Recapping Romney’s stop in Israel… It wasn’t London, but there were still some snafus for Team Romney there… Romney touches down in Poland… And he admits he’s been audited by the IRS… Romney’s transparency problem… What he said at that fundraiser with Sheldon Adelson… Bill Clinton’s big role at the Democratic convention… Obama camp stops its PA ad spending, for now… And Cruz-ing to victory: Will Ted Cruz beat David Dewhurst in tomorrow’s TX SEN run-off?

Jason Reed / Reuters

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is pictured in front of the Old City of Jerusalem as he delivers foreign policy remarks at Mishkenot Sha'ananim, July 29, 2012.

*** Recapping Romney’s Israel stop: Fortunately for Mitt Romney and his campaign, the visit to Israel went much smoother than the stop in Great Britain. But there were still some snafus (more on them below). In his speech yesterday in Jerusalem, Romney checked all the boxes. He embraced Israel. “We’re part of the great fellowship of democracies. We speak the same language of freedom and justice, and the right of every person to live in peace.” He talked tough on Iran. “We must not delude ourselves into thinking that containment is an option. We must lead the effort to prevent Iran from building and possessing nuclear weapons capability.” And he even made a subtle dig at President Obama, referring to the tension between the Obama administration and Israel’s conservative Netanyahu government. “Diplomatic distance in public between our nations emboldens Israel's adversaries.” But what Romney DIDN’T SAY was almost as striking -- if not more so. Not once did he utter the phrase “peace process” nor the words “Palestine” or “Palestinian,” and that also means he never talked about or made the case for a two-state solution. Was the speech for anyone other than base Republicans? This trip to Israel felt like a primary trip, not one aimed at the general election.

*** More snafus: As mentioned above, Team Romney still had some problems while in Israel. For starters, a top adviser on Israel matters -- Dan Senor -- suggested that Romney was set to support a unilateral strike by Israel on Iran, the New York Times noted. “If Israel has to take action on its own, the governor would respect that decision,” Senor said in a briefing before Romney’s speech yesterday. But Romney later walked back Senor’s remarks, telling ABC: “I think I’ll use my own terms in that regard and that is that I recognize the right of Israel to defend itself.” Also, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Romney canceling his meeting with an Israeli opposition party figure upset folks there. And a Palestinian official criticized Romney for asserting that Jerusalem is Israel’s true capital, the AP said. “The Palestinians want to establish a capital in east Jerusalem, captured and annexed by Israel in 1967. Most of the world, including the U.S., does not recognize the annexation. The U.S. and others keep their embassies in Tel Aviv.” What’s more the same Palestinian official also criticized Romney for suggesting that Israel’s culture is superior to the Palestinians’. So it wasn’t England, but Romney was still 1) making folks mad, and 2) having to walk back remarks.

*** Arrival in Poland: Romney and the media following him have touched down in Poland, the final leg of the candidate’s weeklong overseas trip. On today’s agenda in Gdansk: Romney participates in photo sprays with Polish PM Donald Tusk (at 10:15 am ET) and former President Lech Walesa (at 11:20 am ET). Later, he visits a World War II memorial and Solidarity Monument Site.

*** Romney admits he’s been audited by the IRS: Romney made some other -- call it accidental -- news yesterday in his interview with ABC. He mentioned he had been audited by the IRS. In response to question about his tax returns, the GOP candidate said, “[M]y view is I’ve paid all the taxes required by law. From time to time I’ve been audited, as happens I think to other citizens as well… I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president.”  The Romney campaign will not say what year he was audited -- only that he was found to be in compliance and that the audit took place more than 10 years ago. But while being audited isn’t that odd, it only adds to the narrative that his tax returns are so unique that it invites an audit.

*** Romney’s transparency problem: The Romney camp was wise to reverse course and finally allow press into a fundraiser in Israel this morning that it suddenly declared off limits, which violated protocol with the media. Why was it smart to reverse course? Because the Romney campaign already has a transparency problem. It has said it won’t reveal its bundlers (as George W. Bush, John McCain, and Barack Obama have) or release Romney’s own tax returns prior to 2010. So barring the media from covering an agreed-upon event would have even furthered this transparency problem. All administrations tend to be less transparent than promised once they get into office -- it’s the natural result of partisan conflict as well as the tension between the different branches of government. But Romney is well on his way to being the first presumptive presidential nominee we can remember who has been LESS transparent than his predecessors.

*** What Romney said at that fundraiser in Israel: So what did we learn from this fundraiser after the press was allowed entry? According to the pool report, attendees included Sheldon Adelson and his wife, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, mega-donor Paul Singer, and others. What’s more, Romney’s remarks at the fundraisers seemed to criticize Obama, though Romney didn’t mention him by name. “We face some real challenges, nonetheless, and perhaps in part because of the great success of these places, this home of yours, my home of America, that some are troubled by our success and seek to bring us down.” He added, “The news that our economy grew at 1.5% last quarter was really quite troubling. We’re now four years past the big downturn that occurred in 2008, and four years down the road and still seeing tepid numbers bouncing along the bottom is troubling.”

*** Adelson’s top issue: Speaking of Adelson, it is especially noteworthy that the biggest issue for the No. 1 donor to Republican causes, campaigns, and interest groups right now isn’t a domestic concern like taxes or regulation. It’s Israel. Adelson has really doubled down on becoming the highest profile mega-donor to the GOP. He seemed to almost relish the attention he was getting from the U.S. press corps while in Jerusalem on Romney’s behalf.

*** Bubba’s role at the Dem convention: As the New York Times first reported, former president Bill Clinton will speak in primetime on the next-to-last day of the Democratic convention, on Wednesday, Sept 5. That decision, NBC’s Carrie Dann notes, means that Vice President Biden will instead speak before the president on the final Thursday evening of the convention. Clinton is expected to argue for Obama's economic policies in his speech. "There's no one better to cut through on economic issues and lay out the choice in the election because he understands the consequences of the policy differences" from his own presidency, an aide said. But what shouldn’t be ignored about this decision is that Wednesday Sept. 5 is the NFL’s first game of the regular season, which will air on NBC. (It’s Giants-Cowboys; not exactly a matchup of teams that have small fan bases.) The Obama camp realized that it needed a big draw to compete with the NFL game and to convince the other networks to cover (NBC will NOT be airing any of the convention on the NFL night). In addition, moving Biden to Thursday isn’t a snub at all; in fact, it means that more male eyeballs will be on him than would have been the case if he went on Wednesday. Per NBC’s Dann, sources say the decision to bump Biden to the final night of the convention was made jointly by the VP and the president. Both Biden and Obama will speak at the football stadium.

*** Obama camp stops its PA ad spending, for now:  By the way, the Obama campaign is no longer advertising in Pennsylvania -- at least for now. We’ll have more information on all the ad spending later. But their latest buy has them in 8 states: FL, VA, NH, OH, IA, NV, CO and NC.

*** Cruz-ing to victory? And tomorrow is the Texas Senate run-off between LG David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz. All the momentum seems to be with Cruz right now. In fact, Politico pretty much says the race is his to lose. “Ted Cruz is on the cusp of a win in the Texas Republican Senate runoff that would shatter conventional campaign wisdom and elevate him as one of the brightest stars of the tea party generation.” Of course, anything can happen in a run-off. But if Cruz wins, it would be the Club for Growth’s biggest win in a big state. And a Dewhurst loss would mean that he got turned into the establishment incumbent. Given the unpopularity of Congress right now and of government in general, being tagged “the incumbent” is a political death sentence in competitive primaries. (Watch out Tommy Thompson).

Countdown to GOP convention: 28 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 35 days
Countdown to Election Day: 99 days

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Former President Bill Clinton delivers closing remarks at the International AIDS Conference at the Walter Washington Convention Center July 27, 2012 in Washington, DC.

Former President Bill Clinton will have a marquee role in this summer's Democratic National Convention, where he will make a forceful case for President Barack Obama's re-election and his economic vision for the country, several Obama campaign and Democratic party officials said Sunday.

The move gives the Obama campaign an opportunity to take advantage of the former president's immense popularity and remind voters that a Democrat was in the White House the last time the American economy was thriving.

Obama personally asked Clinton to speak at the convention and place Obama's name in nomination, and Clinton enthusiastically accepted, officials said. Clinton speaks regularly to Obama and to campaign officials about strategy.

Clinton's prominent role at the convention will also allow Democrats to embrace party unity in a way that is impossible for Republican rival Mitt Romney.

George W. Bush, the last Republican to hold the White House, remains politically toxic in some circles. While Bush has endorsed Romney, he is not involved in his campaign and has said he does not plan to attend the GOP convention.

Clinton will speak in prime-time at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 5, the night before Obama formally accepts the party nomination. While the number two on the ticket often speaks that night, the Obama campaign has instead decided that Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will speak on the same night.

Biden will speak before Obama on Sept. 6, in front of tens of thousands of people expected to fill an outdoor stadium in Charlotte, and millions more on television.

The vice president's speech will focus on outlining many of the challenges the White House has faced over the past four years and the decisions Obama made to address them, officials said.

"To us it's about deploying our assets in the most effective way," Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said. "To have President Clinton on Wednesday night laying out the choice facing voters, and then having Vice President Biden speak right before the president in prime time on Thursday, giving a testimony to the decisions the president has made, the character of his leadership and the battle to rebuild the middle class that's so central to our message."

Clinton's role at the convention was to be formally announced Monday. It was first reported by The New York Times.

Clinton spoke at the 2008 convention, part of a healing process for the Democratic party following the heated primary battle between Obama and the former president's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Since then, the ties between Obama and Bill Clinton have strengthened significantly. Obama has called on the former president for advice several times during his term and the two have appeared together this year at campaign fundraisers for Obama's re-election bid.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Sunday renewed his criticism of Chief Justice John Roberts' reasoning in upholding President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law and also said the Constitution undoubtedly permits some gun control.

The 76-year-old Scalia - a leading conservative on the court who has served as a justice since 1986 - also was asked whether he would time his retirement in order to let a conservative future president appoint a like-minded jurist.

"I don't know. I haven't decided when to retire," Scalia told the "Fox News Sunday" program. "... My wife doesn't want me hanging around the house - I know that."

"Of course, I would not like to be replaced by someone who immediately sets about undoing everything that I've tried to do for 25 years, 26 years, sure. I mean, I shouldn't have to tell you that. Unless you think I'm a fool."

Roberts, also a conservative, sided with the nine-member court's four liberals in upholding the constitutionality of Obama's healthcare law, considered the Democratic president's signature domestic policy achievement.

Scalia joined in a sharply worded dissent on the day of the June 28 ruling and added to his criticism on Sunday.

A central provision of the law is the "individual mandate" that most Americans obtain health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty. The ruling found that this penalty "may reasonably be characterized as a tax" and thus would be constitutionally permissible under the power of Congress to impose taxes.

"There is no way to regard this penalty as a tax. ... In order to save the constitutionality, you cannot give the text a meaning it will not bear," Scalia said.

"You don't interpret a penalty to be a pig. It can't be a pig."

Supreme Court justices rarely give media interviews. Scalia is making the rounds to promote "Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts," a new book he co-wrote.

Scalia brushed off Obama's comments aimed at the court regarding the healthcare law and a campaign finance ruling.

"What can he do to me? Or to any of us?" Scalia said. "We have life tenure and we have it precisely so that we will not be influenced by politics, by threats from anybody."

He was asked "why you push people's buttons every once in a while." Scalia said, "It's fun to push the buttons."

Gun control

Scalia wrote the high court's 2008 ruling that a ban on handguns in the U.S. capital violated the right to bear arms enshrined in the Constitution's Second Amendment.

In light of the July 20 massacre in which a gunman killed 12 moviegoers in Colorado, Scalia was asked whether legislatures could ban the sale of semiautomatic weapons.

He said the 2008 ruling stated that future cases will determine "what limitations upon the right to bear arms are permissible. Some undoubtedly are."

Scalia - a proponent of the idea that the Constitution must be interpreted using the meaning of its text at the time it was written - cited "a tort called affrighting" that existed when the Second Amendment was drafted in the 18th century making it a misdemeanor to carry "a really horrible weapon just to scare people like a head ax."

"So yes, there are some limitations that can be imposed," he said. "I mean, obviously, the amendment does not apply to arms that cannot be hand-carried. It's to 'keep and bear' (arms). So, it doesn't apply to cannons. But I suppose there are handheld rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes that will have to be ... decided."

Regarding the death penalty, Scalia said opponents want it struck under the ban on cruel and unusual punishment included in the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.

"But it's absolutely clear that the American people never voted to proscribe the death penalty," he said. "They adopted a cruel and unusual punishment clause at the time when every state had the death penalty and every state continued to have it. Nobody thought that the Eighth Amendment prohibited it."

Scalia also took issue with decades-old Supreme Court precedent, saying the Constitution does not provide Americans with a right to privacy, despite a landmark 1965 ruling finding that it does. That ruling helped pave the way for the court's 1973 ruling legalizing abortion.

"There is no right to privacy - no generalized right to privacy," Scalia said. "No one ever thought that the American people ever voted to prohibit limitations on abortion. I mean, there is nothing in the Constitution that says that."

Scalia also was asked about his past criticism of rulings by Supreme Court colleagues in which he called them "folly" and "sheer applesauce."

"I don't know that I'm cantankerous," he said. "I express myself vividly." 

JANESVILLE, Wis. -- Campaigning for the GOP nominee in his home state with just 100 days before the presidential election, Congressman Paul Ryan said he is confident Mitt Romney can win here in the Badger State this November.

"We haven't gone Republican on top of the ticket since 1984 but we think this time is different. We think it’s different because people in Wisconsin are tired of the direction Washington is going. They don't the president's policies have worked," Ryan told NBC News in an interview Sunday evening. They think, “this is not the uniter. This is not the hope and change. This is a man who is dividing us, who is giving us terrible economic policies, who is growing government, who is growing the debt, and that just doesn't rub right with Wisconsinites."

And the Republican National Committee Chairman predicted victory as well:

"If we win Wisconsin, I think it is lights out for Barack Obama," Chairman Reince Preibus told reporters in Waukesha.

Addressing crowds at Victory Centers throughout Wisconsin this weekend, Rep. Ryan was joined at points by Sen. Ron Johnson and the RNC Chairman, who is originally from Wisconsin. These events – complete with an official Romney bus -- were part of a big surrogate push throughout the country while Romney is overseas.

"This is a national campaign. All these battleground states, what we  want to do is get the message out, President Obama's policies aren't working, we need to go a different direction and we also want to thank all our volunteers," Ryan said -- avoiding the question if this surrogate blitz is really a tryout to be Romney's vice presidential pick.

Sen. Johnson weighed in briefly on the VP speculation.

"I think Paul would do a phenomenal job as vice president.  Nice thing that Gov. Romney has a lot of great choices.  So I've got faith that he'll choose a good one," the senator said.

But Rep. Ryan, who earlier in the day attended the Dousman Derby Days parade and fair where he participated in the 2012 Wisconsin State Frog Jump contest, continued to avoid any talk of being on Romney's ticket.

"I don't think it does the Romney campaign any help or favors to speculate or feed the speculation on this stuff so that's why I just don't make comments about it," he said when asked if he was a 'dark horse' for Romney to select.

The Wisconsin Congressman heads to the 19th District of Florida Monday to campaign for Chauncey Goss who is running for Congress before heading back to Washington, DC for the week.

An aircraft carrying Sen. Marco Rubio to a rally for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made a safe emergency landing in Albuquerque, N.M., on Saturday with an electrical problem, an aide said.

The information office at the Albuquerque airport told NBC News that the pilots reported that a sensor had gone off indicating an electrical issue. The plane landed at 3:58 p.m. local time and taxied under its own power, the office said. Rubio was flying from Las Vegas on a private plane.

Tweets from Rubio's Twitter account said that he was unable to make it to the Des Moines rally but still managed to speak to the crowd via cell phone. According to one tweet, this was the second plane that Rubio had been on on Saturday that had a problem: "I know how to take a hint!" 

Rubio, a Republican from Florida, has been spoken of as a possible vice presidential choice for Romney and has made appearances on his behalf.

CARY, NC -- Fresh from lunch at Chick-Fil-A, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said that officials' public objections to the Christian-owned fast food chain are "chilling."

"Now you have the police power of government intimidating and threatening people, being used to intimidate and threaten people, based on their free speech rights and their religious views," Pawlenty said Saturday of city officials' objections to president Dan Cathy's public disavowal of gay marriage.  "I mean it’s chilling.  I mean it’s stunning, it is jaw-dropping.  And so I think strong people who see this need to stand up and say no we don’t do that in the United States."

Several elected officials, including the mayor of Boston, have said that they will discourage the opening of new Chick-Fil-A franchises.

Pawlenty noted said that he had sampled Chick-Fil-A's products for lunch earlier Saturday. "It was awesome," he said of the chicken strips and waffle fries he ordered.

The former Minnesota governor's comments came in response to a question from roundtable participant Kristine Godeaux of Cary. 

"I was just really wishing that someone in the Republican Party would have stepped forward," Godeaux said of the "intimidation" she felt from pro-gay marriage advocates over the issue. "There just seems to be this real lack of leadership and I’m just hopeful and praying that if Gov. Romney does win the election that we’ll be allowed to have civil debate and disagree with each other without feeling threatened or penalized."

Despite the ongoing summer Olympics, recreational hockey player Pawlenty had winter sports on the brain. He took time after the "sports parents" roundtable at the Polar Ice House skating venue to skate a few laps around the rink.

Pawlenty wasn't the only politician supporting Chick-Fil-A.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Friday posted on Facebook two pictures of a visit to a Chick-Fil-A in The Woodlands, Tex., where she supported insurgent conservative U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz. She posted the comment, "Stopped by Chick-fil-A in The Woodlands to support a great business."

LONDON -- Mitt Romney will try to rebuild momentum for his closely watched foreign trip Saturday when he arrives in Israel, where the presumptive GOP nominee will look to escape two days' worth of negative headlines plaguing his campaign in London.

Romney will arrive in Jerusalem with hopes of finding surer political footing than in London. He spent most of his two days in the United Kingdom's capital trying to clean up a controversy spurred by his comments to NBC doubting London's preparation for the Summer Olympic Games. He and his wife Ann attended the opening ceremonies last night.

This will be Romney's fourth visit to Israel, and it's expected to be another whirlwind day of meetings with top officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (a friend of Romney's from their days at Boston Consulting Group decades ago), and Palestinian leader Salam Fayyad, whom Romney also knows from previous visits.

Romney will also give a public speech while in Jerusalem — his first such engagement thus far during his foreign trip — that is expected to be heavy on praise for America's most important ally in the Middle East, with whom Romney has repeatedly called for the U.S. to "lock arms" on the international stage.

The presumptive GOP nominee has pledged to keep with diplomatic tradition by not criticizing President Obama or his foreign policy while on foreign soil, but in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Hayom (owned by conservative mega-donor Sheldon Adelson), Romney ripped the president for various elements of his policy toward Israel, including the president's call for the Israel to consider returning to its pre-1967 borders, including land swaps with the Palestinians to compensate for disputed territory.

"The president has also spoken of returning to 1967 borders — they are indefensible. And acting as a negotiator and usurping the primary role played by Israel in negotiating for its own future is not the right course for America to take," Romney told the paper.

Romney also indicated in his interview with Hayom that his primary audience on this trip to Israel was, after all, American voters. In 2008, President Obama carried the Jewish vote with 78 percent of the vote, a lead into which Romney's campaign would love to make inroads.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk explains:

"The context is a political campaign in which there is a sense that because of tensions between Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu the American Jewish vote is up for grabs," said Indyk, who served under Bill Clinton. "In that context its natural that the Republican campaign would seek to emphasize the friendships Romney has in Israel and the problems Obama has had with Netanyahu."

Indyk, who has authored a book on Obama's foreign policy, described Obama's security record on Israel - enhanced Friday by the signing of a new agreement - "impeccable," but said Romney had room to appeal to Israelis and Americans by showing more warmth to Israel than the sometimes cold Obama.

Sure to be on the agenda in Romney's various meetings: the specter of a nuclear Iran, the most pressing security issue to Israel.

"Again, he's got to walk between the raindrops, because while he'll try to draw distinction and claim Obama is weak and he is strong on this issue, he's got to be careful not to give the American voting public the impression if he's president he'll go to war with Iran," Indyk said.  

Brits rally around the Games after Romney's Olympics gaffe

Updated at 6:19 pm ET Scott Gessler isn’t a household name in national politics, but could become famous in a hurry, just as Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris did during the 2000 presidential recount.

Colorado’s swing state pattern in the last five presidential elections makes its nine electoral votes loom large this November.

Matt Mcclain / Getty Images

In this file photo, Mica Rickman, 1, reaches out to his mother, Carly Fridlich as she votes at the Gilpin County Community Center on November 2, 2010 outside of Central City, Colorado.

And, as Colorado’s Republican secretary of state, elected in 2010, Gessler could have a decisive influence on the November outcome in the state. He has launched efforts to remove ineligible people from the voter rolls. And if it’s a close vote, he would preside over any recount and be the official who certifies the state’s electoral vote to the U.S. House of Representatives after the election.

Gessler scored a victory last week when the Department of Homeland Security agreed to let his agency to use DHS databases of non-citizens to cross-check the list of Colorado voters to ensure that non-citizens are not registered.

Gessler spoke on voter fraud Thursday at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation in Washington along with two of his fellow Republicans, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson.

He said in an interview afterward that his agency hasn’t yet signed a memorandum of understanding with DHS on using its SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) system. “I’m hoping we’ll get it done in the next week or two,” he said.

One of Gessler’s starting points was a list of Colorado voters who had driver’s licenses which indicated they were not U.S. citizens. For voters who come up as positive matches in the SAVE system as non-citizens, Gessler said, “I anticipate what we’re going to be doing is sending them a letter and giving them yet another opportunity to correct any error there may be.”

The 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) bars states, within 90 days of an election, from conducting a systematic program to remove ineligible people from its voter lists.

Under NVRA, Colorado might face an Aug. 8 deadline to remove names from its list, but Gessler said “there’s a real question as to whether that Aug. 8 deadline even applies” because if the state sends a letter to each person asking him or her to clarify their status, the voter verification effort won’t be a systemic voting list purge and therefore won’t fall within the NVRA’s window.

And a recent decision by federal district court Judge Robert Hinkle in Florida said the NVRA deadline applies only in cases of people who were originally properly registered – they were U.S. citizens – but were subsequently removed from the voter rolls due to their death or moving out of the state or having been convicted of a felony. Hinkle’s ruling makes clear that the NVRA deadline doesn’t apply to non-citizens who never should have been registered in the first place, Gessler said.

One of Gessler’s critics, Joanne Schwartz, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, said someone’s name might be in the SAVE system “because they accessed federal benefits while here on a green card, but since then have become citizens. Certainly it is not designed to be a voter database, it was created in order to address another nonexistent problem - that of unauthorized immigrants accessing Medicaid and welfare.”

Gessler said that the fact that someone has subsequently become a U.S. citizen will be reflected in the SAVE system.

Schwartz asked, “What will happen with the names that aren't able to be crosschecked against the SAVE database? Do those names remain in question and what is Gessler's process (for dealing with such voters)?”

He promised, “I’m not going to strike someone from the voter rolls unless I’m very confident that they’re not a citizen…. I need very strong evidence on an individual basis before taking action.”

Gessler’s critics accuse him of obstructing eligible voters in an effort to hold down voter turnout. He’s engaged in a dispute with some county clerks in Colorado over sending ballots to inactive voters (those who missed one election); some Democrats say he’s depriving people of their vote, Gessler says he’s enforcing the law.

In his remarks at Heritage, Gessler scoffed that “some of this disenfranchisement hysteria is frankly silly.” He called ProgressNow Colorado part of “the professional angry left” and “who do their ankle biting stuff which is what they always do against Republicans.”

His pungent rhetoric is a reminder that the state officials in charge of administering elections in an impartial way are elected by the voters and run on a Democratic or Republican line. University of California, Irvine law professor Richard Hasen notes in his new book The Voting Wars, “Other modern democracies, such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, put nonpartisan officials in charge of their elections.”

Schwartz said in a recent Denver Post op-ed that Gessler has "gone to great lengths and expense to put obstacles in the way of eligible voters -- without evidence that voter fraud is a problem at all in Colorado." Gessler maintains that not only does fraud occur, but in a close election it could be decisive. He decried what he called a “see no evil, hear no evil culture”-- people who refuse to admit that vote fraud has happened.

“Some of the same people who see massive corruption when it comes to the campaign finance system” just assume that “our hearts have become pure” when to comes to balloting. But he said most Americans “intuitively understand” that in complicated endeavor like conducting an election with a voting population of 3.4 million, “there is a small proportion of people who will when tempted do the wrong thing.” And he said, “Political power as gained through elections is a temptation.”

To one critic in the audience at the Heritage Foundation event who asked why states are requiring additional steps such as proof of citizenship when people register to vote, since the current system in most states works fine, Gessler replied, “The system doesn’t work and we have plenty of evidence of that in state of Colorado.” He said there were more than 400 cases of people in Colorado in recent years who asked to be removed from the voter rolls because they weren’t citizens and people who attempted to register to vote even after having checked the “I am not a U.S. citizen” box on their application.

No matter how low his national profile has been so far, Gessler is becoming part of the 2012 campaign theme of voter fraud and vote suppression. For some Democrats, efforts such as Gessler’s are one more reason to turn out and vote.

But Gessler’s view is that by using the voter suppression argument, “people on the left are manipulating their base” to divert attention from what Americans really care about: the economy.

 “People care that unemployment is horrific. The African-American community, in particular, has been hit by unemployment and loss of family wealth. Economically we are an absolute basket case with no bright prospects down the road…. So that’s the context. What are they (his opponents) arguing? ‘Pay no attention to our economic malaise. The other guy is evil.’ And frankly I think it’s demagoguery and manipulation,” he said.

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Alan Wilson as South Carolina's secretary of state. He is South Carolina's attorney general.

We’ve reached halftime in the Obama-vs.-Romney contest… Romney’s rough Thursday in England and he tries to clean up the mess… NBC’s Matt Lauer interviews Romney on “TODAY”… Obama camp goes up with its Olympics TV spot… And why doesn’t the public know Romney better?

*** Halftime: With tonight's Olympics opening ceremonies, we've now reached essentially halftime in this presidential contest. Keeping with the sports analogy, the two teams are going into the locker room with Obama ahead of Romney -- 14-13 if it's a football game, 49-43 if it's basketball. In other words, it's still anyone's game. Both sides have had their share of smart play and boneheaded mistakes, and now we get a chance to breathe, relax, and prepare for the second half, which kicks off with Romney's VP and the two conventions. The fourth quarter starts with the debates (three between the presidential candidates and one between the VPs). As we wrote earlier this week, the Obama-Romney race is beginning to boil down to a pull of two forces: the economy (which is a drag on Obama) vs. likeability (which is a drag on Romney).

*** Romney’s rough Thursday: But if it's now halftime, Team Romney -- with what happened in Great Britain yesterday -- concluded it by committing a false start, a holding penalty, and then an interception. Yes, yesterday was that bad. Bottom line: Romney's interview with NBC's Brian Williams, in which the presumptive GOP nominee said there are some "disconcerting" signs about the London Games' security and preparations, ignited a controversy in Great Britain. Prime Minister David Cameron responded, "We're holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course, it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere." (Cameron’s obvious reference to “nowhere” -- Salt Lake.) And the British press pounced. The Guardian: “Mitt Romney's Olympics blunder stuns No 10 and hands gift to Obama.” The Daily Telegraph: “Mitt Romney's Olympics gaffe overshadows visit to London.” The London Times: “Romneyshambles: PM’s snub.” And London Mayor Boris Johnson topped it off by saying at a rally: “There's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we are ready. Are we ready?" Ouch.

*** Clean up in Aisle 5: Romney later tried to clean up the mess after visiting Cameron at 10 Downing Street, “offering effusive praise for the London games, and calling the city's preparation for the event ‘really quite an accomplishment,’” NBC’s Garrett Haake reports. “I don’t know of any Olympics that’s ever been able to run without any mistakes whatsoever, but they’re small, and I was encouraged, for instance to see, things that could have represented a real challenge—such as immigration and customs officers on duty, that is something which was resolved and the people are all pulling together,” Romney said, later adding: “I’m very delighted with the prospects of a highly successful Olympic games.” Earlier this week, we wrote how risk-averse Romney's trip (to England, Israel, and Poland) was, at least compared with Obama's four years ago. But Romney's first full day on his trip proved that you can stumble even on the easiest of routines. Today's agenda: He has a photo spray with Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny at Ireland’s embassy in London at 10:15 am ET, and attends the opening ceremony, which begins at 4:00 pm ET.

*** Romney’s interview with Matt Lauer: But before that, Romney and his wife sat down for an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer on “TODAY.” Asked to respond to all the controversy in Britain, Romney said, “After being here for a couple of days, it looks to me like London is ready.” When Lauer followed up, inquiring if Romney is walking back his earlier remarks, the GOP candidate said he’s “absolutely convinced” that London is ready and that the athletic events will overshadow anything said by the politicians. Lauer also asked Romney if he was proud of the campaign he’s running, given all the negativity. His response: I’m proud that my campaign has focused on the economy. And Romney -- once again -- said he wouldn’t be releasing more of his tax returns.

*** Obama’s Olympics TV ad: Speaking of the Olympics, the Obama campaign is up with the TV ad it’s going to air during the opening ceremony of the Summer Games. It’s a positive spot, with fast-paced music and words from Obama while on the campaign trail. “We're a nation of workers and doers and dreamers. We work hard for what we get. And all we ask for is that our hard work pays off,” Obama says. “I believe that the way you grow the economy is from the middle out. I believe in fighting for the middle class -- because if they're  prospering, all of us will prosper. That's the idea of America, and that's why America is the greatest nation on earth." At 10:15 am ET, the president signs the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act (interestingly just before Romney heads to Israel), and he holds two fundraisers in McLean, VA.

*** Why doesn’t the public know Romney better? We want to make one final point at this halftime juncture of the presidential contest. In his interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, Romney was asked why Americans don’t know him better. His answer: “I realize this is still early for a lot of people in the political process. Labor Day is usually the time when people focus more attention on candidates…[M]ost folks won't really get to see me until the debates and will get a better sense of the character that I have. And I guess also my wife and my sons and daughters-in-law, they're doing the best job they can to get the real story about who I am.” But chew on this: Romney has been actively running for the White House for six years now. As Charlie Cook writes in National Journal, “In my judgment, Romney’s poor [poll] numbers go back to his campaign’s obsession with talking only about the economy and not attempting to define who Romney is as a person, as a way to build trust and strong positive personal feelings toward their candidate.” If you look at the fundamentals of this race, Romney should be ahead. And the fact is, he’s not. Why not? Because he has fumbled his biography. When you have to say there’s still time to introduce yourself, it’s a tacit admission that you haven’t done it yet.

Countdown to GOP convention: 31 days

Countdown to Dem convention: 38 days

Countdown to Election Day: 102 days

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Before there was the controversial Sarah Palin pick in 2008, there was Thomas Eagleton, George McGovern’s ill-fated selection in 1972. The Eagleton affair, in fact, ultimately changed how vice-presidential running mates are now made.

With political watchers on veepstakes alert for Mitt Romney’s eventual VP pick, below a mini-documentary on the Eagleton affair.

A little backstory: When McGovern arrived at the Democratic convention in Miami during the summer of '72, his campaign priority was to fend off rival Hubert Humphrey's last-ditch attempt to win the nomination through an obscure rule change. Picking a running mate was relegated to the backburner. After officially gaining the nod, McGovern was left with only an hour and a half to choose a No. 2 -- and he hastily settled on Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-MO), a man with whom McGovern had only spoken twice.

"Vetting" the candidate was an afterthought, a decision that came to exemplify VP selection gone bad.  

LONDON -- Mitt Romney collected $2 million from expats at a fundraiser here this evening, delivering remarks that seemed to suggest the presumptive GOP presidential nominee was maybe measuring the drapes in the Oval Office, to an extent.

Romney told the crowd in the United Kingdom's capital that he was "looking forward to the bust of Winston Churchill being in the Oval Office again," referring to the sculpture of the towering World War II-era prime minister that President Obama removed from the Oval Office after taking office.

Charles Dharapak / AP

Republican presidential candidate. Mitt Romney walks out of 10 Downing Street after meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London July 26.

"You live here, you see the sites day in and day out, but for me as I drive past the sculpture of Winston Churchill and see that great sculpture next to Westminster Abbey and Parliament and with him larger than life, enormous heft of that sculpture suggesting the scale of the the grandeur and the greatness of the man, it tugs at the heart strings to remember the kind of example that was led by Winston Churchill," Romney told donors gathered at the Mandarin Oriental hotel this evening.

Obama had the bust of Churchill replaced with a bust of Abraham Lincoln as part of the customary redecorating on which a new president usually embarks. At the time, some British news outlets speculated that the switch was an affront to the "special relationship" between the United States and United Kingdom.

Romney took questions from his 250 guests -- all American citizens who had their passports checked at the door -- while atypically allowing the press to remain in the room for the Q&A.

While Romney made no major news, he did criticize the financial regulatory reform bill -- a regular topic of his stump speech that took on pronounced meaning in London, one of the world's financial centers.

"I very much believe in updated regulation, but I believe Dodd-Frank has gone beyond what was appropriate for the sector. With regard to regulation here in the UK, I’ve got nothing to say about what goes on here, but back in the U.S. I want us to stay highly competitive, the financial capital of the world," Romney said. "At the same time I want to make sure that we protect the citizens in the nation and have rules that people can rely upon.

The presumptive GOP nominee did not further comment upon the day's other media kerfuffle, over comments he made appearing to criticize London's readiness to host the Olympic games, but did praise the games' setting in downtown London.

“What I love and I'm sure you've already seen this is how the organizers have placed the Olympic venues right in the heart of the city. So that it's not that Olympics will be off in some far place that only people who are able to get a ticket can then experience, instead it's right here," Romney said.

Romney was accompanied by his sons Tagg and Craig, and their wives, along with his wife Ann, who over the weekend will travel to Wales to visit with relatives there, according to a campaign aide.

Earlier in the day, Romney met with a pantheon of current and former British government officials, including Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary George Osbourne and former Prime Minister Tony Blair. A senior adviser to the campaign, present for the meetings said they mostly revolved around economic issues, including the looming fiscal cliff in the United States, and the Eurozone crisis here in Europe.

In remarks to reporters this afternoon, Romney also disclosed that he spoke today with Sir John Sawers, the head of Britain's intelligence agency MI6; a meeting not on his public schedule and which his campaign would not explicitly confirm or comment upon after the fact.

House Republicans will allow a vote next week on the Democrats' bill to extend the expiring Bush tax cuts for households earning less than $250,000, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced Thursday.

Boehner said that Republicans were "more than happy" to bring to a vote the Democratic bill, which passed through the Senate on Wednesday in a narrow 51-48 vote.

The Democratic legislation extends the tax rates established by the President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 (referred to by many as the  “Bush tax cuts”) for only those households making $250,000 or less; tax rates for the highest income group would be allowed to spring back to their rate at the beginning of 2001.

Republicans will couple a vote on their own tax bill, which would extend the rates across the board for another calendar year, with the Democratic bill. These tax cuts were first set to expire at the end of 2009, but President Obama agreed with Republicans on legislation to extend the rates for another two years.

"If our Democrat colleagues want to offer the president's plan or the Senate Democrats' plan, we're more than happy to give them a vote," Boehner said.

Republicans are eager to allow a vote because the Democratic legislation is expected to fail in the GOP-led House. The Republican bill will likely pass, though neither bill will likely advance to the president's desk. Rather, both votes are largely for show and intended to put the other side's lawmakers on the record on taxes.

The battle over extending current tax rates equals nothing more than a common messaging war that both sides are happy to fight leading up to November's elections. Republicans want to be able to paint Democrats as trying to raise taxes on small business owners, while Democrats argue that Republicans want to give tax breaks to the richest Americans.

“The only thing standing in the way of a middle income tax cut is the House Republicans,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters today, “The Republicans want to spend hundreds of billions on an extra tax cut for people making over $250,000 a year.”

Obama echoed that call today, telling reporters that “the only thing that is going to prevent the vast majority of Americans from not seeing a tax increase next year is if the House doesn't act.”  Obama said that he and his cabinet members will continue to make that point in the coming days.

Both sides have conceded privately that this is a fight that will likely go down to the wire, when the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire on January 1, 2013. In the weeks before that deadline, Congress will need to address a number of issues that, taken together, have been deemed the “fiscal cliff” because of the potentially devastating consequences they could have on the economy if Congress does not act. 

In addition to addressing the scheduled expiration of the Bush tax cuts, Congress needs to reallocate automatic cuts scheduled to take effect as a result of the deficit Supercommittee’s failure last year. Because of their failure, automatic cuts to defense and non-defense agencies could result in an estimated 2 million jobs lost in 2013, a potentially massive blow to an already struggling economy.

In a speech at the Brookings Institution last week, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) threatened to use the extension of the tax rates as a bargaining chip going into year-end negotiations, which will also include the expiration of the payroll tax cut, as well as a fight over funding the government and raising the debt ceiling.

Murray says she could see a scenario in which Democrats allow all the tax cuts to expire, in an effort to put Republicans' feet to the fire so that they raise revenue to address the nation’s deficit. 

“If middle-class families start seeing more money coming out of their paychecks next year — are Republicans really going to stand up and fight for new tax cuts for the rich?,” Murray said in the speech, “Are they going to continue opposing the Democrats’ middle-class tax cut once the slate has been wiped clean?”

CORALVILLE, Iowa -- “The Bob brigade” kicked off a weekend of high profile surrogate events for Mitt Romney in battleground states across the country as the GOP nominee is overseas.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke to voters in the swing state of Iowa on Thursday, calling President Obama a good, “family man,” while arguing his policies are failing and it’s time for a new president in the White House.

“You’re probably wondering why’s a guy from Virginia out here in Iowa. But Iowa and Virginia have a lot in common,” McDonnell told employees at Per Mar Security in Davenport early this morning. “Both are swing states, you know the president won big in both of our states last time, but the polls are a dead even heat now. So what happens in Virginia, what happens in Iowa could determine who’s going to be the next president of the United States.”

The two prominent GOP governors -- who have been rumored as potential vice presidential picks for Romney -- criticized Obama for his handling of the economy and not creating jobs.

“You know it's bad when the Europeans are giving us advice about too much spending and too much borrowing. That's like the town drunk telling you you've got a drinking problem,” Jindal told the crowd inside the Johnston County GOP Victory office. “You know it's bad when the Europeans are saying ‘Americans, you are spending and borrowing too much. Don't bother lecturing us about our problems.'"

Jindal came to Romney's additional defense in an afternoon conference call, when he was asked about a kerfuffle over Romney's assessment of London's preparation for the Olympics.

"We're not worried about overseas headlines, we're worried about voters here at home in America," Jindal told reporters.

Standing in front of a “191” poster at the first two events today, McDonnell pointed out that is the number of days since President Obama met with his jobs council. In that amount of time, the Virginia governor said, the president has had time to host numerous fundraisers and go golfing.

Both McDonnell and Jindal, whose trip today marks the first time they’ve stumped in Iowa for Romney, made a few phone calls to Republican super voters in the area following their speeches here.

While McDonnell heads back to the Old Dominion State, Jindal will continue heading West -- making two more stops today in the Hawkeye State on behalf of Romney, in Newton and West Des Moines.

From Barrow, Alaska, to Key West, Fla., the mail always gets through. But in the days leading up to Election Day, mailed ballots absolutely must get through, or the nation's electoral process would be thrown into havoc.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

A pre-Nov. 6 disruption of mail delivery caused by the U.S. Postal Service's fiscal crisis would be a fiasco for voters and election officials.

In states that rely largely or entirely on vote-by-mail or absentee ballots, a pre-Nov. 6 disruption of mail delivery caused by the U.S. Postal Service’s fiscal crisis would be a fiasco for voters and election officials.

With partisan battles already under way on voter eligibility across the nation over fears of voter fraud and charges of vote suppression, the last thing the upcoming election needs is another procedural snafu.

Washington and Oregon voters cast their ballots entirely by mail or at local drop boxes, and in California’s June primary, nearly two out of three voters cast their ballots by mail. Even in states where voters still show up in person to vote at their local precinct, absentee voting by mail is common.

In order for the election to take place, the mail must get delivered promptly – no matter how dire the Postal Service’s fiscal crisis is – and it’s dire indeed. In the second quarter of its fiscal year (January to March) the Postal Service lost $3.2 billion. Congressional postal experts will be scrutinizing its third-quarter financial statement on Aug. 9 to see if the distress has worsened. While the Senate has passed a reform bill to keep the Postal Service afloat, the House hasn’t yet acted.

Urging the House to move, one of the Senate reform leaders, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said Wednesday “Only one week from now, the Postal Service will default on a $5.5 billion payment to Treasury – further eroding the confidence of the millions of customers and businesses” that rely on mail to get delivered.

USPS spokesman David Partenheimer said Thursday, “Default on the retiree health benefits prepayment due August 1 will have no effect on mail operations, including election mail. The Postal Service will continue to meet its obligation to provide universal service to the American people. Our priority is to continue to pay employees and suppliers on a timely basis and avoid any disruption in mail processing or delivery.”

While carrying out a plan to shrink its workforce by 13,000 and shut down some processing facilities, the Postal Service did say in May that "Due to the volume of high-priority mail predicted for the election and holiday mailing seasons, no consolidating activities will be conducted from September through December of 2012." Partenheimer confirmed Thursday this is still the case.

He said the Postal Service will continue to provide information on its consolidations to election officials and "explain why they will not adversely affect delivery of election-related mail." He added that the Postal Service has created an Election Mail Task Force that will facilitate the timely processing and delivery of election mail.

Nonetheless, state election officials are keeping a wary eye on the Postal Service’s fiscal crisis.

Dave Ammons, a spokesman for Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, said Thursday, "We, like Oregon, vote by mail, so naturally we are watching the (Postal Service) situation closely, and with some natural anxiety. We have been part of a national group of election administrators who have been in close contact. USPS has assured us that they will continue to give a very high priority to ballots sent to and fro. "

In Washington there are 3.7 million registered voters, and ballots go in the mail by no later than Oct. 19 and must be postmarked by Election Day in order to be counted. 

The message from election officials: Do not wait until Election Day; mail your ballot as early as possible, just in case there is any slowing of mail delivery. Or voters can drop their ballots at one of the county-operated drop boxes; there are at least two drop locations in each of the state’s 39 counties.

In Oregon voters must get their completed ballots back to the local election officials by Election Day.

Even if the Postal Service crisis has no impact on this year’s balloting, shrinkage of the Postal Service raises longer-term questions of how smoothly and how confidently voters might be able to move in larger numbers to voting by mail. No mail delivery could mean no voting.