There's no way to know how bad or good a deal Democrats cut until the conflict they postponed is resolved, and we know what it takes to lift the debt ceiling, keep the government running and deal with the "sequester" – the combination of automatic spending cuts to defense and to social programs baked into the original debt ceiling deal back in August 2011.

As someone who believed, and still believes, that it was best for the country if Democrats stood up to Republican hostage takers and went over the cliff, I have to admit President Obama and his chief negotiator Vice President Joe Biden got some good things with this deal. Unemployment benefits were extended for 2 million Americans and so were tax credits that help the working and middle class. The deal also kept student-loan interest rates low. Lots of Democrats are also celebrating the fact that Republicans voted for their first tax-rate increase in 20 years. But since the White House got far less in revenue than it originally asked for, we'll see how great a concession that turned out to be, since the deal kept tax rates low for millions of wealthy Americans, and ceded crucial hikes on estates and investment income for the super-rich.

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Obama continued that there has been a conversation over the last few days about how we can "reduce the epidemic of gun violence that plagues this country every day," and "that conversation has to continue, but this time the words need to lead to action."

"The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing," Obama said. "The fact that we can't prevent every act of violence doesn't mean we can't steadily reduce the violence." He added that the task force will be required to come up with a "set of concrete proposals, no later than January, proposals that I intend to push without delay.

"This country has a strong tradition of gun ownership that's been handed down from generation to generation," he continued, but "you know what, I am also betting that the majority, the vast majority of responsible, law-abiding gun owners would be some of the first to say that we should be able to keep an irresponsible few from buying a weapon of war."

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For instance, Logan writes, the debate over Iran starts and ends with the assumption that the country must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons at all costs. It's almost impossible to find inside voices who question that underlying assumption, even though there’s plenty of evidence that it would be possible to contain a nuclear Iran at reasonable costs. Meanwhile, President Obama made few major adjustments to George W. Bush’s national security apparatus. Mitt Romney, who disagreed with Obama on just about everything, could find almost nothing substantive that he would do differently from Obama on strategic national security issues. On Israel, China, Russia or the need for a massive American military empire there is a clear, bipartisan foreign policy consensus; dissenting voices are dismissed almost out of hand as unserious, so most people who hold them stay quiet to stay on the inside.

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Sudeikis did not address speculation on whether or not he will be leaving "SNL".

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It helps, of course, especially for those of us here in the godless left-wing media in the Gotham full of sodomites, that Biden makes his appearance as a man heading into his second term. For Amy Poehler's city councilwoman Leslie Knope to have a brush with a guy who'd just lost to Mr. Backwards Baseball Cap would have been a downer moment for the sitcom, a little hiss of air going out of the bit's tires. The scene, which was gently adjusted for two possible election outcomes, had to be kept top secret until after Nov. 6, lest "some provision might have to be made to give the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Representative Paul Ryan, a similar cameo."

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During a visit to a Sarasota, Fla., restaurant on Wednesday, Biden took a customer's cellphone and engaged the man on the other end — apparently the customer's brother — in a lengthy discussion of the health care overhaul law.

After a while, Biden told the man, who seemed to be a Republican, that he wasn't going to argue with him to get his vote. Then Biden said: "After it's all over, when your insurance rates go down, then you'll vote for me in 2016."

Biden's campaign declined to comment on his remark or clarify his plans for 2016.

The exchange followed a political rally in which Biden slammed a GOP ad on the auto industry as "flagrantly dishonest."

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Perry gave a free concert at a park in a historically minority neighborhood just northwest of downtown Las Vegas to screaming fans at about 9 p.m., the same time Air Force One landed at McCarran International Airport across town.

Obama later told the crowd: "I believe in you. I need you to keep believing in me."

The Las Vegas campaign event drew more than 10,000 people, according to fire officials and organizers, with long lines still on sidewalks during Perry's 30-minute performance before Obama arrived.

The singer opened with a rendition of Al Green's soul hit "Let's Stay Together," and played five songs, including "Teenage Dream," before ending with a thumping bass drum version of "Firework."

Perry, who recently also played a free concert at an Obama event in Los Angeles, paused before the last song Wednesday to exhort people in the Las Vegas crowd to vote early.

"Don't wait. Go tomorrow," she said. "How many of you are 18 here? It's going to be your first time, right?"

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Obama needed to remind voters that Romney is a very rich man out of touch with regular people, and he did that well. He got in Romney’s face and he got under his skin, but stopped just short of being overly aggressive.

You could tell right from the beginning that this was a very different Obama. When Romney touted his five-point plan to fix the economy, Obama responded scornfully, “Governor Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan, he has a one-point plan” and that plan is more tax breaks for the very rich who are allowed to play by different rules.

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Specter, 82, died at home Sunday of complications from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. His funeral service is scheduled for noon Tuesday at Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley, near Philadelphia.

Specter's long political career thrust him to the center of many pivotal events in modern American history. He promoted the single-bullet theory in the death of President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, questioned Anita Hill about sexual harassment claims she raised against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the 1990s, and more recently worked to promote Mideast peace plans and stem-cell research.

President Barack Obama has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the White House and other public buildings Tuesday.

"Arlen never walked away from his principles and was at his best when they were challenged," said Biden, who often rode home on the train with Specter from Washington, D.C.

Specter will be remembered as a political moderate who switched parties twice in his career, but mostly served as a Republican. He waged a short-lived run for president in 1995 on a platform that warned fellow Republicans of the "intolerant right."

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From: Robert Reich

RE: Upcoming debate

Your passive performance in the last debate was damaging because it reenforced the Republican claim that you’ve been too passive in getting jobs back and in responding to terrorism abroad.

That doesn’t mean you have to “come out swinging” this time. You need to be yourself, and one of your qualities that the public finds reassuring is your steadiness and authenticity, by contrast to Romney’s unsteady flip-flopping and apparent willingness to say and be anything. But you will need to be more energetic and passionate.

And although the “town meeting” style debate in which you’ll be answering audience questions isn’t conducive to sharp give-and-take with Romney, look for every opportunity to nail him. Indignance doesn’t come naturally to you, but you have every reason to be indignant on behalf of the American people.

Emphasize these five points:

1. Not only is the economy is improving, but there’s no reason to trust Romney’s claim he would improve it more quickly. He’s given no specifics about how he’d pay for his massive tax cut for the wealthy, or what he’d replace ObamaCare with, or how he’d regulate Wall Street if he repeals Dodd-Frank. His record to date has flip-flopped on every major issue. Why should Americans trust his assertions?

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