Councilwoman Tish James (Photo: Facebook)

Councilwoman and candidate for Public Advocate Tish James wants an apology from the Fox News host who suggested rapes do not occur on college campuses during an appearance on the roundtable show The Five.

"Questioning whether rapes happen on college campuses is deeply offensive to all, especially those who have suffered irreparable harm as a result of these vicious crimes," Ms. James said in a statement. "Furthermore, when the very existence of rape is challenged in a public forum, such as a widely-viewed cable news channel, it discourages the reporting of an already under-reported crime."

Bob Beckel, one of the quintet of co-hosts on The Five, sparked a major controversy with his remarks, which he made during a discussion of a Colorado bill that would allow women to carry concealed weapons on college campuses to prevent sexual assaults.

"When was the last time you heard about a rape on campus?" Mr. Beckel asked.

The other co-hosts immediately challenged Mr. Beckel's remark and, in the end, the panel concluded women should indeed be armed on campus. However, Ms. James still wants to see an apology from Mr. Beckel and the network.

"Bob Beckel and Fox News should immediately apologize for Mr. Beckel’s outrageous and offensive comments," said Ms. James. "They have no place on the public airwaves or anywhere else in our society."

David Axelrod (Photo: Twitter)

President Barack Obama's longtime strategy guru David Axelrod has signed on for a post-campaign gig as a "senior political analyst" for NBC News and MSNBC. Mr. Axelrod previously served as a senior strategist for President Obama in the 2008 and 2012 campaigns. During the president's first term, he was on the White House staff as a senior advisor.

Mr. Axelrod joins several other big names in NBC and MSNBC's stable of political analysts. His counterpart from the 2008 campaign, former advisor to John McCain Steve Schmidt, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele and former Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell all work as analysts for MSNBC. Mr. Axelrod is the only one in this group who will be working for the NBC's traditional broadcast news operation as well as the more left-leaning, opinionated MSNBC cable channel. Another former Obama administration official, ex-Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, also signed on to do double-duty as a contributor to both NBC News and MSNBC last month.

MSNBC isn't the only cable channel that has signed on new recruits from the political world in the aftermath of last year's election cycle. Last week, Fox News announced the hiring of both former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and former presidential candidate Herman Cain as contributors to the network.

Gerson Borrero and State Senator Ruben Diaz in their respective hats.

The latest edition of State Senator Ruben Diaz's periodic "What You Should Know" email columns contained an attack against Gerson Borrero, a NY1 contributor and columnist for the Spanish-language newspaper El Diario. In his email, Mr. Diaz accused Mr. Borrero of lying about him, having a "deep obsession" with him and even "trying to imitate my dressing style."

"There are some people who, when they fall in love or feel envious, may easily feel rejected. Any real or perceived rejection could bring them to the edge of absurdity. Sometimes they even become liars," Mr. Diaz wrote. "This seems to be true in the case of Mr. Gerson Borrero, a reporter, who has issues with me. If you read or hear Mr. Borrero’s writings or commentaries about me, you might think this individual has a deep obsession with me."

Mr. Borrero had some harsh words of his own for Mr. Diaz when Politicker called him to discuss the column this morning.

"I'm not particularly obsessed with him like he suggests," said Mr. Borrero. "I'm definitely not enamored with him. I don't like him, I've never had such bad taste. I think he's an ugly person, not physically, he is an ugly human being. I think he is Lucifer personified."

Mr. Diaz and Mr. Borrero have sparred with each other in the past. This latest spat started over Mr. Diaz's opposition to Governor Andrew Cuomo's selection of Jenny Rivera to serve as a judge on the state Court of Appeals. When the governor's pick was announced, Mr. Diaz, who is a Democrat, sided with Republicans in the Legislature who criticized Ms. Rivera as lacking the necessary experience to serve on the state's highest court. Mr. Borrero traveled to Albany to back Ms. Rivera and attacked Mr. Diaz's decision to oppose her on the airwaves.

"Mr. Borrero’s envy of and obsession about me has taken him to the extreme. He’s clearly in the pits, and he can’t seem to stop himself from throwing poison darts at me. He refers to me as Satan, as Lucifer, as a viper, and has even asked if I am homosexual. Whoever listens to him might get the impression that he is in love with me," Mr. Diaz wrote. "This past week, Mr. Borrero traveled all the way to the Senate Chamber in the State Capital in Albany with a group of people and reporters from the city to show their support for the nomination of Ms. Jenny Rivera. ... My dear readers, you should know that Mr. Borrero has reached one of his lowest points of desperation (and absurdity) when he--with full knowledge and premeditation--lied straight into the TV camera this week."

According to Mr. Diaz, Mr. Borrero incorrectly suggested he "did not mention a single woman" when he named other people who were more qualified for the court appointment than Ms. Rivera. Mr. Diaz also said Mr. Borrero incorrectly referred to him as "the only Democrat who voted against Ms. Jenny Rivera."

"In the official Senate video, I never said that I was voting against her. She won, and since the vote was a voice vote, nobody knows who voted for and who voted against," explained Mr. Diaz. "There is a clear difference between a voice vote and a roll call vote. It’s time for someone to try to educate Mr. Gerson Borrero and tell him that it was a voice vote and not a roll call vote, and suggest to him that the next time, he should pay less attention to his obsession with me, and more time to what I actually say."

For his part, Mr. Borrero, acknowledged Mr. Diaz did suggest some women who could be appointed to the post, but said he was highlighting the fact the senator mainly focused on men in his list of potential judicial nominees. In a "What You Should Know" email sent out last week, Mr. Diaz proposed nine alternative nominees, four of whom were women. However, Mr. Borrero also said the three most well-known and realistic candidates suggested by Mr. Diaz were all men.

As far as the confirmation vote, Mr. Borrero said a roll call vote was not taken because Ms. Rivera has a clear majority and accused Mr. Diaz of trying to hide his opposition to Ms. Rivera behind the secretive voice vote.

"It was a voice vote and he says he didn't vote for or against her. He is a coward. He is a liar," said Mr. Borrero. "He doesn't have the cojones to say, 'I voted against her.' He vilified her. He insulted her. He minimized the fact of her achievements. ... He's entitled to oppose her. Why is he denying it now? He said he was going to vote against her."

During our conversation, Mr. Borrero repeatedly told us we should print all of the most off-color phrases he used to describe Mr. Diaz and said he wanted to be "as insulting as possible."

"He's a viper that lives in a latrine and his mouth is the latrine," Mr. Borrero said of the senator, adding, "He smells bad."

Though Mr. Diaz's email was primarily inspired by his disagreements with Mr. Borrero's commentary on Ms. Rivera's confirmation, he also accused the columnist of attempting to copy his ideas. He pointed out the title of his email column series "What You Should Know" is similar to the title of Mr. Borrero's segments on NY1 Noticias, which air under the banner "Para Que Lo Sepas," which means "For You to Know" in English.

"Not only is he trying to imitate me in his column with his writings, but also--walking through the New York State Senate hallways with a cowboy hat perched on his head--he’s now trying to imitate my dressing style!" wrote Mr. Diaz. "I guarantee you that his obsession with me made him the laughing stock of Albany when everyone in the Senate came running to me to tell me: 'You have to go outside and see for yourself how Borrero is trying to be like you!'"

Mr. Borrero said he has been doing his "Para Que Lo Sepas" segments "for years" and described the name as having been picked by producers at NY1. He also vigorously defended the originality of his headwear.

"I've been wearing hats for so long," Mr. Borrero said. "I wear fedoras by the way, I've never worn cowboy hats. ... I've been wearing hats forever. He just started wearing hats to cover his bald spot."

To bolster his argument, Mr. Borrero sent us a picture of part of his hat collection and a photo of the hat he said he wore on his visit to Albany this week.

Though he clearly disagrees with almost everything in Mr. Diaz's latest email, Mr. Borrero conceded the missive was well-written. However, he doesn't think Mr. Diaz deserves credit for the composition.

"He's got a great writer, whoever writes for him, because he's incapable of putting a sentence together in Spanish or English," said Mr. Borrero. "I know that for a fact."

Mr. Borrero also accused Mr. Diaz of spending his time on columns that "vilify his opponents" rather than his senate duties.

"I do have a problem with him writing on the peoples' time," Mr. Borrero said. "I'm just surprised that an elected official has time to use the peoples' money for this type of nonsense."

Lena Dunham (Photo: Twitter)

Lena Dunham, the star and creator of HBO's zeitgeisty comedy Girls, took to Twitter this afternoon to fight back against reports she did not vote in the presidential election last year despite filming a controversial ad urging others to cast a ballot for President Barack Obama. According to officials at the Board of Elections in Brooklyn, Ms. Dunham's claim she voted by affidavit ballot may have merit.

Last night, the Room Eight blog reported "a Lena Dunham ... registered in Brooklyn did not vote in the 2012 general election or in any local elections since she moved from her prior address in Tribeca." Gawker also noted it seemed like Ms. Dunham may have been on vacation in India during the election. In a series of tweets this afternoon, Ms. Dunham shot down the reports and said she flew back to New York to vote and submitted an affidavit ballot at her old polling place in Manhattan.

"Hey kids, some people on the internet are saying I didn't vote. Some of them are still mad I used a sexy metaphor re: voting. Read on: I did vote. I tried to get an absentee ballot but, because our nation's voting system is a steampunk cornmaze, it didn't arrive," Ms. Dunham wrote. "So not to be a martyr about it but I flew to New York to vote. I wasn't sure if my change of address had officially been registered so... ...I went to my old polling place with my dad, where they let me vote by affidavit (what was totally allowed.)"

Two Board of Elections officials told Politicker that, because of the executive order issued by Governor Andrew Cuomo in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, New York City voters were permitted to use affidavit ballots at any location in the state. Though Ms. Dunham's voter history file does not show her as having participated in the election, the BOE said they are "still working on the voter history for last year's elections" and do not have complete information for everyone who submitted affidavit ballots in the presidential election. Records show Ms. Dunham, an unaffiliated voter, cast a ballot in the 2008 presidential election and successfully changed her registration's address to Brooklyn at a later date.

For her part, Ms. Dunham finished her attempt to shoot down the reports about her vote with a characteristically sarcastic reference to her public support of President Obama.

"Obviously I voted for Romney. I hope everyone has a nice day," she wrote.

Barack Obama and Jon Stewart earlier today. (Photo: Getty)

Earlier this evening, President Barack Obama sat down with Jon Stewart to tape an extended, fourteen minute interview for The Daily Show set to air later tonight. While we don't know everything that was said, a good portion of the discussion was included in a recently-distributed White House pool report.

Mr. Stewart began by declaring he's making a campaign scrapbook, and he showed Mr. Obama two pictures and said they came from the presidential debates. As the pool report put it, "One showed Michelle Obama looking at him very angrily onstage afterward, and the other showed her smiling broadly at him afterward."

“Do you know which debate was which?” Mr. Stewart asked.

“Cute, cute Jon,” Mr. Obama said as he smiled.

They went on to discuss the president's varying debate performances, where Mr. Obama admitted he had an "off night" with the first verbal contest before launching into his traditional attack against his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, for supporting the same economic policies "that got us into this mess in the first place."

Mr. Stewart next asked Mr. Obama if he was making the case for himself or against Mr. Romney in this election, causing Mr. Obama to cite ending the Iraq War and reforming the health care system as among his accomplishments. Nevertheless, Mr. Obama said, although he has a “strong story to tell,” part of his job is “also preventing things that won’t work.”

Mr. Obama also blasted  Republicans refusing  to ask “millionaires and billionaires to pay another dime in extra taxes,” causing Mr. Stewart to sarcastically interject, “Wait, this is the first time I’m hearing about this about millionaires. What are you doing to us?”

The audience laughed and Mr. Obama tried to calm Mr. Stewart's "mock concern."

“No,” Mr. Stewart stated, “I’m going to throw to a commercial and you and I are going to have a conversation.” He then threw it to a commercial break.

The second segment began with Mr. Stewart asking Mr. Obama how frequently Vice President Joe Biden arrives in meetings with a wet bathing suit.

"We had to stop that," Mr. Obama replied. “I gotta say though he looks pretty good."

Mr. Obama added he had to issue a presidential directive to fix that particular habit of Mr. Biden's.

The full pool report, which includes notes from Mr. Obama speaking seriously on the topic of the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi and reiterating his vow to close down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, can be found in its rough form below:

Potus sat for two segments with Jon Stewart of roughly seven minutes apiece, broken up by a commercial break. Among the highlights, Stewart pressed Potus on his national security approach and the handling of the Benghazi attacks.

On Benghazi, Potus said: "Every piece of information that we get, as we got it we laid it out to the American people. The picture eventually gets fully filled in." Potus also said: "Here’s what I’ll say. When four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal. We’re going to fix it. All of it." More: "The government is a big operation and any given time something screws up. And you make sure that you find out what’s broken and you fix it. Whatever else I have done throughout the course of my presidency the one thing that I’ve been absolutely clear about is that America’s security comes, and the American people need to know exactly how I make decisions when it comes to war, peace, security, and protecting Americans. And they will continue to get that over the next four years of my presidency"

When asked about the tradeoff between national security and civil liberties, Potus reiterated his vow to close Guantanamo. And when asked about political gridlock in Washington, Potus said he hoped that more Democrats are elected to win more seats. He also joked about Biden and other topics. More details below:

He sat across from Stewart at the interview desk with two blue mugs on it. Obama did not remove the lid from his. The president spoke on topics ranging from the choice between him and Romney to the political gridlock in Washington to Benghazi to Guantanamo.

Before Potus came out, Stewart opened with a monologue making fun of how the media spun the debate in relation to women voters and how turned off said voters were supposed to be by the rough and tumble nature of the debate. Stewart juxtaposed Obama talking about being raised by a single mom with Romney’s “binder full of women” quote. He flashed a mock magazine called “Jobsmopolitan,” and gave Chuck Todd a shout out during the segment. He brought out Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee, who played along and said women were going to pick their candidate with a “final rose … like on the Bachelorette.”

Potus came out after the first break wearing his pink wrist band, and he immediately gave a shout out to “some amazing women warriors” from the USO who were in the audience. “I had nothing to do with this” he said. Then Stewart said he was making a campaign scrapbook and showed Obama two pictures of the debate but wasn’t sure which was which. One showed Michelle Obama looking at him very angrily onstage afterward, and the other showed her smiling broadly at him afterward. “Do you know which debate was which?” Stewart asked.

“Cute. Cute Jon,” Potus said with a smile.

Obama said he had an “off night” at the first debate, adding that the “presentation was not the way it needed to be.” But he said the issues were the same in both debates. “Governor Romney makes a good presentation but the fundamentals he’s calling for are the same policies that got us into this mess.”

Stewart asked if had made a stronger affirmative case for a second term or more negative one against Romney. Potus listed his accomplishments such as ending the Iraq war, health care, the auto bailout and said he had a “strong story to tell” but he added that part of his job was “also preventing things that won’t work.” He listed restricting rights for gays and lesbians, not passing a budget to make college more affordable and rolling back health care and turning medicade into a voucher system.

“ I’m convinced when the middle class does well, the entire economy does well. When a few folks are doing well at the top… the economy grows slower. That is the central issue in this election.”

Potus said the economy would be growing “even faster” if Romney’s “allies in Congress” would approve

Stewart pressed him on why he thinks he can move forward next term if the GOP continues its obstinance to his agenda. Potus replied that he wants to “make sure as many Democrats are elected as possible. Maybe we can take some seats back.” And he also said that if you look at 2013, the question on deficit reduction will be “settled,” the only question was how to do it and whether Republicans would refuse to ask “millionaires and billionaires to pay another dime in extra taxes.”

Stewart interjected: “Wait, this is the first time I’m hearing about this about millionaires. What are you doing to us?” The audience laughed as Potus tried to calm his mock concern. “No,” Stewart continued, “I’m going to throw to a commercial and you and I are going to have a conversation.”
He threw to a commercial.

The second segment started with a light question: How many times a week does Biden come into a meeting in wet bathing suit. POTUS answered that he had to put out a presidential directive on that.

"We had to stop that," he said dryly, adding: “I gotta say though he looks pretty good.”

Stewart than asked about POTUS record in terms of the trade-off between upholding U.S. values and ensuring our security.

POTUS said: "I still want to close Guantanamo. We haven’t been able to get that through Congress. ... One of the things we have to do is put a legal architecture in place, and we need Congressional help to do that so that not only am I reined in but any president’s reined in in terms of some of the decisions we’re making.”
He pointed to his track record in prosecuting terrorism.

"We’ve gone after al Qaeda and its leadership. It’s true that al Qaeda is still active, at least sort of remnants of it are staging in other parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Sometimes you’ve got to make some tough calls but you can do so in a way that’s consistent with international law and with American law."

Stewart asked about the Bush wiretapping program. POTUS said it has been modified, with a "legal structure and safeguards in place that weren't there before."

"They aren't sexy issues," POTUS said.

"You don’t know what I find sexy," Stewart quipped.

POTUS alluded to the opening segment in which Stewart referenced the book "50 Shades of Gray."

"I know what you’ve been reading," he joked. But declined to press further because, after all, he is still president.

Stewart asked about the Benghazi attack, and "confusion in the administration"

POTUS answered that "we weren’t’ confused about the fact that four Americans had been killed. I wasn’t confused about the fact that we needed to ramp up diplomatic security around the world right after it happened. I wasn’t confused about the fact that we had to investigate exactly what happened so it gets fixed. And I wasn’t confused about the fact that we’re going to hunt down whoever did it."

As he said in the debate, POTUS said no one is more interested in figuring it out than he is.

"Every piece of information that we get, as we got it we laid it out to the American people. The picture eventually gets fully filled in."

Stewart asked if part of learning fromt his is improving the communication between divisions, having referenced Ambassador Rice at the UN seeming to be reading from a different script than State.

POTUS: "Here’s what I’ll say. When four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal. We’re going to fix it. All of it." More: "The government is a big operation and any given time something screws up. And you make sure that you find out what’s broken and you fix it. Whatever else I have done throughout the course of my presidency the one thing that I’ve been absolutely clear about is that America’s security comes, and the American people need to know exactly how I make decisions when it comes to war, peace, security, and protecting Americans. And they will continue to get that over the next four years of my presidency"

Stewart ended by asking, during the course of their 12-14 minutes together, how many emails POTUS' campaign sent him.

"It depends on whether you’ve maxed out!" POTUS answered.

Ended with a bit of stump about how the stakes could not be bigger. "There is no excuse not to vote," he said, and he hopes they vote for him.

Pool was quickly ushered out and into the vans. Motorcade moved quickly to Waldorf Astoria, where we are waiting several hours in a hold. Potus is meeting privately with campaign donors.

A screengrab from the "October Surprise" site. (Photo: OctSurprise.com)

Earlier, a mysterious website popped up online promising to reveal an election "October Surprise" document drop showing that one of the "presidential candidates isn't being honest." The site is nothing but a countdown clock and accompanying Twitter account promising all will be revealed at 5:30 p.m. on October 22. On Twitter, the unknown people behind the site have claimed they're "not at liberty to say which campaign this affects, just yet" and that the site "has the propensity to turn this election from a nail-biter into the biggest electoral landslide." They have also posted tantalizing blurry photos of documents to back up their claims. Politicker was able to identify at least two people involved with this secretive "October Surprise," and we spoke with one of them earlier this afternoon.

Jeff Hopwood is a developer based in the Midwest. We connected him to the "October Surprise" through the BuzzFeed account used to post the blurred documents tweeted by the "Surprise" site. That account, WIOWSA, was previously used to post a link to another website, Partislator, that tracks other political tweets. That post has since been deleted. A Daily Kos contributor named "partislator" also promoted a site called WhatIsOccupyWallStreetAbout.com, which has since been deactivated but was registered with Mr. Hopwood's email address and phone number. When we called Mr. Hopwood today, he confirmed he was involved with the "October Surprise" site, Partislator and WhatIsOccupyWallStreetAbout.com, but he denied knowing anything about the coming document drop.

"I'm slightly involved," Mr. Hopwood said. "I work more on the tech end of things."

Mr. Hopwood said that, in spite of his past work on Occupy-related sites, the "October Surprise" site is not connected with Occupy Wall Street.

"It's nothing involved in Occupy. We ended up using a BuzzFeed account because of last minute type things, and that account had some other things on it," said Mr. Hopwood adding that the other activity has since been removed.

According to Mr. Hopwood, the "October Surprise" site was the work of "a group of developers that I'm friends with," one of whom had been contacted to create the site by a third party. Mr. Hopwood claimed not to know anything about the people who asked him and his friends to make the site. His only stipulation for them was that the documents that will be revealed cannot be hosted on his server along with the site, because he claims not to know their contents.

"I don't know the identity. I don't know anything, political affiliation or anything like that," he said. "Myself, like I said, I'm kind of limited involvement, and I'm trying to figure out what is going on myself, because it's on my servers."

There has been some speculation that the site may be part of a viral marketing campaign. Mr. Hopwood said he thinks this may be true because he and his friends were asked to put together the site fairly quickly, and he believes a political group would have been "more professional."

"I tend to think it might be some type of marketing thing because of the way they contacted us," said Mr. Hopwood, adding that he and the other developers put the site together in "like a half an hour."

Mr. Hopwood's hunch isn't the only indication that the "October Surprise" site may be connected to a viral marketing effort. According to his LinkedIn page, Mr. Hopwood is a "Creative/Technical Developer" at Discovery Communications, which runs the Discovery Channel and other associated TV networks. A reverse IP address check for the site shows it is connected to the IP address of another site called "Pausetime.com," which was registered by Anthony Maro, who is identified on LinkedIn as a "Senior UI Developer at Discovery Communications."

Discovery's Animal Planet channel is currently promoting a mock pet election, and others have already speculated the "October Surprise" may be connected to this campaign. When we identified Mr. Hopwood's employment and the site's connection to Mr. Maro, we called him back to ask if the "October Surprise" is tied to Animal Planet.

"Yeah, this definitely has nothing to do with that at all. This is my own--no, yeah, I mean, it's just a coincidence. That has nothing to do with Discovery at all, I promise you, " Mr. Hopwood said, adding that he thinks Mr. Maro "is just one of the other developers who use the server."

We reached out to Animal Planet spokesman Matthew Windsor to ask if the network is involved with the "October Surprise." He claimed not to be aware of the site and promised to get back to us with more information once he was able to "check with our digital team."

Discovery isn't the only connection between Mr. Hopwood and Mr. Maro. In an internet concert forum, the pair was identified as being behind a 2007 countdown hoax site that promised the release of a new Radiohead album but instead revealed a message containing the lyrics to Rick Astley's 1987 song "Never Gonna Give You Up," which is often sent to people who are expecting something else in a common internet prank known as "Rickrolling."

"THE MOST GIGANTIC LYING HOAX OF ALL TIME," the site said. "How to RICKROLL 21,232 people at once. REAL LP7 coming soon!"

The post naming Mr. Maro and Mr. Hopwood as responsible for the Radiohead hoax was deleted last night by a user identified as "Anthony Maro" in his profile.

In many ways, Mr. Maro and Mr. Hopwood's long digital trail reveals as many questions as it does answers about the roots of the "October Surprise" site. The pair has been involved in cable television sites, digital hoaxes and the creation of political sites. Only time will tell which category this "October Surprise" falls under. Whatever it is, the site certainly has generated quite a lot of attention.

"In the first two days, we had roughly 500 hits. Yesterday, we had something like 24,000 unique visits," Mr. Hopwood said. "Today, it's exploded. Wer'e somewhere around 100,000 now."

Update (10/19/12 12:36 p.m.): A few hours after they were outed, the people behind the "October Surprise" site published a note admitting they were indeed planning a Rickroll prank.

Accordingly, a clearly disappointed Nickelodeon sent out a press release earlier today announcing President Barack Obama's presence in the station's Kids Pick the President special next week. However, one major White House contender will be absent. "After numerous attempts by Nick News to get former Governor Mitt Romney to participate in the special, his camp declined, saying he was unable to fit it into his schedule," the statement explained.

“By answering kids’ questions directly, candidates show respect for kids,” Nick News host Linda Ellerbee said, piling on. “We are disappointed that Mitt Romney wouldn’t take the time to answer the questions, but are thrilled that President Obama participated in the special.”

In the program, Mr. Obama will answer children's questions about gun control, jobs, illegal immigration,  gay marriage, outsourcing, bullying, obesity and other topics. Responding to an inquiry as to what his most embarrassing moment was, Mr. Obama did not point to his hot mic moment with outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, but rather walking into unmovable objects.

“Running into the wall is par for the course for me,” he answered. “I’m running into doors and desks all the time.”

Lena Dunham (Photo: Getty)

Lena Dunham, the star of HBO's hipster coming-of-age comedy Girls, has already dabbled in film, magazine writing and literature, but she seems to increasingly be adding local political activism to her resume. Last night, Ms. Dunham took to Twitter to express her support for the Paid Sick Days bill, which many politicos believe has been unfairly stalled by Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

"I'm always sick or convinced I'm sick. A flu shouldn't cost you your job. That’s why I support #paidsickdays U Can 2," Ms. Dunham wrote before including a link to an online petition asking Ms. Quinn to allow the bill to come to a vote on the floor of the City Council.

This isn't Ms. Dunham's first Twitter-fueled foray into local politics. In July, Ms. Dunham encouraged her followers to attend a series of dinners hosted by the liberal PAC Downtown 4 Democracy, which is dedicated to unseating a targeted list of Tea Party congressional incumbents. She also extended her support for Downtown 4 Democracy beyond the digital realm and actually attended one of the events in person.

Ms. Dunham's political causes have probably-not-coincidentally coincided with the interests of her close friend Audrey Gelman, who is the press secretary for Manhattan borough president and potential 2013 mayoral candidate Scott Stringer. Ms. Gelman sits on Downtown 4 Democracy's board and her boss is a staunch supporter of the paid sick days legislation.

Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama on stage for the presidential debate in Denver. (Photo: Getty)

According to preliminary Nielsen numbers, about 39.97 million total viewers watched the first presidential debate on the broadcast networks last night. The debate was also carried by cable news outlets, but those numbers are not yet available. Once the cable audience is included, this should put last night's debate in contention to match or slightly beat the audience for the first presidential debate of 2008, which was watched by about 52.4 million total viewers including the cable channels. However, it will be hard for this debate to match the highest-rated matchup of the 2008 cycle--the vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, which was watched by 69.9 million people and ranks as the second most viewed debate ever. 

Out of the broadcast networks, CBS had the biggest audience for the debate with an audience of 10.176 million viewers, slightly edging ABC's 10.117 total viewers. On NBC, the debate was seen by 9.914 million total viewers and 6.977 million total viewers tuned in for the debate on Fox. The Spanish-language channel Univision had an audience of 2.79 million total viewers for the debate.

On all of the English language networks except Fox, the debate performed best among the older adults 50-and-over demographic. Fox's debate coverage scored highest with women aged 18 to 34. However, Fox's audience was probably the most atypical of the broadcast channels as Fox uses Fox News Channel hosts and many viewers who wished to see the FNC talent most likely tuned in on cable where Fox generally earn's the lion's share of the primetime audience.

Tim Bishop's record of failure apparently needs to end. (Photo: YouTube)

This morning, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce officially set its sights on six congressional races across New York State and launched ads in each of them. Stretching from Long Island to Buffalo, the broadcast barrage attacks Democratic congressional incumbents Tim Bishop, Kathy Hochul, Bill Owens and Louise Slaughter, and attempts to beat back Democratic candidates Sean Patrick Maloney and Dan Maffei.

The size of the ad buy wasn't immediately available, but the Chamber launched a significant $3.3 million campaign for California Republicans last week, so their New York  has the potential to be sizable.

The move is the latest sign New York, despite its staunchly blue status in the presidential race, will be a pivotal battleground for control of the U.S. House this November. Republicans gained more seats in the Empire State than anywhere else in the United States during 2010's Tea Party wave, and with a court-drawn redistricting map scrambling the boundaries for incumbents of both parties, plenty of additional outside spending is sure to come.

View the ads below.

Against Long Island Rep. Tim Bishop:

Against Western New York Rep. Kathy Hochul:

Against Rochester Rep. Louise Slaughter:

Against North Country Rep. Bill Owens:

Against Syracuse candidate Dan Maffei:

Against Hudson Valley candidate Sean Patrick Maloney: