Romney: Chick-Fil-A, Huma Abedin ‘not ... part of my campaign’  —  POLITICO's Ginger Gibson reports from the Romney press avail in Vegas:

RNC sends DNC 'you didn't bake this' Obama birthday cake  —  The Republican National Committee sent a birthday cake to the Democratic National Committee on Friday.  The cake reads, “you didn't bake this” over a picture of President Obama.  Icing text reads, “Happy birthday, Mr. President.”

Porn star Jenna Jameson endorses Romney  —  “I'm very looking forward to a Republican being back in office,” Jameson said while sipping champagne in a VIP room at Gold Club in the city's South of Market neighborhood.  “When you're rich, you want a Republican in office.”

TPMDC  —  Dem Lawmakers Want Answers About Romney's Enormous IRA  —  Leading House Democrats want to turn Mitt Romney's enormous IRA into more than just a political problem.  —  Romney's most recent financial disclosure form revealed that his tax-deferred individual retirement account holds upwards …

Rafalca Delays VP Pick  —  Almost two weeks ago, I speculated on Fox News Sunday that Mitt Romney would announce his vice presidential pick early next week, on August 6 or 7.  It was, if I may say, a reasonably well-informed forecast at the time.  But I didn't take into account the existence …

New SuperPAC, FightBigotry.com, Smears President Obama For ‘Racism Against White Folks’  —  FightBigotry.com, a new Super PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission this week, makes no bones about its aim.  It intends to run an attack ad that it says will hit President Barack Obama for …

Aug. 3: A Good Week for Obama in Forecast  —  The past week of polling and economic data was relatively newsworthy by our forecast model's standards, and most of the news was good for President Obama.  —  On Tuesday, Mr. Obama was helped in the forecast by a report showing an increase in personal income …

Judge guts vote registration law  —  GALVESTON - A federal judge in Galveston on Thursday partially blocked new Texas registration laws that critics say amount to vote suppression because they prevent large voter registration drives.  —  U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa blocked the state …

Peter King: White House leaked Syrian rebel aid news  —  Rep. Peter King alleged Friday that “all the evidence points towards the White House” as the source of recent reports that President Barack Obama signed a secret order to provide U.S. support to Syrian rebels — and that the information was leaked to “enhance” Obama's reputation.

Comeback Nation: Why the U.S. Economy Is Much Stronger Than You Think  —  Quite like an Olympic sport, hand-wringing about “America's decline” is popular, practiced all around the world, and often dominated by Americans, themselves.  Unlike an Olympic event, it's wasted energy.  —  Reuters

Obama's Magic Number: 316,000  —  A rhetorical milestone appears to be in reach.  —  With three months to Election Day, today's tepidly positive July jobs report has prompted Republican attacks on an increased unemployment rate and relief from the Administration that it could have been worse.

Getting housing right  —  Slowly but surely, the housing market is climbing out of the deep hole created by the financial panic of 2007-2008.  While any one of the housing market cures already put into place will not independently fix the challenges, collectively these cures are healing the housing market.

Heeding critics, Mitt sharpens pitch for long run  —  Popular in Politics  —  The Romney campaign likes to project an image of great confidence.  It sees itself as an organization that doesn't panic when things go wrong and doesn't jump when critics, especially nervous Republicans, urge Romney to change direction.

Amtrak Lost $834 Million on Food in Last Decade, Audit Finds  —  WASHINGTON — Amtrak lost more than $800 million on its food and beverage services over the last 10 years, largely because of waste, employee theft and lack of proper oversight, government auditors have found.

Can Obama's “Chemical Warfare” Keep The White Vote Down?  —  John Ellis on the president's negative campaign.  Romney hasn't figured out an antidote.  —  Image by Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images  —  President Barack Obama's re-election campaign has spent more than $100 million on advertising over the last 3 months.

Dems Nominate Anti-Gay Conspiracy Theorist for Senate  —  Update, 2:55 p.m.: Via the Tennessean, the Tennessee Democratic party has condemned Clayton, saying in a statement that he is “associated with a known hate group” (a reference to Public Advocate of the United States) …