Obama grants Holder request on ‘Furious’ documents as contempt vote looms  —  DEVELOPING ...  President Obama has granted an 11th-hour request by Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off …

Obama Leads In Poll As Voters View Romney As Out Of Touch  —  Barack Obama has opened a significant lead over Mitt Romney in a Bloomberg National Poll that reflects the presumed Republican nominee's weaknesses more than the president's strengths.  —  Obama leads Romney 53 percent …

Tim Pawlenty's stock soars in Romney-world  —  Tim Pawlenty has jumped to the top of the vice presidential shortlist of several Mitt Romney advisers after emerging as the most effective — and well-liked — surrogate for the GOP nominee-to-be, according to several Republicans familiar with campaign deliberations.

Middle class could face higher taxes under Republican plan, analysis finds  —  The tax reform plan that House Republicans have advanced would sharply cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and could leave middle-class households facing much larger tax bills, according to a new analysis set to be released Wednesday.

For immediate release  —  Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that the economy has been expanding moderately this year.  However, growth in employment has slowed in recent months, and the unemployment rate remains elevated.  Business fixed investment has continued to advance.

New NSA docs contradict 9/11 claims  —  “I don't think the Bush administration would want to see these released,” an expert tells Salon  —  Over 120 CIA documents concerning 9/11, Osama bin Laden and counterterrorism were published today for the first time, having been newly declassified and released to the National Security Archive.

TPMMuckraker  —  Arizona Secretary Of State's Latest Theory: Obama Lied About Being Born In Kenya To Get Into College  —  The top election official in Arizona, fresh off his flirtation with birtherism, has moved on to a strange new conspiracy theory involving President Barack Obama.

E-mails show U.Va. board wanted a big online push  —  By  —  E-mail messages were flying among leaders of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia in the weeks leading up to the ouster of Teresa A. Sullivan as president of the university.  The e-mail messages show …

The 2012 campaign is the smallest ever  —  For years, operatives, reporters and potential nominees envisioned the 2012 presidential campaign as a titanic clash of media-swarmed combatants with big ideas about the future.  In the Republican primaries, this was almost a mantra: this is the most important campaign in a generation.

GOProud Endorses former Governor Mitt Romney for President  —  Organization of Gay Conservatives and their Straight Allies Will Commit Significant Resources to Electing Mitt Romney  —  (Washington, D.C.) - Last night, the Board of Directors of GOProud - a national organization of gay …

Mitt Romney Is Terrible For Traffic  —  We admit it, and so do other bloggers and editors: Nobody seems to want to read stories about Mitt Romney.  For the candidate, a blessing or a curse?  —  In the war of partisan trash talk that frequently consumes online political media …