sides to negotiate on a compromise package- although there do not appear to be any negotiations planned or considered at this time. And unlike the shutdown threat earlier this year, the White House has thus far not become involved in any way  on reaching a resolution. Watch to see if there are signs over the weekend- perhaps on the Sunday shows- of movement on any of these three areas.

THE OTHER BIG STORY: Despite posting some gains for the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its worst week since August 2008, down over 6%. The NASDAQ was lower by 5% and the S&P 500 was lower nearly 7% on the week, although all three indices were up today. The culprit? The health of the global economy- specifically in Europe and the continuing Greek debt crisis. Last week’s extraordinary meeting of Euro Zone Finance Ministers with Treasury Secretary Geithner, the statements of support and unity by France and Germany, and this week’s IMF meetings all seem to have done very little to calm the nerves of clearly rattled markets. This week shows that there are not going to be easy answers to solving the underlying problems- and they are not going to come quickly. There is now active conversation about a repeat of 2008: a global economic recession that will be sparked- not by a crisis of credit, but rather by a crisis of confidence. As the IMF met in Washington this week, statements from leaders indicated this concern and a desire to get ahead of financial instability- using any and all monetary and fiscal policy tools at central banks disposals- before a crisis could spread, potentially causing a devastating ripple effect. This was evidenced in an overnight statement from the financial leaders of the G-20 nations which said, in part, there is an urgent need for “a response to address the renewed challenges facing the global economy.”

THE THIRD BIG STORY: At the United Nations today, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas went ahead, as expected, with a proposal to grant the Palestinian Authority statehood status and recognition. Shortly after that move, it was learned that the United States, United Nations, Europe Union and Russia (the quartet) would soon announce a re-opening of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. Details are still emerging and will continue to be learned for the rest of the day. If true- then Abbas succeeded in this week’s UN tactics in a sense- because he re-injected the Mid East Peace Process onto the international agenda and forced the international community- distracted by a plethora of issues, including Libya, Iran and the global economy- to focus again on the complexities and challenges of his nation. Statement from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: ““We urge both parties to take advantage of this opportunity to get back to get back to talks, and the United States pledges our support as the parties themselves take the important next steps for a two-solution, which is what all of us are hoping to achieve.”

TWO OTHER INTERNATIONAL STORIES:

• Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh returned to his country today, after four months in Saudi Arabia for health treatment and as the result of insurgency, protest and political tumult in his country. It has been a particularly violent week in Yemen as months-long anti-government protests continued and it is unclear whether his return will help to quell- or provoke further- the protests
• In Senate testimony yesterday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen suggested that he has evidence that the Pakistan Intelligence Service, the ISI, was behind recent attacks against American forces in Afghanistan, including the siege of the American compound last week and the assassination this week of the former Afghan President. Today, the Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani rejected Mullen’s suggestions (which has been reinforced by other US leaders in recent days and weeks) of a connection between the ISI and the militant Haqqani network. This only further shows the difficulty and complexity of the US relationship with Pakistan. 

FINALLY: The Evening Report comes to you tonight from Phoenix, Arizona- site of the 66th Annual National Conference on Citizenship. Today, the 2011 Arizona Civic Health Index was released at a breakfast before the actual Conference, which came to Arizona this year- for the first time in its history- thanks to a partnership between NCoC and the Center For The Future of Arizona. Among the speakers today: former Huffington Post and New York Times reporter Jose Antonio Vargas, who publicly revealed his undocumented immigration status three months ago. In a state where immigration is a deeply contentious issue, Vargas’s appearance- as well as the rest of the insightful Conference program- showed how NCoC is advancing its role as a dynamic, non-partisan non-profit exploring what shapes today’s citizenry, define the evolving role of the individual in our democracy, and uncover ways to motivate greater participation.