Obama in Close Race Against Romney, Perry, Bachmann, Paul  —  Romney has slight edge over Obama, Bachmann slightly lags  —  PRINCETON, NJ — President Barack Obama is closely matched against each of four possible Republican opponents when registered voters are asked whom they would support …

Statement by the President on Libya Blue Heron Farm, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts  —  THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody.  I just completed a call with my National Security Council on the situation in Libya.  And earlier today I spoke to Prime Minister Cameron about the extraordinary events taking place there.

FCC finally kills off fairness doctrine  —  The FCC gave the coup de grace to the fairness doctrine Monday as the commission axed more than 80 media industry rules.  —  Earlier this summer FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski agreed to erase the post WWII-era rule, but the action Monday puts …

Sharma to step down as S&P president  —  Deven Sharma is stepping down as president of Standard & Poor's only weeks after the rating agency issued an unprecedented downgrade of the credit of the US, the company said.  —  Mr Sharma will remain as an adviser to S&P's owner, McGraw-Hill …

Will Palin be in by Labor Day?  ‘I doubt it’  —  (CNN) - Karl Rove caused a commotion in recent days by predicting that Sarah Palin will run for president and hinting that she could announce her campaign during a speech to a tea party group in Iowa over Labor Day weekend.  —  That might be news to Palin.

In LD8, Delany derailed by wife's email to Lewis  —  Former Assemblyman Pat Delany abruptly resigned last month from his post representing the 8th district after his wife sent a racially tinged email to senate challenger Carl Lewis, the former Olympic Gold medalist.

Huntsman criticizes rivals in prime time interview  —  (CNN) - For a second straight day, Jon Huntsman is going after his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.  —  In an interview to run Monday and Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on CNN's “Piers Morgan Tonight,” the former Utah governor …

District Attorney Asks Judge to Drop Strauss-Kahn Case  —  Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office formally moved on Monday to dismiss the three-month-old sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, filing a 25-page motion that serves as their intricate and devastating anatomy of a case collapsing.

National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama  —  The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4 trillion on President Obama's watch.  —  The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office.  The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion.

Joe Biden: ‘I Fully Understand’ China's One Child Policy  —  Good news, reproductive rights advocates and neo-Malthusian environmentalists!  Vice President Joe Biden has no problem with the government forcibly sterilizing people and compelling abortions.  From his remarks at Sichuan University …

Spending, not entitlements, created huge deficit  —  It's conventional wisdom in Washington to blame the federal government's dire financial outlook on runaway entitlement spending.  Unless we rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the conventional wisdom goes, the federal government is headed for disaster.

Milken's Gift Stirs Dispute at U.C.L.A. Law School  —  When the U.C.L.A. School of Law announced a $10 million gift from Lowell Milken to establish a business law institute in his name earlier this month, the university described him as a “pioneer in education reform” and a “leading philanthropist.”

Goldman CEO hires high-profile defense attorney  —  (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein has hired Reid Weingarten, a high-profile Washington defense attorney whose past clients include a former Enron accounting officer, according to a government source familiar with the matter.

AFL-CIO seeks to boost clout with super PAC  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The AFL-CIO hopes to boost its clout by launching a new political action committee that could raise unlimited amounts of money, part of the federation's goal of building a year-round political organizing structure.

What could Obama have done?  —  (Andrew Harrer - Bloomberg) As Jon Chait says, the New York Times tried to run a feature in which they “asked a range of Americans who don't labor in politics or the media what they'd do if they were president” and returned with a feature in which an range …