News Nuggets 1042

DAYLEE PICTURE: An aspen forest in Colorado.  From National Geographic.

Iran Said to Send Troops to Bolster Syria from the Wall Street Journal [partial subscription wall]
"Commanders and Hundreds of Elite Soldiers Deployed to Damascus, Members Say, as Deepening Conflict Worries Key Ally."

The Untouchable Economy: Why Americans Are Turning Against 'Stuff' (Michael Mandel) from the Atlantic
"Young people are thinking entrepreneurially, viewing themselves as microbusinesses operating in a highly uncertain economic environment."

Why do Republicans Bash Obama for Being Divisive? (Jonathan Bernstein) from the Washington Post
"The hallmark of Republicans in the Frank Luntz era has been to find words that test well and embrace them, and find words that test badly and tar the opposition with them. Not concepts, not ideas, and certainly not policies. Words."

Huggability and Helium (Frank Bruni) from the New York Times
"The Republican convention in Tampa will be a pantomime of passion for a candidate who doesn’t inspire it."

Obama Poised to Win on Isaac Either Way (Major Garrett) from the National Journal
"He holds the incumbent advantage as the tropical storm barrels toward New Orleans."

Candidates Just Don’t Bounce Like They Used To (Ronald Brownstein) from the National Journal
"Even before Tropical Storm Isaac forced GOP convention planners to upend their schedule, senior party strategists were already braced for the prospect that the gathering was unlikely to produce a major postconvention bounce for Mitt Romney."

Operation Rescue: No Votes for Mitt Romney Until Todd Akin Gets Cash (Niels Lesniewski) from Roll Call
"The leader of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue wants GOP delegates to hold off on formally nominating Mitt Romney until funding is promised to the Senate campaign of Rep. Todd Akin."

Republicans Give Up on Pennsylvania (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos 
"The only surprise in Pennsylvania was that conservative groups were willing to keep pissing away their money in a state that clearly wasn't going anywhere. One of the few left is finished:"

Most Americans Still Predict Obama Will Win 2012 Election (Jeffrey M. Jones) from Gallup
"Romney supporters less optimistic than Obama supporters. ... Americans' prediction of who will win is significant since they have generally been correct in predicting the winner of past presidential elections."

Why CNN's Latest Florida Poll Should Panic GOP (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos
"CNN has a new Florida poll of the presidential race that has some serious bad news for Republicans everywhere. It's not just the toplines, which are bad enough: ... 50 and older: Obama 47 Romney 49."

On Mitt Romney’s Bubba Strategy (Peter Beinart) from the Daily Beast
"Romney is doubling down on the white working class. Peter Beinart on the internal GOP rift over neglecting women and minorities—and how his strategy will hurt him this fall."
Can he win relying so much on just white men?

Michael Tomasky on How Tricky Mitt Romney Is Aping Richard Nixon (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"With Romney’s likability at record lows, Republicans appear to have given up on getting America to like their candidate. Instead, they’d rather divide and conquer like it’s 1968."

ELECTION HISTORY NUGGET!!
The Top 10 Political Conventions That Mattered the Most (Kenneth C. Davis) from Smithsonian Magazine
"As the two parties bring together their faithful supporters, we look at those conventions in the past that truly made a difference in the country’s political history."

BIZARRE GOP CONVENTION NUGGET!!
Revealed: The Sinister Wraith Land Drone (Capable of Deploying Smoke, Taking Pictures and Even Firing Fearsome 250rpm Shotguns) on Standby at the Republican Convention if Protests Get Out of Hand from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Sinister-looking unmanned ground vehicles called Wraiths are being deployed alongside aerial drones to police the Republican convention should protesters try to disrupt proceedings."

SOVIET UNION NUGGET!!
Fall of the Soviet Union—The Inside Story (James F. Collins) from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
"The fall of the Soviet Union and end of communism in Russia caught the world by surprise twenty years ago. In a  Q&A, Ambassador James F. Collins, the most senior American diplomat in Russia at the time, describes how the United States responded as history unfolded and reflects on the personal diplomacy between the Cold War foes as an August  1991 coup ultimately led to the breakup of the Soviet Union in December."