Michele Bachmann rally draws over 1,000 in Sarasota, but some prefer Rick Perry  —  SARASOTA — Hurricane Irene bypassed the state and spared Michele Bachmann's first campaign foray in Florida this weekend, but now she has to contend with Hurricane Perry.  —  Even as the Minnesota congresswoman …

Is Rick Perry dumb?  —  Another Texas governor who drops his “g's” and scorns elites is running for president and the whispers are the same: Lightweight, incurious, instinctual.  —  Strip away the euphemisms, and Rick Perry is confronting an unavoidable question: is he dumb - or just misunderestimated?

Republicans Against Science  —  Jon Huntsman Jr., a former Utah governor and ambassador to China, isn't a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination.  And that's too bad, because Mr. Hunstman has been willing to say the unsayable about the G.O.P. — namely, that it is becoming the “anti-science party.”

Memo On Upcoming Jobs Agenda  —  MEMORANDUM  —  As you know, we released The House Republican Plan for America's Job Creators earlier this year.  While the debt crisis has demanded much of our attention, our new majority has passed over a dozen pro-growth measures to address …

Labor Economist to Fill Key Post  —  President Barack Obama on Monday plans to nominate Princeton University's Alan Krueger to be chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a White House official said.  —  If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Krueger, a labor economist …

Postal Service paying fewer workers to do nothing  —  The U.S. Postal Service, expecting $7 billion in losses this year amid slumping mail volume, is still paying thousands of its workers millions of dollars each year to do nothing.  —  But it's paying tens of millions of dollars less for …

American Theocracy Revisited  —  During George W. Bush's presidency, many liberal and secular Americans came to regard religious conservatives not merely as their political opponents, but as a kind of existential threat.  The religious right, they decided, wasn't a normal political movement.

Veteran and Military Spouse Dragged from Rumsfeld Book Signing  —  Yesterday Coffee Strong published a summary of the events that took place at the Donald Rumsfeld book signing on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.  Below is the text from our official press release, sent to our media contacts this morning:

Mayor Making It No Secret: He'll Endorse Quinn in 2013  —  It is the worst-kept secret in City Hall.  Michael R. Bloomberg has told almost everyone who asks — but only privately, so far — that he hopes the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, will succeed him as mayor in 2013.

Ugly?  You May Have a Case  —  Daniel S. Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas, Austin, is the author of “Beauty Pays,” published this month.  —  BEING good-looking is useful in so many ways.  —  In addition to whatever personal pleasure it gives you …

All Together Now  —  HOLD onto your hats and your wallets.  Since the end of the cold war, the global system has been held together to a large degree by four critical ruling bargains.  Today all four are coming unstuck at once and will need to be rebuilt.  Whether and how that rebuilding happens …

Teachers Get Little Say in a Book About Them  —  Can an education reform movement that demeans and trivializes teachers succeed?  It's hard to imagine, but that is what is going on in parts of America today.  —  In Steven Brill's new book celebrating the movement, “Class Warfare …