In the end, it's Mitt  —  It isn't the chair or the ho-hum convention.  Or the leaked video.  Or Stuart Stevens.  Or the improving economy.  Or media bias.  Or distorted polls.  Or the message.  Or Mormonism.  —  It's Mitt.  —  With Republicans everywhere wondering what has happened …

Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama  —  TEHRAN (FNA)- According to the results of a Gallup poll released Monday, the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans said they would rather vote for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than US President Barack Obama.

Just How Racist Is the ‘Obama Phone’ Video?  —  There was a video leading the Drudge Report on Thursday afternoon of a poor black woman with messed-up teeth saying she's voting for President Obama because he gave her a free phone, and perhaps you have some questions about it.  Questions like: Is this video racist?

George W. Bush posts better favorability ratings than Mitt Romney in new Bloomberg survey  —  Former President George W. Bush smiles as he arrives on the 18th hole at the end of the Bush Center's Warrior Open golf tournament this week in Irving.  (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Go large, Mitt  —  In mid-September 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed and the bottom fell out of the financial system.  Barack Obama handled it coolly.  John McCain did not.  Obama won the presidency.  (Given the country's condition, he would have won anyway.  But this sealed it.)

Attackers Bragged to Qaeda Bosses  —  Conversations monitored by U.S. intelligence show Ansar al-Sharia jihadists boasted to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb about the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and others—more evidence the assault was not a spontaneous reaction to the anti-Muslim video.

Rep. West features opponent's mug shot in harsh television ad  —  Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) released a biting new ad in the battle to keep his House seat that features a mug shot of his opponent while showing the lawmaker serving in the Army.  —  The 30-second spot compares what West …

Matt Damon's Anti-Fracking Movie Financed by Oil-Rich Arab Nation  —  A new film starring Matt Damon presents American oil and natural gas producers as money-grubbing villains purportedly poisoning rural American towns.  It is therefore of particular note that it is financed in part …

NYC PROHIBITS CONTROVERSIAL SUBWAY ADS IN WAKE OF ISLAMIST'S VANDALISM  —  Just one day after an Islamic activist attempted to cover over private property in spray paint (and a woman who got in her way), the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York has announced they will amend their rules …

Obama Cabinet Flunks Disclosure Test With 19 in 20 Ignoring Law  —  On his first full day in office, President Barack Obama ordered federal officials to “usher in a new era of open government” and “act promptly” to make information public.  —  As Obama nears the end of his term …

The Million Wingnut March  —  There's been a steadily building discussion, albeit shrouded in some mystery, about the potential impact on Election Day (and to some extent, before it) of right-wing “volunteer poll watchers” who are promising to descend on minority neighborhoods to make sure …

Explaining Today's Great Jobs News  —  Our guest blogger is Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.  —  New data released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the private-sector added 450,000 more jobs as of March 2012 than previously thought.

Webb drops the hammer on Romney  —  Jim Webb's departures from party orthodoxy are frequent.  As recently as last November, the retiring Virginia Democratic senator was reluctant to commit to campaigning for President Barack Obama.  —  So Webb's bladework today on Mitt Romney was as unexpected as it was memorable.

Democrats to join call for more information on Libya terrorist attack  —  Senate Democrats on Thursday will join their Republican colleagues in pressing the administration for more information about the deadly attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi.

Mitt Romney: King of comedy  —  It is time to cut Mitt Romney some slack.  It is wrong to criticize him until you've walked a mile in his living room.  —  That last line was a joke that someone posted on Twitter.  Jokes have power.  When a politician makes a joke, he can make a point …

The Poetic Justice of Romney's Self-Immolation  —  A stake through the heart.  —  I've been wrong before, and I'll be wrong again, but I may never have been as wrong as I was when I initially predicted that Mitt Romney's heinous diatribe against 47 percent of America would have little direct impact on the election.

Noonan: 2012 Debates— This Is It, Mitt  —  How Romney can make the most of his face-off with Obama.  —  “Governor, the success or failure of your entire presidential campaign will come down to what happens between the hours of 9 and 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 3.  We're at a hinge point in history.

Napolitano Orders Same-Sex Couples' Immigration Rights To Be Put In Writing  —  “I have directed [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to disseminate written guidance to the field that the interpretation of the phrase ‘family relationships’ includes long-term, same-sex partners,” the Homeland Security Secretary wrote.

Sept. 27: The Impact of the ‘47 Percent’  —  After a secretly-recorded videotape was released on Sept. 17, showing Mitt Romney making unflattering comments about the “47 percent” of Americans whom he said had become dependent on government benefits, I suggested on Twitter that the political impact …