CNN Poll: Obama holds 7-point lead over Romney  —  Washington (CNN) - Mitt Romney's unfavorable rating is up, most Americans think the Republican presidential challenger favors the rich, and it appears the number of people who believe that the economy will not get better if Romney is elected …

Why Not Paul Ryan?  —  Romney can win a big election over big issues.  He'll lose a small one.  —  The whispering over Mitt Romney's choice of a running mate is getting louder, and along with it we are being treated to the sotto voce angst of the GOP establishment: Whatever else Mitt does …

Exclusive Romney Interview: On Humility and Tax Returns  —  Much of the case you make to voters is that you're a successful entrepreneur and a successful executive, and thus you'll make a successful president.  Why were you so successful as a businessman?  —  Well, I had the privilege …

State charges 4 McCotter ex-staffers with forging petitions, faking signatures in election fiasco  —  Four staffers of former U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter, R-Livonia were charged today in connection with the false nominating petitions that led to McCotter's departure from Congress.

Landslide on the Horizon  —  When I read Nate Silver, Sean Trende, Charlie Cook, Jay Cost, and the others who make a profession of political prognostication, I pay close attention to their attempts to dissect the polling data and predict what is to come.  But I also take everything that they say with a considerable grain of salt.

Trump Declines Prime Time GOP Convention Speech  —  More ways to share...  Mixx  —  Stumbled  —  LinkedIn  —  Vine  —  Buzzflash  —  Newstrust  —  Technocrati  —  Forward Article  —  Donald Trump has declined an offer to deliver a prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention …

Man with Bible threatens to rape woman during ‘Gay Day’ in Michigan  —  Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan say that there was nothing they could do after Bible-preaching protesters threatened to rape and murder pro-LGBT activists at a “Gay Day” event over the weekend.

Coulter Explodes At Romney Spokeswoman For Response To Priorities USA Ad: She Needs To Be Fired  —  Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity strongly condemned the ad released by the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA that basically accused Mitt Romney of a steelworker's wife dying of cancer.

Young in G.O.P. Erase the Lines on Social Issues  —  CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Matt Hoagland, the county leader of a group of young North Carolina Republicans, is busy trying to ramp up enthusiasm for Mitt Romney at the grass-roots level.  So there are a few things he avoids mentioning …

TPM2012  —  Joe Walsh Accused Of Racial Insensitivity For Referring To Obama As ‘Son’  —  Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), who recently made news for criticizing his opponent's willingness to talk about her military service, has a new target: President Obama.  A Democratic tracker caught Walsh calling …

Super PAC Attack Ad Depicts Allen West Punching White Women  —  The American Sunrise PAC has launched its first attack ad against Congressman Allen West.  The political action committee was founded by the father of Congressman West's general election opponent Democrat Patrick Murphy.

City officials pull the plug on vibrator giveaway, leaving thousands dissatisfied  —  They must have rubbed Mayor Bloomberg the wrong way.  —  City officials pulled the plug on a vibrator giveaway by the Trojan condom company yesterday, disappointing potentially thousands of pleasure-seeking women …

Obama: Let's repeat auto industry success with every manufacturing industry  —  PUEBLO, Colo. - President Obama, while villifying Mitt Romney for opposing the auto industry bailout, bragged about the success of his decision to provide government assistance and said he now wants to see every manufacturing industry come roaring back.

Exclusive: Democratic Party Platform Draft: “We Support Marriage Equality”  —  “We support the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law.  We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples,” platform language says.

Exclusive: For The First Time, Cannibal Victim Speaks  —  MIAMI (CBS4) - Two months after he was viciously attacked on the MacArthur Causeway by the so-called Miami Zombie, Ronald Poppo succinctly summed up the events that captured the country's attention.  —  “He attacked me,” Poppo said of Rudy Eugene.

Man who claimed he was beaten for being gay admits he made it all up after police receive video of him hitting HIS OWN head after back-flipping off a curb  —  A young man who told police he was beaten up in a would-be hate crime appeared in court today admitting that he made the entire incident up.

Deli owner: Take my store out of Obama ad  —  Krause's will lose business, she says  —  The owner of Krause's at Findlay Market said she was misled about the filming of an Obama TV ad.  / The Enquirer/Jane Prendergast  —  The owner of a specialty deli at Findlay Market wants …

GLENN GREENWALD  —  Mark Halperin of Time provides some important insight into the behavior of his colleagues  —  Few media behaviors are more pitiful than the intense fixation over the “Veepstakes”: a word that is at once nauseatingly vapid and yet incomparably valuable as a symbol of our nation's pointless, juvenile political media.

Editor Fired Following Harassment Accusation  —  CONWAY, Ark. — The gathering, Marc Smirnoff said, was intended as a morale-boosting retreat for his staff at The Oxford American magazine, a July 4 overnight party at a mountain cabin that would fuel the creative intellect.

Pelosi ‘Swears’ Spirit of Susan B. Anthony Spoke to Her in White House  —  (CNSNews.com)- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) told a recent gathering of the Women's Political Committee that the spirits of suffragists Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul spoke to her at the White House.

Inside the Council for National Policy  —  When Steve Baldwin, the executive director of an organization with the stale-as-old-bread name of the Council for National Policy, boasts that “we control everything in the world,” he is only half-kidding.  —  Half-kidding, because the council doesn't really control the world.

Crossroads GPS pulls ad attacking Heitkamp after campaign questions content  —  Crossroads GPS has pulled an ad it launched just the day before that attacks North Dakota Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp on her spending record as state attorney general.