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GOP Takes Harsher Stance Toward Islam
Politico reports: “The harsh Republican response to President Barack Obama’s defense of a mosque near ground zero marks a dramatic shift in the party’s posture toward Islam — from a once active courtship of Muslim voters to a very public tolerance after Sept. 11 to an openly aired sense of mistrust. Republican leaders have largely abandoned former President George W. Bush’s post-Sept. 11 rhetorical embrace of American Muslims and his insistence — always controversial inside the party — that Islam is a religion of peace. This weekend, former Bush aides were among the very few Republicans siding with Obama, as many of the party’s leaders have moved toward more vocal denunciations of Islam’s role in violence abroad and suspicion of its place at home.”

Obama’s Day Ahead
President Obama will depart from the White House at 9:15 a.m. ET, and depart from Andrews Air Force Base at 9:30 a.m. ET, arriving at 11:15 a.m. ET in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At 11:50 a.m. ET, he will tour the ZBB Corporation Manufacturing Facility, and at 12:10 p.m. ET he will deliver remarks to workers. At 2:25 p.m. ET, he will deliver remarks at an event for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor. He will depart from Milwaukee at 3:25 p.m. ET, arriving at 7:10 p.m. ET in Los Angeles, California. He will deliver remarks at 10:05 p.m. ET, at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraising event.

Obama Launching 3 Days Of Fundraising Travel
The Associated Press reports: “President Barack Obama is out to make sure his presence pays for Democrats, launching a three-day fundraising trip on Monday in which he will touch nearly every region of the nation and play up his economic agenda.”

Some Democratic Candidates Distance Themselves From Obama
The Washington Post reports: “Fight or flight? That is the question Democratic incumbents and challengers in this fall’s elections are asking themselves when it comes to dealing with President Obama. Is the best course to distance oneself from a president whose job-approval rating has sunk below 50 percent and whose appeal to independents has gone missing? Or to embrace him and his policies — the majority of which remain quite popular with the Democratic base that will be essential to any victories that the party claims this fall? Powerful forces are lining up on both sides of that strategic divide.”

Group Coordinates Attack On GOP Over Social Security, Medicare
Roll Call reports: “Dovetailing their efforts with the Democratic Party’s midterm elections strategy, Americans United for Change is dispatching staff and resources to battleground states in what appears to be a shoestring effort to paint Republicans as seeking to destroy Social Security and Medicare. A key part of the Democrats’ strategy to stem losses on Nov. 2 is to convince voters that Republicans are extremists who, if elected, would gut Social Security and Medicare. The AUFC, a Democratic activist group, is hoping to help drive home this message and is spending $100,000 over the next month to send two staffers each to Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania and one staffer each to Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Washington state.”

Energy Department Watchdog Notes Woes With Managing Stimulus Dollars
The Hill reports: “The Energy Department’s internal watchdog has mixed reviews of the department’s distribution and use of economic stimulus dollars, even as the White House touts the massive spending bill in the run-up to midterms…The IG reported Wednesday that DOE has given out roughly $2.7 billion of $3.2 billion in energy and conservation block grants provided in last year’s stimulus. But only 8.4 percent of the total had been used by grant recipients after more than a year. Spending delays were ‘prevalent and widespread throughout the Program,’ particularly by those receiving the largest grants of more than $2 million each, the report found.”

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