Good news, Democrats … Obama easily won the rubber match debate last night. And as a bonus, the president’s foreign policy poise coupled with Romney’s obvious lack of similar acumen will likely become a talking point for liberals and conservatives alike during the final 14 days.

“Obama succeeded because he conveyed his unique view of the world from the Oval Office,” according to Taegan Goddard of PoliticalWire. “For undecided voters watching, all they probably heard was that he’s the commander-in-chief. And that’s what Team Obama wanted.”

Goddard calls it “President Obama’s best moment in the campaign so far” and I think that’s a fair assessment.

Both the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report lead with stand alone Obama shots this morning. HuffPo headline: “Chief in Command” Drudge headline: “Grand Finale”

In an unnecessary attempt at balance, here was the best Politico’s lead piece could offer as far as positives about Romney’s performance: “But many Republicans – and some neutral commentators – believe Romney held his own in a difficult format. His aides think he passed the acceptability test and that Obama didn’t disqualify him (and Republicans desperate for a win were sighing deeply that Romney didn’t have any gaffes).”

The New York Times eviscerates Romney’s performance and campaign in an editorial this morning. And instant polls largely agreed that Obama won hands down.

But watch this video clip of Obama’s instant classic about horses and bayonets to see for yourself:

Speaking of debates, we get to see Senator Sheldon Whitehouse finally square off against his conservative carpetbagging challenger Barry Hinckley. I’m really looking forward to this debate as it pits a real progressive vision for the future against the ideas of Wall Street and the 1 percent.

Speaking of Wall Street …. the Journal’s Mike Riley profile falls a little flat, I’m sorry to say …. the candidate goes unquestioned in saying his experience as a Wall Street hedge fund manager makes him uniquely qualified to address the nation’s economic woes. Actually, it makes him uniquely unqualified to fix the economy. Electing a hedge fund manager to fix the economy would be like employing an arsonist to fight a fire!

That said, we’re even more disappointed with the profile of Abel Collins – his platform and biography are every bit as relevant to Rhode Islanders as is Riley’s, if not more so. (We also appreciate the ProJo mentioning RI Future in the piece!) While this website might endorse Langevin, we think it is very important that Rhode Islanders understand Collins’ politics. I’m pretty sure a plurality would largely agree with his philosophies.

This is great writing by Andy Smith on a story we covered yesterday: “The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation on Monday unanimously approved a state tax incentive for Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. that would reduce its corporate tax rate from 9 percent to 6.75 percent. How much the tax break will cost the state is still unknown.”

While we think it’s ridiculous that the ProJo invests so much effort reporting on the youthful indiscretions of the governor’s son, we fully stand behind the newspaper in its lawsuit against the State Police for records the police refuse to make public.

Notice in the four above pieces, the disparity in emotions the ProJo has riled in me already this morning! Now that’s a great newspaper! Us Rhode Islanders who love the ProJo should be demanding that Belo not cut any more resources from the single most important force in our local marketplace of ideas.

File this one under stuff only reporters care about: WPRO says Jim Hummel broke the PEDP story but this timeline indicates Dan McGowan was the first to report on the story.

It’s only 20 minutes long, and if you’re a voter in the Second Congressional District or a fan and/or pundit of politics (state or national, actually), it is well worth a watch. Collins may not be the most viable candidate in the race, but his ideas have great merit.

Here’s a link to WPRI’s debate, to compare and contrast.

Just in case, after Mike Riley berated not only Jim Langevin during the WPRI debate but also the moderators several times too, you needed any additional evidence that this guy can’t get along with anyone he gave it to you on the Dan Yorke show yesterday.

Riley actually had the audacity to berate Yorke this time, the host of the radio show he was appearing on … and he did so for, among other reasons, not asking him softball questions!

“What you really should be asking me is how is Rhode Island going to do better, that’s your job,” he said to Yorke. “My job is to make Rhode Island do better.”

Yorke was asking Riley about an inconsistency between him saying in 2010 that he didn’t believe in money in politics but this time around he clearly does as he is prepared to invest more than a million dollars running for Congress. Riley dismissed the question and called it a “gotcha” question.

The two verbally spar right from the get go, but it gets really heated at about 11:22 in the podcast – when Yorke asked him about the video we dug up of his 2010 campaign for state Senate.

Riley also offered some insight as to why he developed such nasty and untrue attack ads against Langevin.

“I was actually so naive politically as to believe that my ideas would come out through the radio station or through newspapers,” he said when asked why he changed his philosophy about money in elections, “but that actually didn’t happen. I’ve learned a lot about politics.”

He also offered a little insight into what he thinks of the press, too.

“All this side story and all this stuff you hear in the media means nothing,” he said when Yorke asked him what message he wants listeners to take away about him. “What we really need to do is get Rhode Island back on track. And what you need someone to do is get someone in there and work on the economy.”

I’m pretty sure Rhode Islanders – as well as Americans everywhere – don’t think we need Wall Street hedge fund managers like Riley doing any more work on our economy.

He organized a fantastic grassroots effort to petition the station to change its mind and include him on the stage. He also came up with a smart idea to effectively add himself to the debate by using free internet technology to stream live his debate answers after WPRI had spent probably tens of thousands of dollars to prerecord their debate.

In Collins’ live-streamed response, he spoke mostly of doing more for the middle class, government gridlock and holding Wall Street barons, like his Republican opponent Mike Riley, accountable for the damage their industry has inflicted on the working class. So did Jim Langevin. On big picture economic issues, he and Langevin are not that all that far apart – which makes them several universes removed from Riley, who’s more akin to Ron Paul than John Chafee.

He not only talked the talk of sticking up for regular Rhode Islanders, Collins also showed he knows how to walk the walk and use people power and proletarian tools to take on corporate interests.

That said, his campaign delivered their more than 1,100 signatures to WPRI after it held the debate, which took a some air out of the rally’s sails. And his live-streamed response was at best clunky (thanks in no small part to its media partner on the project – me!). It looked, as it was, homemade (so did Riley’s campaign productions in his pre-TV days). And his staff forgot to record his response, so there is no evidence of it.

Collins is perfectly in pitch with the progressive platform, and his would be a fantastic voice for Rhode Island in Congress, but he might not be ready for prime time. His energy and ideas would have been better used on a run at a State House seat.

The ProJo’s Randal Edgar summed up the contest between the two nicely by comparing it to the Cicilline/Doherty campaign. “The 2nd Congressional District candidates weren’t as combative or argumentative as their 1st District counterparts, but their responses during the WPRI-TV encounter showed that the political divide between them is just as wide.”

You can watch the full 60-minute debate here.

The news magnet that is the Cranston School Committee will consider at a meeting tonight outsourcing bus driver jobs in order to save money on buses, says Cranston Patch.

Speaking of downward spirals … the worse the economy gets, the more the state makes in gambling revenue.

David Cicilline is not only a GoLocal “mindsetter,” he’s also a US congressman … this morning he writes about how to bring manufacturing back to Rhode Island.

The Journal should be commended for its Publick Occurrences forum, the second in the series on the local economy is tonight. In fact, there’s been lots of good brainstorming about RI’s economic woes – which is great. While actions always speak louder than words, words can often incite actions … let’s hope that’s the case here in Rhode Island.

And here’s an economic development idea from a Wickford art gallery owner that would foster the kind of growth everyone in Rhode Island wants.

We’re the seventh most energy-efficient state! Last year we were fifth…

The state is trying to make it harder for patients to get access to medical marijuana, but the ACLU is trying to stop it from doing so.

Great headline, terrible story: Billionaire CEO Threatens To Fire Employees If Obama Wins.

Great editorial on the right wing conspiracy culture. By the way, the left isn’t immune from this either.

Today in 1917, improv jazz legend Thelonious Monk is born.

And in 1957, President Eisenhower apologizes to an African diplomat who was denied a meal based on his race at a Delaware restaurant … the rest of the black community is still waiting for its apology…

The Collins campaign will either livestream their candidates responses to the debate questions immediately after WPRI’s portion ends at 8 p.m. or it will release a You Tube video of their responses to the questions later that evening. Either way, you’ll be able to watch Collins participate in the CD2 debate on RI Future.

WPRI, which made an editorial decision to exclude Collins from its debate, taped the event earlier today. Collins has a rally planned at the station today at 5:30 to deliver a petition with more than 1,100 signatures asking for him to be included.

“I am disappointed that this debate was recorded earlier today, and we we’re not given the chance to deliver our petition to station management before the debate started, but it has been clear to us that WPRI/ FOX Providence never intended to have us on the stage next to our opponents,” Collins said in an email. “We will have our say and we will make our case to the voters in Rhode Island’s Second district.”

Campaign Manager Dave Fisher added, “It gives one pause that this debate is the only one in the series that was pre-recorded. It seems that the station management knew for some time that there would be public backlash to the exclusion of Abel from this debate. This entire process has been an affront to our democratic principles.”

Fisher added, “If Langevin and Riley had any integrity whatsoever, they would have boycotted the debate.”

Langevin did say he wanted Collins to participate in the debate.

In it, he says, among other things, “We need to have teachers willing to work extra days and extra hours for no more pay. But that’s just education reform. We have serious other issues here in Rhode Island, many of which aren’t outlined here and won’t be covered in this little speech.”

It’s still worth a watch though:

Here’s another video of Riley lamenting not receiving the endorsement of the Narragansett Town Republican Committee:

And here he is apparently lamenting not receiving the endorsement of Barack Obama:

And on this You Tube video about Wisconsin’s organized labor politics, he commented, “awesome…..can’t wait to meet them in the streets for some real collective bargaining.” It was flagged for being inappropriate, so it’s hard to find.

Wonder what he meant by that?

First Mike Riley was telling lies about Congressman Jim Langevin in TV commercials. Now, we’re pretty certain he’s telling lies about RI Future to other reporters. Or, it’s just another example of why  Mike “McCarthyism” Riley is totally unfit to represent Rhode Island in Congress (we’ll offer more evidence of as much a little later this morning).

Read Dee DeQuattro’s post about Riley this morning and decide which you think it is.

Riley and Langevin debate, without candidate Abel Collins, on WPRI tonight at 7. The market’s leading TV news station blundered big time in not including Collins in the debate, and exacerbated the mistake by not being forthcoming with their reasoning for doing so. Journalism should err on the side of inclusion and explanation and WPRI did neither with their responsibility to host this particular congressional debate. Such decisions deserve scrutiny and ace reporters Tim White, Ted Nesi and others who work there would be demanding nothing less if the subject wasn’t their employer.

For a man who says he possesses uncommon integrity, the ProJo Politifact team sure does catch Brendan Doherty telling a lot of lies. Today, they refute his accusation that Congressman Cicilline, when mayor of Providence, “espoused a sanctuary city.” Doherty has been poltifacted six times and half of those times he wasn’t telling the truth. He was given a half-true and a mostly true and only once was he said to be telling the full truth. This from a candidate whose campaign is based around his opponent being distrustful.

Admit it, you wish you were too high-brow to pay attention to them but Dan McGowan makes great lists. Today’s list shows which RI communities have the highest rates of unemployment and it looks a lot like lists of the communities with the worst budget situations as well as public school high-stakes testing results. What does that indicate? (Hint: it isn’t the unions fault)

Thanks to Ed Fitzpatrick for joining RI Future in calling for the town of Smithfield to change the name of a local road named after a KKK leader … it seemed like a no-brainder to us, too, and we kept waiting for the rest of the state to join the call. But evidently Rhode Islanders were too busy rallying against civil liberties and looking for frightened voters in attics to care…

The mortgage crisis in Rhode Island, in case you didn’t know, is a Gordian knot – meaning untangling the mess may prove impossible without a special solution. That solution looks like it could be loan modifications.

Is True the Vote committing a criminal conspiracy by suppressing voters rights?

Disappointed with our choices for State House seats? Just be glad you don’t live in Arkansas, where candidates garner headlines like this one: Legislative Candidate Endorses Death Penalty For Rebellious Children In Book

October 9 is a pretty significant day in the history of progressive and/or radical politics:

In 1635, Rhode Island founder Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

In 1940, John Lennon was born.

In 1967, Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia while trying to foment revolution there.

And in 1969, the National Guard breaks up protests related to the Chicago Eight trial. They were accused of inciting violence at the 1968 DNC Convention.

On a serious note – not that anything about Mike Riley’s campaign should be taken serious – his ads should disturb all Rhode Islanders regardless of where one falls on the political spectrum. They are blatantly either untrue or misleading and often both. One admonished Langevin for accepting a salary. Forget about how politically out-of-touch this ultra-conservative Wall Street apologist is with regular Rhode Islanders, he seems like an all-round bad person too.

Rhode Island is the first and only state in the nation to require health care workers to get flu shots. Can we hear from the local libertarians on this one, or are Rhode Island libertarians only libertarians when it comes to tax policy??

Smithfield might change the name of a local road named after a former KKK leader. Might? If they don’t change the name, it would be interesting to know why…

Progressives could lose a couple General Assembly seats this November, according to a list compiled by Dan McGowan.

LaSalle Bakery is doing a presidential poll … based on whether customers buy a Obama or Romney cookie. We’ve all got our systems.

The AP lists the states with the fiercest pension politics … remember way back when the ProJo did sky-is-falling front page story comparing our pension system to New York state’s? The Associated Press says New York boasts “has one of the healthier state pension systems in the country.”

A great Political Scene column in the ProJo this morning … many interesting tidbits. Same holds true for Ian Donnis’ new Friday feature.

I don’t often have opportunity to write this, but I find myself in agreement with the Journal’s editorial this morning … they are calling for hearings on the 38 Studios debacle.

As I’ve argued here, outside of being a member of a major political party, there’s no good reason why WPRI would include Mike Riley in its CD2 debate and not Abel Collins.

Unlike the ultra-conservative Riley, Collins espouses some pretty mainstream ideas. The independent wants citizens more involved in their government and corporations to be less involved. He wants to shift away from an economic policy that caters to the 1 percent to one that caters more toward the middle class.

Mike Riley, on the other hand, thinks people who believe in such policies are communists.

Tom Sgouros detailed as much in a post showing Riley’s correspondences with him when he was writing for the Narragansett Times.

But berating Sgouros isn’t the only time Riley has confused being progressive with being a communist. In July Ian Donnis quoted him as equating progressive political positions to “time-release communism.”

Calling progressives communists is as narrow-minded as it is mean-spirited. And it doesn’t bode very well for Riley’s potential to work across the isle.

But don’t expect much bipartisanship from the former Wall Street hedge fund manager. He once wrote in GoLocal, “Government exists to protect and preserve our individual freedoms and property rights so that we may pursue our dreams and our happiness. Real leaders will accept this limited role of government and seek to constrain its growth and influence over our lives.”

If this reads like creepy Ayn Rand weirdness that’s because it is. Riley is the worst kind of conservative: he espouses to be a libertarian but he’s really a tool for the corporate interests.

He won’t comment to RI Future, but here’s how Congressman Jim Langevin described him.

“Michael Riley clearly plans to go to Washington to fight for the wealthiest one percent of Americans,” said the incumbent. “He’s going to Washington clearly to fight for tax advantages for major corps and oil and gas companies. He’s going down there to support the Ryan budget. and he’s going down there to turn medicare into a voucher system.”

And here’s a comment from Abel Collin’s new campaign manager Dave Fisher:

“The fact that Mike Riley has not supported the inclusion of Abel in the WPRI debate is indicative of his hardline right-wing policies that would squelch free speech and many of our other rapidly eroding freedoms in the U.S. There is only one candidate in the race that offers a real option to the baton passing between the two major parties that goes on in Washington, and that is Abel Collins. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; the only difference between Democrats and Republicans is this: Republicans want to drive the bus toward Armageddon with the gas pedal on the floor. Democrats are willing to obey the speed limit.”

For more on Riley, listen to him on Political Roundtable this morning.