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September 27, 2012 | | RELIGIOUS VOTE According to a new poll, Barack Obama has surged ahead of Mitt Romney among Catholics 54 percent to 39 percent. The Daily Beast’s Andrew Sullivan on why the president owes his new lead to Romney, Paul Ryan, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan. CLEAR RED LINE In his speech at the United Nations Thursday, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu launched a scathing attack on what he calls “militant Islam,” and warned against the dangers of not drawing a clear red line on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. (In case of confusion, he brought out a diagram showing exactly where to draw that red line.) A nuclear Iran, he argued, would be no different from a nuclear al Qaeda. “Just imagine Iranian aggression with nuclear weapons … Who among you would feel safe in the Middle East? Who’d be safe in Europe? Who’d be safe in America? Who’d be safe anywhere?” Sanctions will not be enough, he said. Just prior to Netanyahu’s speech, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in east Jerusalem. Responding, Netanyahu said, “We won’t solve our conflict with libelous speeches.” THE COLLEGE BUBBLE Millions of grads are saddled with unpayable student loans, yet colleges still say loans are a sound investment. NYU professor Andrew Ross asks if it's time to stop repaying the loans. DISPLACED There are currently 300,000 Syrians who have been forced to flee to neighboring countries as violence ravages their homeland, and the UN High Commission warns that the number could more than double by the end of the year. “We’re running out of time,” UNCHR’s chief coordinator Panos Moumtzsis said Thursday, predicting that the number of refugees could reach 700,000. Humanitarian agencies have increased their call for aid to $487.9 million; so far, only $141.5 million in funding is available, just 29 percent of what will be needed. Meanwhile, more than 300 people were killed in districts east of Aleppo Thursday, making it the bloodiest day of the Syrian conflict thus far. Swing State The election just got real as Iowa kicked off its early voting Thursday. Voters in the swing state will be able to cast their ballot any time from now until Nov. 4—once again making Iowa the focus of both candidates’ campaigns. President Obama, who's leading Mitt Romney in the latest opinion polls out of the Hawkeye state, is kicking it into high gear, releasing a new, two-minute ad in which he tells voters what he would say “if I could sit down with you in your living room or around the kitchen table.” He also praised Iowans via The Des Moines Register saying, “There isn't a state that is better informed about politics.” | | 
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