Newly Unearthed Obama Video: “Rich people are all for nonviolence.  Why wouldn't they be?  They've got what they want."  —  In the wake of the Daily Caller's release of President Obama cheering Rev. Wright and invoking the race card in various ways, our friend Morgen Richmond decided …

NBC/WSJ poll: Obama holds lead in Ohio; statistical tie in Va., Fla.  —  Slideshow: On the campaign trail  —  In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.  —  Launch slideshow

CNN Poll: Big shifts on role of government  —  Denver (CNN) - Hours before the first debate between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, a showdown that will focus on domestic issues, a new national survey indicates that Americans have undergone some major changes …

First Debate Often Helps Challenger in Polls  —  Conventional wisdom holds that the first presidential debate offers an especially good opportunity for the challenging candidate, who for the first time gets to stand on a literal public stage, and a proverbial level playing field, with the incumbent president.

Syria conflict: Shell kills five in Turkey  —  Akcakale has been fired on several times over the past few weeks  —  Turkey has contacted the United Nations and the Nato military alliance after Syrian shells killed five people in a Turkish town near the border between the two countries.

Complicity in Duplicity?  —  A woman named Rice in a top administration job, ambitious to move up to secretary of state, hitting the Sunday talk shows to aggressively promote a Middle East narrative that's good for the president but destined to crumble under scrutiny.

The Ugliest Campaign In America  —  A plan to keep it civil has backfired badly in Massachusetts.  Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren can't keep their hands clean.  —  LOWELL, Mass. — The poison that runs through this state's Senate race seemed to spill over into the traffic Tuesday night …

Romney's 'you didn't build that' attack: An epic FAIL  —  Others have touched on this already, but it really deserves highlighting here, too.  Check this out, from the new NBC/WSJ poll: … Romney built much of his convention around Obama's “you didn't build that” comments, but only 32 percent were impacted negatively by them.

Lake County considers ‘trash-cams’ at school cafeterias  —  Officials say federal law requires veggies on menu, but students toss them … TAVARES, Fla. -  —  Lake County School Board officials are considering attaching cameras to school cafeteria trash cans to study what students are tossing …

Is unlimited growth a thing of the past?  —  Might growth be ending?  This is a heretical question.  Yet an expert on productivity, Robert Gordon of Northwestern university, has raised it in a provocative paper.  In this, he challenges the conventional view of economists that “economic growth ... will continue indefinitely.”

N.Y. City Subpoenas Ken Burns Film on '89 Jogger Rape  —  In a new movie, the documentary filmmaker Ken Burns explores the lives of the men who were convicted, and later exonerated, in the racially charged 1989 Central Park jogger rape case.  —  Now lawyers for New York City want to explore …

MICHELLE: ‘BARACK HAS DONE PHENOMENAL JOB WORKING AROUND CONGRESS’  —  MICHELLE OBAMA ON The TOM JOYNER MORNING SHOW: Well, we're understanding that, you know, you can have a president you love, but if you don't have a congress that's willing to work, you know, you wind up stalled in so many ways.

Morning Jay: This Race Has Just Begun  —  The most recent RealClearPolitics average of the national polls shows President Obama holding a 3.1 point lead over Mitt Romney, 49.1 to 46.0.  Additionally, his net job approval rating is now back to about even, 48.8 approve to 48.5 disapprove.

Paul Ryan Promises Focus on the Family that He Will Fight Gay Equality  —  During an interview with Focus on the Family president Jim Daly, Paul Ryan reassured the anti-gay group that a Romney-Ryan administration will fiercely oppose gay rights.  Focus on the Family and its founder James Dobson …

New Todd Akin Videos Reveal His Dystopian Nightmare Vision of America  —  Todd Akin is scared.  —  After becoming a national scandal with his claims that “legitimate rape” cannot result in pregnancy, Rep. Todd Akin has been slowly regaining lost ground in the contest against incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill for a Missouri Senate seat.

Iran police break up protests over currency crisis  —  Many shops in the central bazaar have closed in sympathy with the demonstrators  —  Riot police in Iran have broken up several protests in the capital over sharp falls in the currency, the rial.  —  Traders protested outside the central bank …

Check the Math: Romney's Tax Plan Doesn't Raise Middle Class Taxes  —  A study by the Tax Policy Center, a project of the center-left Brookings Institution and Urban Institute, claims that Mitt Romney's tax plan is mathematically impossible.  —  TPC claims that Romney cannot cut tax rates …

Exclusive: President Obama Considered Putting Osama bin Laden on Trial if Taken Alive … In an adaptation from his new book, The Finish—first reported for Vanity Fair—magazine contributing editor Mark Bowden reveals that President Obama intended to put Osama bin Laden on trial …

On Eve Of First Debate, NPR Poll Shows Romney Within Striking Distance  —  Early voting has begun in the battleground states of Ohio, Virginia and Iowa.  Voting booths are set up for early voting at the Black Hawk County Courthouse last Thursday in Waterloo, Iowa.

Romney's Dangerous Game of Playing It Safe  —  The Republican needs to tap into voters' sense of urgency.  Simply being Not Obama isn't enough.  —  For his Wednesday-night debate with President Obama, Mitt Romney has been advised to be tough but affable.  He should put his warm and caring side …

Restaurant worker goes wide-eyed for Mitt at Denver Chipotle  —  The eyes have it for Marty Arps, right, as he meets Mitt Romney at a Chipotle restaurant in Denver.  —  Call the Secret Service, Mitt Romney just got photo-bombed.  —  A restaurant manager at a Chipotle in Denver …