A new Wall St. Journal/NBC/Marist poll is out today.

President Barack Obama has opened an eight percentage-point lead in Iowa and maintains a five-point edge in Colorado and Wisconsin, according to Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist Poll surveys of the three presidential battlegrounds.

The WSJ says Romney is counting on these states for his electoral college votes, especially since he's been slipping in Ohio and Virginia.

I'll be flying solo on Daily Kos Radio from 11 to noon Eastern today.

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Open Thread.

The Office of Inspector General released a 451 page report today on Fast and Furious. It specifically clears Attorney General Eric Holder of wrongdoing.

We determined that Attorney General Holder did not learn about Operation Fast and Furious until late January or early February 2011 and was not aware of allegations of “gun walking” in the investigation until February. We found no evidence that Department or ATF staff informed the Attorney General about Operation Wide Receiver or Operation Fast and Furious prior to 2011. We concluded that the Attorney General’s Deputy Chief of Staff, the Acting Deputy Attorney General, and the leadership of the Criminal Division failed to alert the Attorney General to significant information about or flaws in those investigations.

Holder's public statement on the report is here.

Some others didn't fare so well. [More....]

The state released some of its 6th and 7th round of discovery in the George Zimmerman case to the media today. The material was released about a month ago to the defense. Not everything released to the defense is included.

Of interest to those following the timeline of events the night of the shooting is the release of the event reports with times of the 911 calls. The primary one is here.

The conclusions in the DNA reports of the gun, holster, trigger and slide are pretty much a retread of previously released reports. Contrary to what some news outlets are reporting, they don't hurt Zimmerman's case since Zimmerman never said Trayvon Martin grabbed or even touched his holster or gun. He said he sensed or felt Trayvon reaching towards his gun after it became exposed while they were struggling on the ground, and that he grabbed Trayvon's hand to prevent him from getting to his gun. Obviously, Martin's DNA would not be on the holster or gun if Zimmerman stopped his hand from reaching them. [More...]

I'll be flying solo on Daily Kos Radio from 11 to noon Eastern today. Discussing this post and I will be doing a review of the state of the race from the Electoral College perspective, with a discussion of the RV (registered voter) vs. LV (likely voter) issue.

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In the wake of the public airing of Mitt Romney's remarks on the "moochers," Romney is arguing that the problem remains too much government, especially for the 47%. Things like Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits. Romney said to his wealthy friends:

There are 47 percent of the people who [...] are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. [...] My job is is not to worry about those people.

A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'”

Dan Brown proven effing right! In all seriousness, pretty interesting. Though I had to ignore this admonition:

Dr. King said she wants nothing to do with the Code or its author: “At least, don’t say this proves Dan Brown was right.”

Sorry, I could not resist.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the Commonwealth Court which refused an injunction against the Voter ID law. The opinion is here.

[W]e agree with Appellants’ essential position that if a statute violates constitutional norms in the short term, a facial challenge may be sustainable even though the statute might validly be enforced at some time in the future. Indeed, the most judicious remedy, in such a circumstance, is the entry of a preliminary injunction, which may moot further controversy as the constitutional impediments dissipate.

[More...]

Last week the Denver Post commissioned Survey USA to do a poll on the presidential race, gun control, Amendment 64 (to legalize small amounts of marijuana for personal use) and other topics.

The paper, perhaps to milk traffic, released the results in bits and drabs over a few days, making it difficult to read the actual survey results or report on it in one article. Each day they'd have a reporter attach a little graphic of results for the topic they were disclosing that day. It's very frustrating way to analyze a poll that way. Nonetheless, enough of the results are now out to the report major findings.

51% of Coloradans support Amendment 64 to legalize marijuana. Despite the Aurora shootings, 56% of Coloradans don't want stricter gun control laws; and Obama and Romney are statistically tied. [More..]

President Bill Clinton:

We Democrats think the country works better with a strong middle class, real opportunities for poor people to work their way into it and a relentless focus on the future, with business and government working together to promote growth and broadly shared prosperity. We think "we're all in this together" is a better philosophy than "you're on your own."

Mitt Romney:

There are 47 percent of the people who [...] are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. [...] My job is is not to worry about those people.

Mitt Romney:

There are 47 percent of the people who [...] are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. [...] My job is is not to worry about those people. [Emphasis supplied.]

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. But it is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope—because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country’s interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. [Emphasis supplied.]

I'll be flying solo on Daily Kos Radio from 11 to noon Eastern today. Discussing "the video."

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Open Thread.