Romney's bounce from convention looks short-lived: Reuters/Ipsos poll  —  (Reuters) - A modest bump in popularity for U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from this week's Republican Party convention looks to be short-lived, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Rains wash away Mount Obama in Charlotte, N.C.  —  CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A torrential downpour that struck Charlotte Saturday afternoon damaged the Mount Rushmore-style sand sculpture bust of President Obama — an ominous beginning to what many fear is a plagued convention.

Iowans' Message to Obama: ‘We Did Build This’  —  SIOUX CITY, Iowa — President Obama received a less than warm welcome and a warning upon arrival at the airport here on the second stop of his Iowa visit, which was aimed at recapturing some of the magic the state gave his run to the White House in 2008.

Look who parks their cash at Bain  —  Democrats convened in Charlotte, NC, will double down on their claim that Bain Capital is really the Bain crime family.  They will accuse Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Bain's other “greedy” co-founders of stealing their winnings …

Harris-Perry Loses Cool Over Guest's Comment, Yells ‘I Am Sick Of The Idea That Being Wealthy Is Risky’  —  On her show Saturday morning, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry grew visibly frustrated over a guest's assertion that the “big thing” missing in the President's “you didn't build that speech” …

Number of Republicans in America Reaches Record High  —  After falling for two straight months, the number of Americans who consider themselves Republicans jumped nearly three points in August.  —  During August, 37.6% of Americans considered themselves Republicans.  That's up from 34.9% in July and 35.4% in June.

Romney Staffer Committing Charitable Fraud  —  Bill Murphy, Mitt Romney's Social Media Director, and his colleague Ali Akbar have ripped off a lot of people.  They ripped off the Tea Party with the American Liberty Alliance.  They ripped off movement Conservatives with the National Bloggers Club.

The End of an Era: Comments Are Closed  —  After almost three years and well more than 40,000 published reader comments (and half a million spam comments that either we or our spam filter managed to identify and trash), Via Meadia is joining the ranks of non-comment blogs.

Forecasting the election: Most models say Obama will win.  But not all.  —  This year's American Political Science Association (APSA) conference was set to be in New Orleans this weekend.  Suffice it to say, that didn't happen.  —  It's a shame, not least because one of the panels …

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan Speeches Make Me Miss George Bush  —  I didn't watch Mitt Romney's acceptance speech last night.  I can't do it: even under normal circumstances, watching politicians of any stripe talk about anything at all makes me unable to sleep.  And a convention speech …

Why Campaign Reporters Are Behind the Curve  —  It becomes popular around this time of year to lament the fact that media coverage treats the presidential campaign as little more than a “horse race.”  Journalists, this line of argument goes, choose to fixate on which candidate is a superior campaigner …

Teen killed after sticking head through party bus roof near George Washington Bridge  —  Sixteen-year-old Daniel Fernandez died when his head smashed into an overpass.  —  Twitter photo showing Daniel Fernandez of Sayreville, N.J. who was killed when he apparently stuck his head through …