Other races

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.

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TOP STORY: Leaks and Sequester

Mitt Romney accused President Obama of putting the nation at risk through politically motivated intelligence leaks and defense cuts and called for a special counsel to investigate the national security disclosures.

Romney's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) national convention in Reno, Nev., aimed to paint Obama as weak on national security and naïve on foreign policy, two areas where the president has consistently polled higher than his opponent.

In his speech, Romney cited remarks from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) about the White House being the source of the intelligence leaks. But Feinstein later walked back those remarks.

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams noted in response: “It looks like President Obama has given Dianne Feinstein the Cory Booker treatment.”

The highlights from Romney’s address:

— On the intelligence leaks: “It is not enough to say the matter is being looked into and leave it at that. When the issue is the political use of highly sensitive national security information, it is unacceptable to say, 'We’ll report our findings after Election Day.' "

— He also accused of Obama of playing politics with the looming $500 billion in defense cuts over the next decade. “Don’t bother trying to find a serious military rationale behind any of this, unless that rationale is wishful thinking,” he said. “Strategy is not driving President Obama’s massive defense cuts.”

— He sought to paint Obama as a weak commander in chief whose efforts to seek accommodation with America's foes has failed.

— He said he would get all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by 2014, which is also Obama’s timeline.

Vice President Biden, in a lengthy statement released by Obama’s reelection team, offered a point-by-point rebuttal on Romney’s speech (although Biden noticeably didn’t address the leak issue or sequestration).

“He had a chance to say how he would lead as commander-in-chief. Instead, all we heard from Governor Romney was empty rhetoric and bluster. He reflexively criticizes the president’s policies without offering any alternatives,” Biden said.

Romney leaves for London on Wednesday, where he'll begin a four-day trip to England, Israel and Poland.

SNEAK PEAK: The Hill’s annual 50 Most Beautiful list comes out Wednesday. Check the print version of the paper and thehill.com

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TOP STORY: All About Israel

President Obama will travel to Israel if he's elected to a second term, a campaign aide said Monday.

“We can expect him to visit Israel in a second term should he be elected," Colin Kahl, the former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Middle East, said on a conference call with reporters.

The announcement came a few days before Mitt Romney visits the Middle East ally (he’ll be there on Sunday as part of a four-day foreign trip). Obama has been criticized for not visiting Israel as president, and Romney has said it would be the first country he would visit if elected.

At issue: Jewish voters.

Obama led Romney among Jewish voters in a Gallup poll last month, but his margins were down and Romney has made a big play for that voting bloc.

Kahl pointed out that President George W. Bush didn't visit Israel until the final year of his second term and that President Reagan never visited the country.

SNEAK PEEK: The Hill speaks with Richard Tisei, who would be the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress if he defeats Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) this fall. The interview will be available in Tuesday’s edition of The Hill and on thehill.com.

TOMORROW’S AGENDA TODAY: President Obama will be campaigning in Portland, Ore., and Seattle. Mitt Romney will address the VFW National Convention in Reno, Nev. First lady Michelle Obama will be campaigning in Dayton and Columbus, Ohio.

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TOP STORY: Romney building a campaign message off Obama’s building remark

Mitt Romney appears to be gaining some traction with his latest campaign message: hammering President Obama over the president's suggestion that the success of private enterprises are dependent on public infrastructure and programs.

Republicans have seized on a moment during a town-hall speech last week where Obama, discussing infrastructure like roads and highways, argued that "if you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Making a campaign stop in Massachusetts Thursday, Romney said of that remark: "It wasn't a gaffe. It was instead his ideology.”

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TOP STORY: Veep stakes

Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he had not yet picked a vice presidential candidate, but his eventual choice would be a "conservative."

His words added a new twist to Washington favorite parlor game of recent weeks: who will Romney pick and when will people find out who it will be?

While Romney has given no indication of a particular name, he has sought to reassure the party's base that they will be satisfied with his decision.

Lately, speculation has centered around former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.), Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — any of whom would likely satisfy the right.

Ann Romney joined the game by telling ABC News that no decision had yet been made — although one was coming "soon."

"We're not quite there yet," Ann Romney said in an interview set to air on Thursday. "We are certainly talking a lot. This last week, this last weekend, there was a lot of discussion."

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TOP STORY: Obama-Romney smack-down

Mitt Romney and President Obama were at it again on the campaign trail on Tuesday — each attempting to define the presidential race before the fall campaign moves into high gear.

Romney criticized as "startling and revealing" Obama's remarks about the role of the public sector in infrastructure investments, in which the president, discussing roads and bridges, said, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that."

The comments illuminate "why his policies have failed," Romney said at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. He argued the remarks show Obama sees government as the driving force behind the American economy.

"The idea to say that Steve Jobs didn't build Apple, that Henry Ford didn't build Ford Motors, that Papa John didn't build Papa John's ... it's not just foolishness, it's insulting to every entrepreneur in America," Romney said.

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TOP STORY: Hammer time

President Obama and his team have ramped up their attacks on Mitt Romney over the presumptive GOP nominee’s time at Bain.

Campaigning in Ohio on Monday, Obama seized on a report in a Tax Notes newsletter by Reed College economist Kimberly Clausing that said Romney’s jobs plan “would increase employment in low-tax countries by about 800,000 jobs.” Clausing has donated to Obama’s campaign.

And Obama’s campaign surrogates said Romney should release minutes from meetings with Bain Capital to prove he left the firm when he said he did.

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TOP STORY: Romney’s Bane

Mitt Romney’s tenure at the private-equity firm Bain Capital took center stage Thursday amid a series of attacks and counterattacks by the two presidential campaigns.

Romney released a new ad calling President Obama a liar for his campaign ads and speeches criticizing Bain for funding companies that sent U.S. jobs overseas.

The GOP campaign also denounced a story in the Boston Globe that suggested Romney remained at the firm through 2002, not 1999, when he said he left the company to work on the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Obama’s campaign, meanwhile, pounced on the Globe story, using it to amplify its outsourcing attacks, which it believes will play particularly well in swing states such as Ohio that could determine the 2012 race’s outcome.

Meanwhile, Romney campaign manager Matt Rhodes said Obama should apologize for deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter’s remarks on the issue.

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TOP STORY: Boos for Mitt

Mitt Romney was booed on Wednesday at a speech before the NAACP for vowing to repeal President Obama's signature healthcare law.

"I will reduce government spending," Romney told the civil rights group during an address at their national convention in Houston. "Our high level of debt slows GDP growth, and that means fewer jobs. If our goal is jobs, we must, must stop spending over a trillion dollars more than we earn. To do this, I will eliminate expensive non-essential programs like ObamaCare."

He deviated from his prepared remarks — a rarity for most politicians — to double down on the offer, but he was speaking to a tough audience.

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TOP STORY: A Taxing Issue

President Obama and Mitt Romney traded barbs Tuesday over a proposal that aims to raise taxes on wealthy Americans.

They were in two different swing states — Obama in Iowa, Romney in Colorado — but their goal was the same: a winning message on an economic issue that could decide the election.

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