Storm Stories:

The unfortunate return of a section from last year.

The damage from Hurricane Sandy, which became a so-called Frankenstorm are severe and far-reaching.  Although many coastal communities were affected and inland locales suffered wind damage, by far the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area appears to have taken the brunt of the damage.

The New York City Subway and its companion PATH system have flooded and reactivation could take days or longer.  New Jersey Transit’s system has been crippled, in effect, and called simply “destruction.”

President Barack Obama has all, but suspended his direct involvement in the campaign to monitor the situation.  Governor Mitt Romney appeared to do the same, but weathered criticism from the media when it appeared his campaign was blending politics and the storm too much.  This comes after the campaign had to walk back Romney’s earlier condemnation of federal disaster relief.

It has also impacted the Massachusetts Senate race.  The last debate, scheduled for tomorrow was cancelled after Scott Brown pulled out, followed by Elizabeth Warren.  However, Brown appears disinclined to reschedule unlike Warren.  Instead Brown may be pushing the line between official & campaign duties.  This is the Globe’s implication, not just ours.  Rescheduling remains in limbo for now.

Connecticut, although heavily damaged, did not suffer quite on the same scale as New Jersey.  However, Sandy did deal Connecticut its third major blow in two years after Hurricane Irene and last year’s October Nor’easter.  A firefighter in Easton was among the dead in the state.

…And the World:

With the Israeli election now in full swing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Foreign Minister Avgidor Lieberman plan to run on one party-line.  However, that may not get them any more seats.  Also in the mix are the possible returns of past contenders like Tzipi Livni who led the opposition in the Knesset until this year.

In Greece, an editor that published a list of potential tax scofflaws is facing trial.

Suspicion resurface in Poland after a now partially retracted report says that explosives were on the plane that crashed in 2010 and killed the President and several other high ranking Polish officials.  There were claims that a Russian conspiracy was responsible at the time.

The Feds:

We cannot help, but view Hurricane Sandy’s impact in any other vein, but the one in climate change.  We cannot ascribe any one storm to climate change, but we can connect it to rising sea levels.  This New York Times report tweeted by Chris Hayes, who also noted, at the time, Romney mocked fighting climate change at the Republican National Convention.  To his credit, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York called out Global climate change and its impact, as well as the need to prepare better for despite the cost.

Plus Not all government is bad.

Elsewhere in the campaign, Romney is out with a new attack saying that Chrysler plans to outsource Jeep manufacturing jobs to China.  The claim has been debunked and the Cleveland Plain Dealer went so far as to say the ploy was a sign of a desperate campaign, flailing to find a path to 270 electoral votes.  The Toledo Blade whose service area includes Jeep production facilities has had extensive coverage of this, including reminders of Romney’s “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” Op-Ed and assertions that Romney is not telling the truth.

And the myth of voter fraud.

Bay State of the Race:

Elizabeth Warren won some endorsements over the weekend from the Boston Globe, the Metrowest Daily News, the Attleboro Sun Chronicle and the Springfield Republican.  Not all are accessible without going through the pay wall, but each hits Brown in different ways while boosting Warren.  Brown has been endorsed by the Lowell Sun and the Worcester Telegram, the latter of the two displaying quite a bit of naivete (link available).

The Globe hits Brown for viewing the job as an exercise in political positioning and neglecting medical research.  The Daily News knocks Brown on obstructionism and the Sun Chronicle, whose area covers Brown’s Wrentham, says they cannot tell whether the real is the one that voted for Wall Street reform or that one that gut it.  Finally, in one of the best pieces from the Republican in some time, the Springfield paper of record endorses Warren for her credentials and her “spunk,” among other attributes during this campaign.

Warren also picked up the endorsement of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno who decried the negative tone of the race.  Although we have not always agreed with Sarno, we have never denied he does want what is best for the city and here he saw Warren as the best person to represent the city (and other urban places) in the Senate.  This means Warren has swept the endorsement of the mayors of the commonwealth’s four largest cities.  And don’t forget our endorsement!

Finally, Republicans are now fretting about Brown’s chances as more and more polling turns against him.

The State of Things:

Longmeadow, which has seen a jump in restaurants in recent months, adopted the meals tax of 0.75% at a special town meeting.  Still it raised complaints from some who called it an end-run around Proposition 2 ½.  For those interested, it is not.  This is exactly what it was intended to be, additional revenue for communities.

Wicked Local, a consortium of Metro Boston papers, details the possibility of a run for governor by Treasurer Steve Grossman in 2014.  The story says Grossman will begin to think about it after this year’s election, but political handicappers think a run by the Newton resident is very likely.

The Harvard Crimson looks at the relationship between Gay Politics and Republicans as Richard Tisei hopes to become the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress.

City Slickers:

Among many races, the Springfield Republican reports on races in the Ninth and Twelfth Hampden Districts.  In the Ninth, Democratic incumbent Sean Curran and Bob Underwood are both Springfield residents.  In the Twelfth, Democratic incumbent and city resident Angelo Puppolo faces Wilbraham resident D. John McCarthy.

Twitter Chatter:

I want to thank the President personally for all his assistance as w recover from the storm.

— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) October 30, 2012

Hurricane Sandy may have pummeled the Northeast, but it could not tame the Presidential election.  Perhaps for this reason, it makes compliments, effusive ones at that, of the President all the more notable.  Today we award the tweet prize to Romney surrogate New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  Earlier this month, Christie was bashing Obama for lacking leadership, but today he was praising the President’s work after the storm.  In fact, he was praising it so much that he was getting rebukes from Republicans.  We have generally like Christie’s approach or his policies, but he does have a tendency, when the chips are down and lives are on the line, the drop the partisan venom.  His tweet today is only further proof of that and for these reasons, he wins