Obama grants Holder request on ‘Furious’ documents as contempt vote looms  —  DEVELOPING ...  President Obama has granted an 11th-hour request by Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off …

Obama Leads In Poll As Voters View Romney As Out Of Touch  —  Barack Obama has opened a significant lead over Mitt Romney in a Bloomberg National Poll that reflects the presumed Republican nominee's weaknesses more than the president's strengths.  —  Obama leads Romney 53 percent …

Tim Pawlenty's stock soars in Romney-world  —  Tim Pawlenty has jumped to the top of the vice presidential shortlist of several Mitt Romney advisers after emerging as the most effective — and well-liked — surrogate for the GOP nominee-to-be, according to several Republicans familiar with campaign deliberations.

The 2012 campaign is the smallest ever  —  For years, operatives, reporters and potential nominees envisioned the 2012 presidential campaign as a titanic clash of media-swarmed combatants with big ideas about the future.  In the Republican primaries, this was almost a mantra: this is the most important campaign in a generation.

Study: House Republican Budget Would Raise Taxes On The Middle Class, Cut Them For Millionaires  —  House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI)  —  According to a study prepared by the congressional Joint Economic Committee and verified by independent experts, the House Republican budget authored …

Elizabeth Warren loses it, lashes out at “right wing extremist” (me)  —  As you know, Elizabeth Warren has been caught in a series of at best misleading and at worst false responses since The Boston Herald first broke the story in late April that Harvard Law promoted her as Native American in the mid-to-late 1990s.

New NSA docs contradict 9/11 claims  —  “I don't think the Bush administration would want to see these released,” an expert tells Salon  —  Over 120 CIA documents concerning 9/11, Osama bin Laden and counterterrorism were published today for the first time, having been newly declassified and released to the National Security Archive.

Obama's grandfather tortured by the British?  A fantasy (like most of the President's own memoir)  —  A new biography of Barack Obama has established that his grandfather was not, as is related in the President's own memoir, detained by the British in Kenya and found that claims that he was tortured were a fabrication.

IA & MI  —  We kick off our “Big Ten” series with polls in Iowa and Michigan.  Both states were once viewed as likely to vote in favor of re-electing President Obama, but recent economic and political circumstances have tightened up things among the electorate.

Fix health care after Supreme Court ruling, poll says  —  If the Supreme Court strikes down President Barack Obama's signature health care reform law, 77 percent of Americans want the president and Congress to work on new legislation overhauling the system, according to a new AP-GfK poll on Wednesday.

National Review's New Contributor: White Nationalist David Yerushalmi  —  Back in April, National Review finally parted ways with longtime contributor John Derbyshire after Derbyshire penned an especially racist piece advising non-black American parents on how to talk to their kids about black people.

Change.org Drops Michelle Rhee Group Under Pressure From Progressives … REACT:  —  FOLLOW:  —  Michelle Rhee, éducation, Michelle Rhee, Video, Politics News, Change, Change.Org, Changeorg, Michelle Rhee Dc, Politics News  —  WASHINGTON — In a surprising reversal, Change.org …

Obama warns Romney on foreign policy  —  LOS CABOS, Mexico - President Barack Obama says Mitt Romney's campaign advisers should quit criticizing him on foreign policy — especially since they don't know what they're talking about.  —  During a brief news conference held Tuesday night to wrap …

Mitt Romney Is Terrible For Traffic  —  We admit it, and so do other bloggers and editors: Nobody seems to want to read stories about Mitt Romney.  For the candidate, a blessing or a curse?  —  In the war of partisan trash talk that frequently consumes online political media …

Limited Bond Purchases Won't Stop Euro Crisis  —  It says something when even the European Commission announces the latest idea put forward to alleviate the euro-zone debt crisis—that European bailout funds buy bonds to push down borrowing costs—is just financial painkiller.

U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say  —  The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected critical intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage attacks aimed at slowing Iran's ability …

Dem activist slugs GOP congressman's wife with campaign sign  —  It's all fun and games until somebody gets slugged with a campaign sign — at least in Montana, where following the first U.S. Senate campaign debate this cycle, a Democratic activist hit one candidate's wife with a rolled up sign.

Inside gov's ‘cave’  —  Even Gov. Cuomo has a man cave.  —  The state's chief executive and girlfriend Sandra Lee have settled nicely into their Westchester dream mansion — which has all the trappings he needs to blow off steam and she needs to play the perfect hostess.

Rep. Mark Critz, other Dems, to skip convention in favor of campaigning in Pennsylvania  —  U.S. Rep. Mark Critz said on Tuesday he will skip the Democratic National Convention in favor of campaigning in Pennsylvania, much like top elected Democrats in neighboring West Virginia who are disgruntled with President Obama.