• Romney says he’s unmoved by Perry’s polling swell, but it might give him pause about contesting Iowa.
• Meanwhile, Romney subtly shifts right on anthropogenic warming and financial regulation.
• Perry picks up the endorsement of James Inhofe, grand poobah of conservative climate politics.
• Walter Shapiro explains why Perry is an

…

• Marco Rubio gives a big speech in California and, if he wasn’t enough of a conservative heartthrob already, saved Nancy Reagan from falling.
• Not all Republican elites are dissatisfied with the presidential crop.
• Another Democrat wouldn’t do better than Obama.
• Romney plans a jobs speech.

• Libya vindicates “lead from behind” White House.
• Huntsman continues to knock Perry and Romney.
• The Huntsman campaign wants you to know he is anti-Obama, too.
• In Gallup’s very early general election head-to-head match ups, Romney, Perry, Bachmann and Paul are all within the margin of error against the President. The historical

…

• Libyan rebels take Tripoli; Obama applauds as Gaddafi’s four-decade reign crumbles.
• Bruce Bartlett calls Perry an “idiot,” people who’ve covered him/written books about his campaigns beg to differ.
• The AP looks at his health care approach.
• Clarence Thomas and the legal battle against health reform.

• Obama to give “major” stimulus speech in September.
• He may ask supercommittee to pursue jobs measures.
• At this point, he’s pretty much running against Congress.
• He’s running after white votes.

• The match-up that matters: Rick Perry vs. Mitt Romney by the numbers.
• They’re already blowing kisses at each another.
• Perry issues Gardasil mea culpa; accuses Ben Bernanke of treason; uses regrettable shirt-ironing line. 

• Perry wows Waterloo while Bachmann ruffles feathers.
• Is it now a three-person race or a two-way?
• Is Perry the frontrunner or doomed to fail?
• Douthat pines for Christie.

• If Rick Perry runs, he’ll enter the race near the front of the pack. But he appears to siphoning more support from Bachmann than from Romney.
• As Massachusetts Governor, Romney plied S&P for an upgrade with talk of taxes.
• There’s debate tonight in Iowa.

• Harry Reid will appoint Max Baucus, the Senate’s top tax-writer, campaign chief Patty Murray and shadow secretary of state John Kerry to the supercommittee tasked with finding more than $1 trillion in savings by year’s end.
• The debt debate seems to have damaged the Republican brand: Democrats are at an even 47-47 in a CNN poll, but

…

• After Monday’s enormous sell off, the Fed is raising hopes with its meeting today in Washington.
• It has two options: more bond-buying or setting a higher inflation target.
• A primer for today’s recall elections in Wisconsin: Joshua Spivak puts them in context and Abe Sauer has great color from the ground.

• Get ready for a big week in Iowa.
• The Stribune takes a hefty whack at Pawlenty’s health care record.
• The New York Times, in effect, chronicles Huntsman nepotism.
• Ryan Lizza does his thing with a long and excellent profile of Michele Bachmann, focusing in large part on her Christian political philosophy. There’s also this, which

…

• The economy added 117,000 jobs in July while the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1%. Those are modest but relieving numbers after several bad months and very low expectations. Public sector losses are still dragging the number down.
• “Double-dip” was being thrown around after yesterday’s global market rout. (TIME considered bringing

…

• The White House will try its hand at yet another jobs pivot.
• Larry Summers puts a double-dip recession at one in three.
• Tim Geithner will stick around.
• Has Obama been ineffectual in dealing with Republicans in Congress, or just limited by the nature of his office?