Romney's Strong Debate Performance Erases Obama's Lead  —  GOP Challenger Viewed as Candidate with New Ideas  —  OVERVIEW  —  Mitt Romney no longer trails Barack Obama in the Pew Research Center's presidential election polling.  By about three-to-one, voters say Romney did a better job …

Paul Ryan Gets Testy And Ends Interview  —  When asked about guns and taxes in an interview with ABC12 in Flint, Michigan.  Campaign: “Eventually you're going to see a local reporter embarrass himself.”  —  Source: youtube.com  —  Update: Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck tells BuzzFeed …

Experts pan Romney foreign policy speech  —  Mitt Romney's foreign policy speech Monday was filled with tough talk and slams of President Barack Obama's leadership — but little of the clarity Romney has vowed to bring to the Oval Office.  —  Analysts reviewing what the Republican nominee …

The 15 Most Overrated White People … Kate Middleton , Christopher Columbus , Columbus Day , Race , Slideexpand , White People , Black Voices News  —  Today, our nation engages in one of its most bizarre cultural rituals: the celebration of Columbus Day as a national holiday.

The Illegal-Donor Loophole  —  The giant gap in our campaign-finance system that makes foreign and fraudulent donations possible.  Peter Schweizer and Peter J. Boyer report.  —  There has been no shortage of media attention paid to the role of money in the current presidential contest.

School Lets Dems Register Students to Vote, But Not GOP  —  Florida Republicans are outraged after a school district allowed a pro-Obama organization to conduct student voter registration drives and deliver speeches to classes - but denied the Romney campaign similar opportunities.

UPDATES: Republican candidate Fuqua endorses death penalty for rebellious children  —  Remember former Republican legislator Charlie Fuqua, running again for legislature with financial support from the Arkansas Republican Party and U.S. Reps. Tim Griffin and Steve Womack, among others?

Reporter Lara Logan brings ominous news from Middle East  —  CBS correspondent Lara Logan covers the reaction in Cairo's Tahrir Square the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February 2011.  CBS News photo  —  This was no ordinary rubber chicken affair.

The Policy Verdict I  —  In Thursday night's debate, Vice President Joe Biden will almost certainly go after Representative Paul Ryan's Medicare plan.  And why shouldn't he?  It's unpopular.  But I'd like to make a case for that plan.  It's the best thing the Romney-Ryan campaign has going for it.

Guard: Security in Libya cut before Benghazi attack  —  Security for U.S. diplomats in Libya was cut in the weeks before the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, despite the North African country's high-risk environment, according to a member of the security team assigned to U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

Obama advisers say president disappointed himself with debate performance  —  Aides to President Obama said on Sunday that Obama was disappointed by his own performance at last week's debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney in Denver.  —  “I think the president understood …

Study: Getting rid of lead does wonders for school performance  —  Over the past 50 years, after scientists realized that even minute doses of lead can have harmful effects, policymakers have been steadily pushing to eradicate the stuff from the environment.

Romney Disses Little Kids Over Nickelodeon Prez Show  —  President Obama's peeps say Mitt Romney is gonna be sorry for blowing off a bunch of kids who participated in the Nickelodeon show, “Kids Pick the President.”  —  The premise of the show — kids submit questions to each candidate …

New York Times Staffers To Walk Out Over Contract Negotiations … REACT:  —  FOLLOW:  —  The New York Times, New York Times Protest, New York Times Walk Out, New York Times Walk Out Contract, New York Times Walk Out Employes, New York Times Walkout, New York Times Walkout Contract, New York Times Walkout Employees, Media News

Colo. Governor: 'Lincoln Wasn't a Great Debater'  —  Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) said Monday that Abraham Lincoln “wasn't a great debater” during a visit to the Obama campaign field office in Denver, Colo., according to Denver West Word reporter Sam Levin.  —  Lincoln famously participated …

Plant that got $150M in taxpayer money to make Volt batteries furloughs workers  —  July 15, 2010: President Obama gets into an electric Ford Focus as he attends the groundbreaking of a factory for Compact Power Inc. in Holland, Mich.REUTERS  —  The Holland, Mich., plant, shown here in a rendering …

Republicans conflicted over Obama, Obamacare  —  (CNN) — Jill Thacker was dying for a cup of coffee when she recently ran into a 7-Eleven convenience store.  To her pleasant surprise, the coffee was free — as long as she would commit to drinking it in either a red Mitt Romney cup or a blue Barack Obama cup.