Op-Ed Contributor: The Bush White House Was Deaf to 9/11 Warnings  —  IT was perhaps the most famous presidential briefing in history.  —  On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda.

Among likely voters, Obama-Romney close  —  Last week's Democratic National Convention helped President Obama improve his standing against Republican Mitt Romney, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, but did little to reduce voter concern about his handling of the economy.

Paul Ryan on Chicago Teachers' Strike: ‘We Stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’  —  PORTLAND, Ore. — Paul Ryan crossed party lines and voiced support for one of President Obama's biggest backers today, saying, “We stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel” in his fight with Chicago's teachers …

The Kerry-ization of Mitt Romney  —  Mitt Romney is getting the full John Kerry treatment on national security — and some top Republicans are alarmed by what they see as his ham-handed response to it.  —  Romney — whose convention speech didn't include a salute to the troops or a reference to Afghanistan …

An Economic ‘Plan’?  —  Former president Bill Clinton told the Democratic National Convention that Barack Obama has a plan to rescue the economy, and only the fact that the Republicans stood in his way has stopped him from getting the economy out of the doldrums.

EXCLUSIVE: Parents of SEAL Team Six member say unit endangered by Obama administration statements  —  Identifying the Special Operations Force behind the Usama bin Laden raid amounted to placing a target on the back of the team members as well as their families, according to the parents of Aaron Vaughn …

Netanyahu: Those that refuse to set red lines for Iran can't give Israel red light  —  Netanyahu launches unprecedented attack on U.S. government; diplomats tell AP that IAEA has new intelligence that Iran advanced its work on nuclear warhead.  —  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Photo by Olivier Fitoussi

Nipplegate  —  The New Yorker has a Facebook page for our cartoons, which a lot of you like, or maybe it's just one person with a lot of time on their hands, liking the page over and over again.  But in any case, it's a whole lotta like.  We like that.  —  What we don't like is that we …

President Obama's polling and focus-group chief offers rare public perspective on state of race  —  As head of polling and focus group research for President Obama, David Simas of Taunton says he's “like a human nerve-ending” because of the dizzying array of numbers and videotape he constantly scans.

Bloomberg: Federal government should support 9/11 memorial  —  New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that he hoped the federal government would provide financial assistance to the construction of a September 11 memorial museum, just hours after the resolution of a dispute that had halted construction for months.

With GOP jittery, Romney faces test of resolve  —  Mitt Romney and his top aides are running an essentially faith-based campaign.  Whatever the polls say at the moment, whatever the pundits say, whatever some nervous Republicans say, Team Romney simply does not believe President Obama can win re-election in today's terrible economy.

'He says he's got a 53-point plan or whatever'  —  Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) spoke at the Republican National Convention a couple of weeks ago, and like most speakers, didn't have much to say about the man his party was nominating for president.  In his 1,300-word speech, Kasich said …

Obama's Hayes Of History  —  History: As President Obama fumbled with an iPhone, the blogosphere recalled he had earlier falsely bad-mouthed President Rutherford B. Hayes as a technological troglodyte.  It's not his error that annoys but his arrogance.  —  For a man who would have Americans believe …

Scott Van Duzer, the Obama hugger: Shop facing boycott  —  The owner of a Florida pizza shop says people are boycotting his business because he bear-hugged President Barack Obama on Sunday.  —  “People are saying a lot of bad things and boycotting my restaurant,” Scott Van Duzer, 46, told POLITICO.