Had a fine breakfast of discounted Halloween cupcakes I picked up late last night, in a momentary failure of self-respect. So I’ll be eating lite for lunch, but you shouldn’t have to unless you raided your kids’ candy stash. Here are some news bites:

* Jennifer Rubin appears to be laboring under the delusion that the Benghazi story is front-and-center in the minds of undecided low-information voters. When you are a hammer….

* In a very different corner of WaPo, Greg Sargent mulls the damage Chris Christie is doing to Romney’s “closing argument.”

* Speaking of Mitt, he’s now done the full flip-flop, and is not only willing to maintain FEMA’s existence but promises he wouldn’t cut its funding.

* And also: TNR’s Alec MacGillis laments the media’s failure to get Romney to release tax returns or a list of his fundraising “bundlers.”

* The Grand Game-Changing Sex Scandal conservatives have been buzzing about turns out (a) not to be about Obama as many wingnuts were hoping and (b) involves flimsy evidence of hooker-hiring by Sen. Bob Menendez.

And in non-political news:

* 27 Air Force Academy cadets injured in “first snowfall” ritual brawl. Isn’t the regular physical training tough enough?

Back after I atone for cupcakes with a quick walk.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.