Ann Coulter’s Lame Defense, Lena Dunham’s Controversial Obama Ad, and More

Race Matters:

Former New Hampshire governor and Mitt Romney surrogate John Sununu made headlines after suggesting to CNN’s Piers Morgan on Thursday night that Colin Powell, who had earlier endorsed President Obama, based his endorsement on race. Sununu did, however, back off that claim later, saying in a statement that “Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president’s policies.” (Read more)

Billion-Dollar Baby: The 2012 presidential election is shaping up to be the most expensive in history, with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama on pace to raise $1 billion each before Election Day. Those figures, however, do not reflect the hundreds of millions that have been poured into super PACs and other outside organizations. (Read more)

A Decent Proposal: A New York congressman is trying to fundamentally alter the presidential campaign landscape by proposing an amendment that would make the popular vote worth something in the Electoral College. The proposal by Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat, would award 29 votes to the winner of the popular vote. As a result, candidates would be forced to campaign in states other than—for example—Ohio and Florida. (Rear more)

Just Plain Offensive: Ann Coulter’s at it again. Instead of apologizing for a tweet in which she called President Obama a “retard,” Coulter not only defended the offensive remark, but she also told her critics to go screw themselves. “I feel they’re being authoritarian bullying victims,” she said. In other words, par for the course for the classless conservative loudmouth. (Read more)

Dunham vs. Reagan: Some conservatives have expressed outrage over an Obama campaign ad that features Lena Dunham, the creator and star of the HBO series “Girls,” comparing voting for the first time to losing one’s virginity (one Republican official tweeted that it was proof the president was colluding with Satan). This isn’t the first time that analogy has been used; in fact, Ronald Reagan made a similar comparison in 1980 while he was reaching out to blue-collar voters. Here’s what Reagan said: “I know what it’s like to pull the Republican lever for the first time, because I used to be a Democrat myself, and I can tell you it only hurts for a minute and then it feels just great.” Now compare that to what Dunham said: “Your first time shouldn’t be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy … someone who really cares about and understands women.” (Read more)

Video of the Day: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was back on Conan O’Brien’s show Thursday night with a “report” on the third and final presidential debate. As Gawker noted, “Triumph again proved he’s the only journalist taking the spin as seriously as it deserves to be.”