Sorry, But Mitt Romney's Nickname Is Not “The Stench”  —  Not everyone grasped that Paul Ryan isn't really going around referring to Mitt Romney as “Stench,” as a Politico satire suggested.  “Yes, the Stench!” exclaims O'Donnell.  —  When Roger Simon wrote in Politico Wednesday that Paul Ryan's …

Polls Show Obama Is Widening His Lead in Ohio and Florida  —  COLUMBUS, Ohio — For weeks, Republicans in Ohio have been watching with worry that the state's vital 18 electoral votes were trending away from Mitt Romney.  The anxiety has been similar in Florida, where Republicans are concerned …

WE KNEW IT WAS AL QAEDA  —  Sources say intelligence agencies knew within a day that al Qaeda affiliates were behind the attacks in Benghazi, Libya—they even knew where one of the attackers lived.  Eli Lake reports.  —  Within 24 hours of the 9-11 anniversary attack on the United States consulate …

National Republicans re-open door to spending money on Akin  —  The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a statement Wednesday clarifying its support for Rep. Todd Akin in the Missouri Senate race and suggesting it might spend money to help elect him, after saying a month ago that it would not do so.

Why I Refuse to Vote for Barack Obama  —  The case against casting a ballot for the president — even if you think he's better than Mitt Romney  —  Tell certain liberals and progressives that you can't bring yourself to vote for a candidate who opposes gay rights, or who doesn't believe in Darwinian evolution, and they'll nod along.

Morning Jay: Are the Polls Tilted Toward Obama?  —  Republicans, by and large, are frustrated with recent polls of the presidential election because they think Democrats are being oversampled.  Many pollsters respond by saying that “weighting” the polls for partisan identification creates …

Will This Video Sink Tommy Thompson's Wisconsin Senate Hopes?  —  Footage from June shows the GOP candidate promising to “do away with Medicaid and Medicare.”  —  Memo to Republicans: Just stay away from cameras, all cameras.  And if you can, travel back in time and implement this advice in April or so.

Cherokee chief: Scott Brown staffers ‘racist’  —  The head of the Cherokee Nation called staffers for Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown “downright racist” Wednesday for making “tomahawk chop” motions and yelling “war whoops” at a rally Saturday for the Republican's reelection, and called on Brown to apologize.

How to Make 2012 into 1980  —  When Republican strategists like Karl Rove cite 1980 as a model for this year's election, they usually have in mind two main elements: Ronald Reagan's question in the late October presidential debate about whether voters felt better off than four years earlier …

Most are negative about Mitt Romney's “47 percent” comments  —  A majority of Americans have unfavorable views of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's comments — caught on film at a fundraiser — regarding the “47 percent” of people who don't pay federal income taxes and simply would not vote for him …

Hubble captures extraordinary view of Universe  —  The image took more than 500 hours to build  —  The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has produced one of its most extraordinary views of the Universe to date.  —  Called the eXtreme Deep Field, the picture captures a mass of galaxies stretching …

The First Four Years Are The Hardest...  My name is Mike Rowe and I own a small company in California called mikeroweWORKS.  Currently, mikeroweWORKS is trying to close the country's skills gap by changing the way Americans feel about Work.  (I know, right?  Ambitious.)

Mormons Plan To Fast For Romney  —  Conservative Mormons circulate an e-mail calling for a day of fasting and prayer on September 30th for Romney to do well in the debates.  Asking God to rain blessings on a struggling candidacy.  —  Mitt Romney and his wife Ann arrive for services …

Eugene D. Genovese (1930-2012)  —  To mark the passing of Eugene D. Genovese (1930-2012), I post here an excerpt from a recent forum in Historically Speaking (November 2011) on this influential historian's work and career, alongside that of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (1941-2007).

UC pepper-spray settlement about $1 million  —  By Sam Stanton, Denny Walsh and Andrea Gallo  —  The University of California regents have agreed to pay out roughly $1 million to end a lawsuit over last November's pepper spraying of UC-Davis students, part of a deal that also calls …

Andy Williams, Crooner of ‘Moon River,’ Dies at 84  —  Andy Williams, the affable, boyishly handsome crooner who defined both easy listening and wholesome, easygoing charm for many American pop music fans in the 1960s, most notably with his signature song, “Moon River,” died on Tuesday night …

Obama's claim that ‘90 percent’ of the current deficit is due to Bush policies  —  “Over the last four years, the deficit has gone up, but 90 percent of that is as a consequence of two wars that weren't paid for, as a consequence of tax cuts that weren't paid for, a prescription drug plan …

New Jersey Governor Blows Off Questions About Failed Foreclosure Prevention Program  —  As ThinkProgress has reported, several states took their share of the $25 billion foreclosure fraud settlement and used it to balance their budgets instead of providing help to homeowners.

Obama to Crash Debate Prep in Nevada as Campaigns Lower Expectations  —  Chris Kleponis/AFP/Getty Images; Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images  —  BOWLING GREEN, O.H. — President Obama will head to Henderson, Nev., on Sunday for three days of debate prep behind closed doors, ABC News has learned.

Pennsylvania Eases Voter-ID Requirements, As Trial Judge Reviews State's Law  —  In a last-minute effort to protect the restrictive voter ID law now under review by a trial judge, Pennsylvania officials announced Tuesday they would relax requirements for obtaining a photo ID.

Executive Producer of ‘Today’ Says Ouster of Ann Curry Was His Call  —  Commenting publicly for the first time about the decision to remove Ann Curry from the “Today” show's co-anchor position after only a year on the job, Jim Bell, the show's executive producer, said Wednesday that it “was absolutely my call.”

FARRAKHAN and RAMSEY CLARK Hold Meeting With Ahmadinejad (Photos)  —  Guess who's coming to dinner?  —  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with religious leaders and social groups in New York City on Tuesday night.  —  Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan and former Democratic …

Small Businesses and Manufacturers: Government a Barrier, Not a Help, to Economic Growth  —  NEW SURVEY PAINTS BLEAK PICTURE FOR AMERICAN ENTERPRISE WEEKS BEFORE 2012 ELECTIONS