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(Continued from page 36)
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• Analysis: As Obama tries to fire up Dems, cool Romney pins his hopes on momentum; Ohio is key
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Mitt Romney is acting like a challenger who feels he has enough momentum and time to overtake the president by Election Day, two weeks from now.
• Judging from Monday's final debate, President Barack Obama almost seems to agree.
• Obama was clearly the more aggressive combatant in the 90-minute forum, whacking Romney's personal investment record, truthfulness and overseas fundraising. Romney, meantime, went out of his way to blunt his differences with the president on several key foreign policy matters -- supposedly the debate's focus -- and to appear calm, moderate and non-threatening.
• Romney's approach was one typically taken by front-runners: First, do no harm. Don't stir the pot. Keep the clock running.
• Obama's forcefulness appeared chiefly aimed at discouraged Democrats who might not bother voting, rather than at the sliver of undecided voters in the handful of states still in play. Romney is not the benign, acceptable alternative he claims to be, Obama seemed to be saying, and I, your president, am finally willing to fight tooth and nail for a second term after sleepwalking through the first debate, which triggered Romney's rise in the polls.
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Police: Man who shot 7 at Wis. spa bought gun 2 days after court order to turn in firearms
• MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Prompted by the fatal shooting rampage at a suburban Milwaukee spa, two local lawmakers are pushing legislation to tighten enforcement of gun rules in domestic violence cases.
• But it's unlikely their proposed changes would have prevented 45-year-old Radcliffe Haughton from buying a handgun just two days after his estranged wife obtained a restraining order against him. He used the gun to shoot seven women at the spa, killing his wife and two others, before fatally shooting himself.
• Still, Sen. Lena Taylor said the shooting highlights the need for better enforcement of laws that require restraining order recipients to surrender their weapons.
• "Across Wisconsin there are inconsistent standards, or sometimes none at all, for the collection of weapons owned by domestic abusers," the Milwaukee Democrat (Continued on page 38)
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