OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN: Who said what when

TOP STORY: Who said what when

Mitt Romney’s foreign tour began on a controversial note Wednesday when his campaign had to deny a report that an adviser suggested the presumptive GOP presidential nominee was better able to navigate the "special relationship" between the United States and England because of his understanding of "Anglo-Saxon heritage."

"We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special," the unnamed adviser said, according to the Daily Telegraph. "The White House didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have."

The Romney campaign worked to distance itself from the controversial quote as allies of President Obama — including Vice President Biden — seized on the remark.

"It’s not true. If anyone said that, they weren’t reflecting the views of Governor Romney or anyone inside the campaign," Romney spokeswoman Amanda Hennenberg wrote in an email.

But Biden, in a statement released by Obama’s reelection team, hammered Romney.

“Despite his promises that politics stops at the water’s edge, Governor Romney’s wheels hadn’t even touched down in London before his advisors were reportedly playing politics with international diplomacy, attempting to create daylight between the United States and the United Kingdom where none exists," he said.

Romney’s campaign fired back.

“Today, the race for the highest office in our land was diminished to a sad level when the vice president of the United States used an anonymous and false quote from a foreign newspaper to prop up their flailing campaign,” said Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams. “We have more faith in American voters, and know they will see this latest desperate ploy for what it is.”

TOMORROW’S AGENDA TODAY: Mitt Romney is in London, where he’s meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and other leaders. He was also interviewed by NBC's Brian Williams for a piece that will air on "Nightly News."

First lady Michelle Obama arrives in London, where she’ll lead the official U.S. delegation to the Olympic Games.

TWEET OF THE DAY: “They just announced my flight at LaGuardia is number 15 for takeoff. I miss Air Force One!!” — former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Let me say this as emphatically as I can: Who cares about Mitt Romney’s tax returns? Secondly, I love the fact that the guy is rich. You got people who are trying to make it seem like being rich is bad.” — Herman Cain to The Sacramento Bee.

POLL POSITION:

Obama leads Romney in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 49 percent to 43, but the survey also holds troubling signs for the incumbent on the economy. The poll found 66 percent said the country is going in the wrong direction, while 32 percent said it's headed in the right direction.

Obama’s massive lead among Hispanic voters is holding steady, according to a NBC News-Wall Street Journal-Telemundo poll. Obama leads Romney 67 percent to 32, which is identical to the president’s support among Hispanics in the 2008 election, when he took 67 percent to GOP nominee Sen. John McCain’s (Ariz.) 32.

Obama has healthy leads in the critical swing-states of Michigan and Pennsylvania, according to two surveys released from liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling. Obama leads big over Romney in Michigan, 53 to 39 percent. That could be an outlier — it’s well outside the Real Clear Politics average of polls that shows Obama leading by only 1.7 percentage points in the Wolverine State. PPP also finds Obama leading Romney 49 to 43 percent in Pennsylvania, which is exactly in line with the Real Clear Politics average of polls.

Democrats are far less enthusiastic about the 2012 election than they were in 2004 or 2008, according to a Gallup/USA Today poll, which found that only 39 percent of Democrats now say they are “more enthusiastic than usual” about the 2012 election. That’s down from 68 percent in 2004 and 61 in 2008. Republicans, conversely, have seen a sharp rise since 2008, when only 35 percent said they were “more enthusiastic than usual.” In the latest survey, 51 percent said they were enthusiastic about the upcoming election, a 12-point advantage over the Democrats.

AD WATCH:

A new ad by Priorities USA, a pro-Obama super-PAC, is using an Olympic spoof to hit Mitt Romney over outsourcing. The ad shows Romney arriving like an athlete to the opening ceremonies and waving to the crowd. It then suggests China and India are especially happy to see Romney because of the jobs he has outsourced to those countries. The spot also jabs the presumptive GOP presidential nominee for keeping money in bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE:

California: State assembly member Julia Brownley (D) leads California state Sen. Tony Strickland (R) by a 4-point margin in a toss-up district north of Los Angeles, according to an internal poll released by her campaign.

Florida: Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) is out with a powerful new ad featuring a former soldier who credits West with saving his life while the two served in Iraq.

New York: A poll from the Democratic super-PAC House Majority PAC shows former Rep. Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.) leading Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) 44 to 40 percent in their rematch from 2010.

SENATE SHOWDOWN:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has expanded its ad blitz to attack Democrats in five more Senate races: Florida, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Hawaii: Former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle (R) was quick to hit back at Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) for touting an endorsement from Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), criticizing Young as "controversial" and alluding to his past ethics issues.

Indiana: Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) has a new ad saying he works for "jobs, not a party" and partnered with Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) "to save Indiana auto jobs" while his opponent, state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, "wasted millions suing to kill Chrysler jobs." Donnelly needs to win over a big chunk of centrist "Lugar Republicans" to beat Mourdock, who defeated Lugar in the primary. The ad has $125,000 behind it.

Massachusetts: Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) doubled-down on linking President Obama's "you didn't build that" comment to Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, suggesting that she had given the president "bad advice" and inspired the remark.

Michigan: Businessman Clark Durant (R) took fire from all sides on Wednesday: The Michigan Democratic Party accused him of malfeasance in running the non-profit Christian private schools he runs because of his high salary there, while his Senate primary opponent, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), attacked him because a super-PAC spending heavily against Hoekstra in the race is run by Saul Anuzis, who helped recruit Durant into the race and whose brother Andy is running Durant's campaign.

Texas: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is heading to Texas to stump with former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz (R) later this week, his campaign announced.

Virginia: The Chamber of Commerce endorsed former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) Wednesday.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

The format of the three presidential and one vice presidential debates this autumn has been set. 

Obama senior campaign adviser David Axelrod insisted the president did not authorize anyone at the White House to leak the classified national-security information that has led to congressional anger and a Justice Department probe. “I can tell you that the president of the United States did not leak classified information, as Mitt Romney suggested yesterday, and he didn’t authorize the leak of information, as Mitt Romney suggested yesterday,” Axelrod told MSNBC’s "Morning Joe."

Obama's campaign looked to again focus attention on Romney's tenure at Bain Capital on Wednesday, highlighting a new report by The Associated Press that shows the presumptive Republican nominee continued to have regular contact with his partners in the firm after his 1999 departure date.

Casino mogul and prominent Republican donor Sheldon Adelson might attend a fundraiser held by Romney next week in Israel.

Romney signed a pledge to repeal, defund and otherwise thwart Obama’s healthcare law. Two conservative groups — Independent Women’s Voice and American Action Majority — are spearheading the “Repeal Pledge” effort.

Actor Robert Duvall, star of "Apocalypse Now" and "The Godfather," will host a fundraiser for Romney in September at his Virginia home.

Republican governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Bob McDonnell of Virginia will stump for Romney in Iowa while the former Massachusetts governor is overseas.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) introduced a bill aimed at ending the threat of a government shutdown once and for all. The bill would automatically extend government spending at current levels for 120 days when funding expires. If Congress continues to fail to act, spending would be cut by 1 percent across the board every 90 days.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) criticized the Romney campaign, saying it had failed to help the presumptive GOP nominee connect with voters and define what he stood for. “I think there’s a lot of caution,” Walker said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I think the mistake that they’ve made is the feeling like it can just be a referendum on the president.”

More than $80 million was spent on Walker’s recall election, according to a new report from the nonpartisan watchdog Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, more than doubling the previous record for the cost of a gubernatorial race in the state.

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