MittaTopia

++Congratulations to Michael Phelps for becoming the record holder of most Olympic medals won of all time--19 now and counting and also the most gold medals by a large margin.


++Ann Romney's Dancing Horse won't be competing until Friday and Mitt promises to release his taxes if the horse wins the gold.


++Harry Reid this afternoon dropped a bomb on Romney by saying a Bain investor told him that Romney hadn't paid income taxes for ten years. Reid, a fellow Mormon, said Mitt's father would be ashamed. While he didn't know whether it was true, this just ups the ante on Romney and increases pressure as he returns from his world tour of three countries.


++Dudley Do-Right and his wife Nell return from Poland tomorrow after the Republican candidate managed to offend almost everyone except Bibi Netanyahu. In Israel, he promised to establish an embassy in Jerusalem calling it the capital of Israel. Not only did the Arab world express outrage but the Chinese even weighed on denouncing Romney. Ignoring the realities of Palestinian life, Romney suggested it was their culture that led to their lack of economic progress, prompting Palestinian leaders to cry him a racist. Minutes before a meeting with the Israeli opposition parties he cancelled at the request of Bibi. 


++Onward to Poland where a decrepit Lech Walesa endorsed his candidacy while Solidarity denounced him for his attacks on labor. Romney said that Russia posed the greatest strategic threat to the United States and he made a speech on the virtues of liberty. He did not comment on the trials in Russia of Pussy Revolt, the punk rock band on trial for hate crimes against the Orthodox Church. Canada's National Post charged that Romney had lapsed into political rhetoric and thought we haven't seen since the late 1980s. They likened it to George H.W. Bush against Gorbachev. 


++Romney's press secretary had a Ron Ziegler moment when he told the press corps this morning to "Kiss my ass", when he blocked them asking questions of the candidate. He screamed that the Tomb of the Unknown soldier was a "sacred site." 


++American media blasted the Romney trip as clumsy and gaffe-prone. Romney criticized the press accusing them of being pro-Obama. But even Republican operatives said that the trip bordered on lunacy. By the end of the day, the press secretary apologized and Romney walked back many of his statements which he claimed were mis-quotes and statements taken out of context.


++Mark Helperin on the Morning Joe show was praying that a bad jobs report would save Romney from this disaster and placed the election back into his court.


++The Greenberg poll released yesterday had Obama at 50 to Romney's 46 and Obama's approval at 50.


++Today PPP poll has Obama barely ahead 48-47 in Florida.


++A new Latin Decisions poll has Obama in the high 70s among Latino voters and Romney in the teens, a fatal number for Romney.


++The question is who will have the worse August. What began with a bad jobs report for Obama ended with several weeks of sheer mayhem by the Romney camp.


++Romney just released three new ads touting his achievements, including boasting he had the best jobs record as governor of Massachusetts, something that is flat wrong. 


++The Obama campaign now admits they will be outspent the rest of the way but are boasting of their superior organization. It has actually been stunning how poor Romney's organization has been both in the field as an elections campaign and how disorganized they were with this foreign trip.


++Republicans are banking on their superior discipline to put on a tight convention and to allow Romney to introduce himself again to the public. The Democrats have been fast off the block by lining up Elizabeth Warren and Bill Clinton to nominate President Obama and their first Latino keynote address.  Then we all wait for the debates.


++What will be the October Surprise--Bibi's attack on Iran, a scandal with Romney's taxes?