We’re just a few short weeks away from the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, and suddenly it’s all getting very serious indeed.

On Wednesday (Oct. 3), President Barack Obama debated with Republican nominee Mitt Romney at the University of Denver, trading barbed remarks and facts (or “facts”, as some pundits have suggested of Romney) in a heated contest that could decide the next occupant of the Oval Office. But who won? How did Twitter react? What’s the word from the peanut gallery?

Salesforce Marketing Cloud partnered with Ignite Social Media to produce this infographic, which attempts to answer the question: who is the real Commander in Tweet?

The First Presidential Debate: Remixed

Politics breeds creative parody, and the response to this week’s Presidential debate is no exception. Some of the prime examples:

The Gregory Brothers did their thing, and autotuned the debate:

By Joe Tremblay *

As the presidential election heats up, Catholics in America are bound to weigh in and give their two cents worth.

A robust engagement in the political arena by Catholics has always been encouraged by the Church. With that encouragement, however, the Catholic Church makes the distinction between endorsements and denunciations; between officially supporting a political party and publicly condemning them.

The former is forbidden for good reason. But it should be noted that the Church reserves the right to denounce or condemn evil in the political world. To condemn one party or regime does not imply the endorsement of the alternative party or regime.

Historically the Church has condemned many civil rulers, political regimes and ideologies which proved themselves to be contrary to God’s law and the common good. During the twentieth century, for instance, the Catholic Church condemned the Communist governments of Mexico, Spain and the Russian Bolsheviks. In 1937 Pope Pius XI wrote an encyclical entitled, “On the Church and the German Reich” (or “Mit Brennender Sorge”). His condemnation of the Third Reich speaks to that ancient pagan error which held the State as supreme:

“Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community - however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things - whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.”

NEW YORK, NY (Ctaholic Online) - On the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, one day before he headed for Rome to participate in the historic Synod on the New Evangelization, Cardinal Timothy Dolan authored another outstanding column. It was one in a series he regularly pens for the "Catholic New York". The series is entitled "Lord, to Whom Shall We Go" and the article, entitled "Cherished Saint Brought Christ to World Around Him",

Our readers should be well aware of the leadership of this great Cardinal of the Church and the esteem with which he is held by this author. I write regularly about his courage and the clarity which he has brought to the leadership of the Conference of Bishops in the United States at this critical time in our history. You can click here to read the most recent of numerous articles I have written about the Cardinal Archbishop of New York. I have written many more and plan to continue the practice. He is one great gift to both Church and Nation.

However, though I share the Cardinal's appreciation for St. Francis, the little poor man of Assisi, I was concerned that the title of the Cardinal's recent column, dedicated to and written on the Feast of Francis, as well as its placement, might limit its readership. That would be tragic. The instruction and insights this column offers on the exercise of our faithful citizenship is simply too important! The concerns which the Cardinal shares must become the material out of which we approach this election and our own exercise of voting.

I offer below a portion of the Cardinals recent article for your serious and prayerful reflection as November 6, 2012 draws near.

*****
Timothy Cardinal Dolan

"Those Americans who have faith in God, and in His Son, Jesus, and venerate saints such as Francis, also find themselves in the middle of the world, and cherish our freedom to bring the teaching of Jesus, which we hear both in the Good News proclaimed in the Bible and in the life of Francis, to the public square and political process."