Romney's bounce from convention looks short-lived: Reuters/Ipsos poll  —  (Reuters) - A modest bump in popularity for U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from this week's Republican Party convention looks to be short-lived, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Romney courts local Republicans at Union Terminal … Mitt Romney, Republican Presidential Nominee: Victory Rally at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio  —  Purchase Image  —  Republican candidate Mitt Romney addressed the crowd at Union Terminai.  / The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger

Look who parks their cash at Bain  —  Democrats convened in Charlotte, NC, will double down on their claim that Bain Capital is really the Bain crime family.  They will accuse Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Bain's other “greedy” co-founders of stealing their winnings …

Iowans' Message to Obama: ‘We Did Build This’  —  SIOUX CITY, Iowa — President Obama received a less than warm welcome and a warning upon arrival at the airport here on the second stop of his Iowa visit, which was aimed at recapturing some of the magic the state gave his run to the White House in 2008.

Rains wash away Mount Obama in Charlotte, N.C.  —  CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A torrential downpour that struck Charlotte Saturday afternoon damaged the Mount Rushmore-style sand sculpture bust of President Obama — an ominous beginning to what many fear is a plagued convention.

Harris-Perry Loses Cool Over Guest's Comment, Yells ‘I Am Sick Of The Idea That Being Wealthy Is Risky’  —  On her show Saturday morning, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry grew visibly frustrated over a guest's assertion that the “big thing” missing in the President's “you didn't build that speech” …

Number of Republicans in America Reaches Record High  —  After falling for two straight months, the number of Americans who consider themselves Republicans jumped nearly three points in August.  —  During August, 37.6% of Americans considered themselves Republicans.  That's up from 34.9% in July and 35.4% in June.

Romney Staffer Committing Charitable Fraud  —  Bill Murphy, Mitt Romney's Social Media Director, and his colleague Ali Akbar have ripped off a lot of people.  They ripped off the Tea Party with the American Liberty Alliance.  They ripped off movement Conservatives with the National Bloggers Club.

Why I had no choice but to spurn Tony Blair |  Desmond Tutu  —  I couldn't sit with someone who justified the invasion of Iraq with a lie  —  The immorality of the United States and Great Britain's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction …

The End of an Era: Comments Are Closed  —  After almost three years and well more than 40,000 published reader comments (and half a million spam comments that either we or our spam filter managed to identify and trash), Via Meadia is joining the ranks of non-comment blogs.

Why Campaign Reporters Are Behind the Curve  —  It becomes popular around this time of year to lament the fact that media coverage treats the presidential campaign as little more than a “horse race.”  Journalists, this line of argument goes, choose to fixate on which candidate is a superior campaigner …