A nice mix of stories today from our stable of reporters, rounding out to a big picture of where the election is today. We now face an election with at best a tepid US economy — Brian Beutler looks at how the fate of the US economy hinges on the management and outcome of the EuroZone crisis, which is almost entirely outside its control. And that’s forced the president back from the broad ‘Morning in America-lite’ campaign they were hoping for last winter to a tighter and more hard fought blocking and tackling over critical demographic groups in in a handful of states. Read More

New York Rep. and Senate longshot Bob Turner held a protest yesterday in support of kindergarteners right to sing Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”

It did not go well.

John Boehner, after killing the DREAM Act earlier this year, calls out President Obama for killing the DREAM Act.

Lanny Davis and Michael Steele tell angry bloggers: You people don’t understand the awesome.

Reports from the sidelines of the G20 summit in Mexico suggest German Chancellor Angela Merkel might be ready to make a very big move to save the euro.

Merkel prepares to sign off on letting the Eurozone directly buy the debt of crisis-racked member countries.

I’m not sure how the Romney camp let this happen. But they’ve now apparently confirmed the leak that Marco Rubio is not being considered for Romney’s veep. It doesn’t terribly surprise me that the Romney camp doesn’t think Rubio’s a good bet. But how you let that become public is a totally different story.

Portman and Pawlenty are apparently getting a close look.

Their unprecedented and indeed bizarre demands having not been met, Scott Brown’s campaign says the candidate won’t participate in a debate against Elizabeth Warren, sponsored by the Kennedy Institute.

As I said earlier, I’m surprised that the Romney campaign let it get out there that they’re not even considering Marco Rubio as a vice presidential pick. I’m less surprised about the substance (he’s got a lot of vulnerabilities) than the fact that they let it get out there and then confirmed that they’re not looking at him.

But now it’s buzzing around on Twitter that a ‘Romney advisor’ said that women aren’t being considered because after Sarah Palin it’s too dangerous to choose a woman. But this is just a bad rap. That’s not really what anyone said. Read More

Jamie Dimon gets a frostier reception in a House hearing than he did during last week’s Senate hug-a-thon.