What Speaker Boehner would do first — Matt Bai thinks Obama may have missed his Mt. Rushmore moment - Kinsley and Scarborough to write columns for POLITICO — Ceci Connolly to McKinsey  —  “THE PRESIDENT TAKES ON THE PASTOR” — PRESIDENT OBAMA on “Good Morning America,” …

Imam: Handling of Islamic center plan a matter of national security  —  (CNN) — The religious leader behind plans to erect an Islamic center and mosque a few blocks from New York's ground zero said Wednesday night that America's national security depends on how it handles the controversy.

FBI Says Retaliation for Koran Burning ‘Likely’  —  Intel Bulletin Cites ‘High Confidence’ of Backlash  —  The FBI is concerned that Islamic extremists might attack and retaliate at this Saturday's Koran burning planned by radical Florida pastor Terry Jones, ABC News has learned.

Wall Street fills coffers of top GOP candidates  —  Wall Street and financial interests are putting their money behind a handful of top-tier Senate Republican candidates as the GOP looks to win back power in the midterm elections.  —  The industry's contributions, which favored Democrats …

Murkowski Likely to Lose Leadership Spot if Campaign Continues  —  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will likely be forced out of her party leadership position should she decide to launch a write-in or third-party candidacy, a Senate Republican said Wednesday.  —  Murkowski, who conceded …

Biden: Bush deserves ‘a lot of credit’  —  Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday night said that former President George W. Bush deserves ‘a lot of credit’ for his handling of the initial Iraq war drawdown.  —  Speaking to Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, who conducted a rare …

Court Dismisses a Case Asserting Torture by C.I.A.  —  WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that former prisoners of the C.I.A. could not sue over their alleged torture in overseas prisons because such a lawsuit might expose secret government information.

Hatch: History will judge Clinton a better president than Obama  —  History will judge President Clinton more favorably than President Obama, a senior Republican senator charged Wednesday evening.  —  Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a 34-year veteran of the Senate, suggested that Clinton …

Florida College Shuts Down Conservative Event After Seeing Anti-Obama Literature (Video)  —  It begins... School officials at Palm Beach State College kicked members of the Young America's for Freedom off campus after they saw anti-Obama literature at their table.  —  It was offensive.

Health Outlays Still Seen Rising  —  The health-care overhaul enacted last spring won't significantly change national health spending over the next decade compared with projections before the law was passed, according to government figures set to be released Thursday.

Whatever Happened to Obama's Army?  —  What happened to Barack Obama's once vaunted political machine?  The outfit that put upwards of 8 million volunteers on the street in 2008 — known as Organizing for America — is a ghost of its former self.  Its staff has shrunk from 6,000 to 300 …

Report: Castro says Cuban model doesn't work  —  HAVANA - Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's communist economic model doesn't work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.

DNC Chair: Gibbs ‘had a bad day’  —  Democratic National Committee chairman and former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine on Wednesday said that White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was having “a bad day” when he lambasted the “professional left” in an interview with The Hill last month.

Marco Rubio Holds Double-Digit Lead in Senate Race  —  GOP candidate even beats Crist among independent voters, poll finds  —  Republican Marco Rubio, garnering surprising strength among independent voters, holds a double-digit lead over his two chief rivals in Florida's U.S. Senate race, a new Sunshine State News Poll reports.

Jerry Brown: 'I Have a Plan, I'll Tell You After the Election'  —  While speaking to business leaders in Silicon Valley, California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown announces that he has a plan for the State's fiscal crisis, but he won't reveal it until after the election.

The Keynesian experiment  —  It's become common to hear Republicans saying that Democrats' “Keynesian experiment,” or in Paul Ryan's case, their “Neo-Keynesian economic experiment,” has failed.  You'd think that Keynesian economics was a big divide between the parties.  But it wasn't and it's not.

Super PACs Flourish to Influence U.S. Vote After Companies Freed to Give  —  At least 25 “super PACS,” including one linked to Karl Rove, are fueling a surge in money for this year's elections following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down limits on corporate campaign spending.

CHART OF THE DAY: A Huge Chunk Of The Old Stimulus Hasn't Even Hit The Economy Yet  —  Despite talk about how the U.S. economy will soon lose the support of economic stimulus, or that stimulus 'hasn't worked', U.S. fiscal stimulus for the economy is far from finished, and this doesn't even consider additional measures being debated.

Emanuel moves event for Rep. Halvorson, prompting speculation  —  Illinois Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D) was planning to get some fundraising help from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Sunday.  But the event has been rescheduled amid growing speculation Emanuel is planning to run for mayor of Chicago.

EXCLUSIVE: Whistleblower Claims Many U.S. Interpreters Can't Speak Afghan Languages  —  Says Translators Failed Language Tests, Were Still Embedded With US Troops In Afghanistan  —  More than one quarter of the translators working alongside American soldiers in Afghanistan failed language proficiency exams …

9/11 widow: The media duped us  —  As I watch other victims argue over Park51, I feel like reporters turned us into the experts we never were  —  The first time I heard about the Park51 Islamic community center was on May 6, 2010, when I received the following e-mail from a New York TV reporter: