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Here is a live blog of the appearance this morning of Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, at a breakfast fundraiser at the Danville home of former San Francisco 49er Brent Jones. 9:45 a.m.: A quick get-away for Congressman Ryan. The Republican vice presidential nominee walked out of the home with Jones. He then climbed into his black SUV-like vehicle and the convoy led by the CHP drove off. Ryan was in the house for about an hour. He's on his way to Mountain View. The valets keep running and the guest keep waiting for their cars. One...

Just as America prepares to hear a plea from Barack Obama for four more years, The Daily Beast arrives with a big leak of Bob Woodward's latest big book. Not helpful to the president's case. Not helpful at all. America does not need for more years of an in-over-his-head whiner; a petulant egomaniac who does not seem to understand the most basic of economic principles and who is a lousy negotiator to boot. Last night Bill Clinton did his best to raise a prostrated presidency, but for all the reasons detailed in The Brief Against Obama and because of the...

The Obama administration’s efforts at extending executive authority were dealt a setback on Tuesday. The bipartisan Government Accountability Office flagged the administration’s end run around Congress in its July memo announcing changes to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) act, aka “welfare reform.” The GAO said that the White House needs to give Congress the chance to block its plan that permits states to tweak the work requirements that needy families must satisfy in order to receive government assistance under the program. The official word came in the form of a letter to lawmakers from GAO’s general counsel, Lynn...

Dear Governor Romney, 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.) Anyway, this Labor Day is our 4th anniversary, and I’m commemorating the occasion with an open letter to you. If you read the whole thing, I’ll vote for you in November. First things first. mikeroweWORKS grew out of a TV show called Dirty Jobs. If by some chance you are not glued to The Discovery Channel every Wednesday at 10pm,...

Feds Seek Prison Time For Obama "Hope" Artist Prosecutors want Shepard Fairey sentencing to serve as a warning SEPTEMBER 5--Federal prosecutors want Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the Barack Obama “Hope” poster, to serve time in prison following his misdemeanor conviction for destroying and fabricating documents in connection with a civil lawsuit over the iconic campaign image. In advance of Friday’s scheduled sentencing of Fairey in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the Department of Justice has filed a memorandum arguing that a prison term for the 42-year-old artist would be “appropriate.” However, prosecutors did not specify how long Fairey...

After visiting victims of Isaac in Louisiana, Mitt Romney swept into Cincinnati to campaign before a huge crowd with Speaker John Boehner even as Paul Ryan campaigned at the season opener between the Ohio State and his alma mater Miami University. (Ryan's Redhawks lost to the Bucks as expected, but many Redhawk alums are Ohio State fans, and if you are going to lose a game, lose the first game of the Urban Nation era.) The invasion of the Buckeye State by Romney/Ryan is going to intensify for all the reasons noted in Sunday's lead story in The New York...

So writes reader Jim, who sends along several photos from the Romney-Ryan rally in Jacksonville which is starting as of this writing. (added: Prof. Reynolds also is posting reader photos) He further writes: “Line for RomneyRyan Jax Landing event – two lines both way longer than this appears”: Jacksonville Landing was absolutely electric with I would estimate two to three thousand people screamIng for Romney and Ryan. It was a total blast to be there. It was literally one of the most fun things I have ever done. The warm up speakers included Jennifer Carroll, the African-American Republican Lieutenant Governor...

Saturday, September 01, 2012 The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 47% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns 44% of the vote. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

Tampa 2012: In remarks to a chair as vacant as the one in the Oval Office, a Hollywood icon reminds us that the president is a failed employee of the people and it's time to let him go. As performance shtick, it may not have come off perfectly. But judging from the reaction from those "left of Lenin," as 82-year-old Hollywood legend described it during a sort of surprise appearance at the Republican National Convention Thursday, it skewered our absentee president perfectly. "Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic," tweeted "left of Lenin" film critic Roger Ebert...

What a difference a speech makes. As Ari Fleischer noted on CNN, the same media that was cool with the shallow vapidity of hope and change in 2008 is now demanding specifics from Mitt Romney. Last night in Tampa, he gave the one set of specifics he needed to give — a course correction. The Democrats are screaming that it is a return to the 1950′s, when unemployment was less than it is now. That is a talking point. Mitt Romney made a very simple case for himself last night: the President promised the oceans and the earth. He’s just...

Here are excerpts of the remarks Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney plans to deliver this evening in Tampa, Florida: Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president. That president was not the choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections. We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than divides us. When that hard fought election was over, when the yard signs came down and the television commercials finally came off the air, Americans were eager to go back to...

THURSDAY — 7 p.m. Call to order Introduction of Colors US Central Command Joint Forces Color Guard Team Pledge of Allegiance by Dylan Nonaka National Anthem sung by SEVEN Invocation by Ken and Priscilla Hutchins Remarks by Republican Senate candidate and U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla. Reagan Legacy Video Remarks by former House Speaker and GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and wife Callista Gingrich Remarks by Craig Romney — 8 p.m. Remarks by former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla. Remarks by Bob White, chairman of Romney for President campaign Remarks by Grant Bennett Remarks by Tom Stemberg — 9 p.m. Remarks...

Excerpts released by the Romney campaign from Paul Ryan's address tonight to Republican convention in Tampa, Florida: "I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old – and I know that we are ready. Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor...

[The crowd that turned out Saturday morning to hear Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan speak at the Village Green Park Amphitheatre in Powell, Ohio.]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Mitt Romney has locked himself into "extreme positions" on economic and social issues and would surely impose them if elected, trying to discredit his Republican rival at the biggest political moment of his life. In an interview with The Associated Press, Obama said Romney lacks serious ideas, refuses to "own up" to the responsibilities of what it takes to be president, and deals in factually dishonest arguments that could soon haunt him in face-to-face debates.

Kid Rock's presence on the campaign trail was felt long before he appeared with Mitt Romney's running mate Rep. Paul Ryan at a fundraiser on Friday. Just ask any campaign staffer or political reporter on the trail. His song "Born Free" has blasted from speakers at rallies since Romney launched his presidential bid more than a year ago, and it has been playing at Ryan events since he joined the Republican ticket.

.......On CNN, TimStanley noted the potential strength that the[Chick-fil-A]protest foreshadowed and wondered that "something more complex is taking place: Economics and culture are becoming synonymous." Might a large swath of the population believe that those two ideas are more than "becoming synonymous" -- that culture actually lays the very foundation of the economy? In the masterpiece Witness,WhittakerChambers, the inspiration for many great conservative thinkers including RonaldReagan, penned the famous quote: "Economics is not the central problem of this century. It is a relative problem that can be solved in relative ways. Faith is the central problem of this age." The...

For all the attention it got, Republican Mitt Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate has not altered the race against President Barack Obama. The campaign remains neck and neck with less than three months to go, a new AP-GfK poll shows. Overall, 47 percent of registered voters said they planned to back Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in November, while 46 percent favored Romney and Ryan. That's not much changed from a June AP-GfK survey, when the split was 47 percent for the president to 44 percent for Romney. At the same time,...

Seeks input from Texas energy executives Republican U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney tapped oil executives for nearly $7 million on Tuesday and told them he will lay out a comprehensive energy proposal this week aimed at increasing U.S. energy production and creating jobs. On a day of fund-raising in Texas, Romney got whoops of approval from contributors in the West Texas oil town of Midland when he vowed to take advantage of "oil, gas, nuclear and renewables" if elected president on Nov. 6. Midland is where former President George W. Bush grew up, and Romney's motorcade passed a road sign...

Immigration is one of the toughest issues for the Republican Party to navigate. Getting tough on undocumented workers appeals to the party's sizable law-and-order contingent. Yet easing the borders so that workers from other countries can perform low-wage or high-tech jobs is popular with the party's business-minded members. These two sides clashed this week as more than 100 delegates met at the Marriott Waterside to draft the Republican platform, a document that sets general policy guidelines for the party as it heads into its national convention next week. Immigration is such a contentious issue that it provided one of the...