Alex Pareene sums up where the thinking of Mitt Romney's campaign was during the debt ceiling negotiations:
Everyone (by which I mean everyone who cares what Mitt Romney does) has been strongly criticizing the former Massachusetts governor for not ever coming up with a position on the debt ceiling and the related deficit reduction plans until the GOP and the White House reached a compromise, at which point Romney immediately said that he opposed it. But that is the point of running for president while no longer holding office! You can come up with any stupid position you want, but you also don't have to come up with any position at all until you figure out what the rubes want to hear. (He's still polling ahead of everyone else!)
For more on "What the 2012ers' debt-deal statements actually mean," go read the whole thing.
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Rick Santorum says he's done talking about Dan Savage and his "Google problem," telling Think Progress' Scott Keyes, "I’m not going to talk about Dan Savage. He’s below the dignity of anybody." Which is pretty funny, because a week and a half ago, Santorum deemed the subject dignified enough to raise money off of. [ThinkProgress]
Swing state struggles for President Obama: "A new Quinnipiac survey of Pennsylvania voters conducted before the debt limit deal shows President Obama with an upside down approval rating, at 43% approving and 54% disapproving. Even more worrying for the president is how he fares against potential Republican presidential candidates." [Taegan Goddard's Political Wire]
Anti-Incumbent Rage Hype Report! Per the National Journal: "While respondents were more favorably inclined toward their own representatives rather than Congress as a whole, a majority of respondents still thought that, when it came to their own representative, it was 'time to give a new person a chance.' In the survey, 31 percent of respondents said that their member of Congress deserves reelection but 53 percent said it was time for a new person." They go on to remind us that, "Before the 2010 election, which swept 87 new members into Congress, 58 percent of likely voters responded to a CBS News/New York Times survey that it was time for a new person."
Now: I'll remind you that in that election, 84 percent of Senate incumbents were successful, and 87 percent of House incumbents were successful. And voters were angrier at incumbents back then than they are now? Yeah: incumbency is still the best racket in politics. [National Journal]
Rasmussen, acknowledging the likelihood of a serious Rick Perry campaign, finds the Texas governor atop its most recent poll. But more significantly -- and appropriately -- is that they seem to have wised up to the fact that Sarah Palin is not running for president. [Rasmussen Reports]
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