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 …

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 …

Democrats On NRSC's Todd Akin Change Of Heart: We Knew It  —  Color Missouri Democratic Party chair Mike Sanders unsurprised.  As news broke that the NRSC was reconsidering its support for Rep. Todd Akin's Senate candidacy Wednesday, Saunders told reporters his party never expected Republicans …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Obama Campaign Trying to Distract Staff From Awesome Poll Numbers  —  President Barack Obama's reelection campaign is currently sitting pretty, at least as far as the polls go.  Survey after survey of key swing states, including the two crucial contests in Ohio and Florida …

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.

Murphy leads by 6 in CT-Senate race  —  PPP's newest poll of the Connecticut Senate race finds Democrat Chris Murphy expanding his lead to 6 points over Republican foe Linda McMahon, 48-42.  Last month he led 48-44.  —  There's no doubt Murphy's image has taken a hit over the course of this campaign.

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.”

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 …

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 …

CNN and MSNBC Pundit Arrested for Vandalizing Anti-Muslim Ad In N.Y. Subway System  —  The New York Post reported Egyptian-American columnist Mona Eltahawy has been arrested for defacing an anti-Muslim ad in the New York subway system.  The video shows her spraying pink paint on the ad while a supporter of the ad tries to block her.

A Conversation With Randall Munroe, the Creator of XKCD  —  Q: What would happen if a beloved web comic created a series of ... physics explainers?  —  Randall Munroe began his career in physics working with robots at NASA's Langley Research Center.  He is famous, however …

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).

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.