Republican Senate Nominee: Victims Of ‘Legitimate Rape’ Don't Get Pregnant  —  This post has been updated.  —  Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape …

Exclusive: GOP scolded after drinking, nudity in Israel  —  The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff - and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses.

Niall Ferguson: Hit the Road, Barack  —  The president has broken his promises, and Romney-Ryan's path to prosperity is our only hope.  —  I was a good loser four years ago.  “In the grand scheme of history,” I wrote the day after Barack Obama's election as president, “four decades is not an especially long time.

An Unserious Man  —  Mitt Romney's choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate led to a wave of pundit accolades.  Now, declared writer after writer, we're going to have a real debate about the nation's fiscal future.  This was predictable: never mind the Tea Party, Mr. Ryan's true constituency …

Romney Campaign Works Feverishly to Project Relaxed Image  —  TAMPA, Fla. — They hail from the Broadway stage, the control rooms of NBC and the design studios that created sleek sets for Oprah Winfrey and Jon Stewart.  —  Their craft is slick packaging and eye candy that audiences consume by the millions.

Swing-State Voters Say They Are No Better Off Than in 2008  —  Divided as to whether they would be better off in four years under Obama or Romney  —  PRINCETON, NJ — A majority of voters in key 2012 election swing states say they are not better off than they were four years ago; 40% say they are better off.

Obama Opens Up to ‘Moneyball’ Writer for Vanity Fair  —  The White House has granted Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of “Moneyball” and “The Big Short,” extensive access to President Obama for an article in the October issue of Vanity Fair.  —  The magazine confirmed that Mr. Lewis …

POLITICO e-book: Obama campaign roiled by conflict  —  President Barack Obama's campaign team, celebrated four years ago for its exceptional cohesion and eyes-on-the-prize strategic focus, has been shadowed this time by a succession of political disagreements and personal rivalries that haunted the effort at the outset.

New Romney ad decries Obama welfare changes as ‘nuts’  —  Mitt Romney's campaign released a new ad Monday citing a newspaper editorial that decries President Obama's recent change to welfare policy as “nuts,” doubling down on the presumptive Republican nominee's tough attacks on the shift.

The ‘new normal’ excuse  —  Even a talker as talented as President Obama can't do the impossible: Persuade Americans that the three-year-old economic “recovery” is anything other than pathetic.  —  Growth is sinking back toward the recession red zone and unemployment's firmly stuck at over 8 percent for 42 straight months.

Ohio Republican Stands By Jab At Black Turnout “Machine”  —  “I said I believe that there's a line of how far that taxpayers should have to go to match a specific political operation, and that's what I mean,” Preisse tells BuzzFeed.  Democrats cry suppression.  —  Source: @dougpreisse