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 …

Paul Ryan vs. The Stench  —  Paul Ryan has gone rogue.  He is unleashed, unchained, off the hook.  —  “I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he'll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him,” Craig Robinson, a former political director …

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 “weighing” the polls for partisan identification creates …

Love Claims The Lead  —  Well, this is an interesting turn of events.  —  Mia Love's campaign released internal polling numbers that show the race for Utah's 4th District seat have taken a dramatic swing, giving her a big lead over Democrat Jim Matheson.  —  Love's polling firm …

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.

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 …

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.)

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 …

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.

The World Doesn't Love the First Amendment  —  The vile anti-Muslim video shows that the U.S. overvalues free speech.  —  The universal response in the United States to the uproar over the anti-Muslim video is that the Muslim world will just have to get used to freedom of expression.

National Republicans Come Home To Todd Akin  —  There's a new trend sweeping the nation's top conservative leaders: line up behind embattled Missouri Senate nominee Todd Akin (R), and do it fast.  This is a far cry from the immediate aftermath of Akin's “legitimate rape” comments, when his friends were few and far between.

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 …

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Woman defaces ‘anti-jihad’ ad in Times Square station  —  Cops busted a lone protester — angry with subway ads equating enemies of Israel as “savages” — as she spray-painted over one of the controversial signs today.  —  A Post camera crew captured the bizarre conflict …

NEWS FLASH  —  OBAMA SIGN DEFACED WITH RACIAL SLURS IN TEXAS |  A Texas woman woke to a nasty surprise last week: Her neighbor rang her doorbell to tell her someone had written racial slurs over her pro-Obama yard sign.  Cassy Zobel, who lives in the deep-red area of Mckinney, Texas …

Popular in Politics  —  The Weekly Standard's Jay Cost does a fine job addressing conservative claims that recent polls showing President Obama with strong leads over Mitt Romney here.  Cost's bottom line: … But Cost's post only looks at this year's polls and then compares them to recent exit poll data.