New York Times: “The United States and Iran have agreed for the first time to one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, according to Obama administration officials, setting the stage for what could be a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran.”

“News of the agreement — a result of intense, secret exchanges between American and Iranian officials that date almost to the beginning of President Obama’s term — comes at a critical moment in the presidential contest, just two weeks before Election Day and a day before the final debate, which is to focus on national security and foreign policy.”

BuzzFeed reports that 10 Romney for President staffers received bonuses — as much as $37,500 — in September, according to new Federal Election Commission filings.

Romney political director Rich Beeson scored the largest amount, taking in a combined $75,000 in two payments on August 31, after the Republican National Convention, and September 13.

“You guys are the ones who keep saying, ‘Oh, he’s not approachable.’
That’s not what the American people say. I think maybe you guys should
evaluate where you’re coming from. Maybe it’s you. Maybe it’s the elite
journalists who aren’t all that approachable.”

— Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, quoted by the Tampa Bay Times, pushing back on the media narrative that Obama is aloof.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) — being treated for bipolar disorder and depression and headed back to the hospital — sent out an automated phone call to voters in his congressional district pleading for patience 17 days before the election, the Chicago Sun Times reports.

Said Jackson in the robo call: “Like many human beings a series of events came together in my life at the same time and they have been difficult to sort through. I am human. I am doing my best. I am trying to sort through them all.”

He added that he is “anxious to return to work on your behalf” but it is against “medical advice” for him to do so.

President Obama “will keep up a grueling pace on the campaign trail later this week, visiting six states in two days, all in an effort to boost enthusiasm in the final days heading into election day,” Politico reports.

“Obama will make stops in Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Virginia, Illinois and Ohio, sleeping on Air Force One and spending time calling undecided voters and volunteers.”

However, Nate Silver notes if the recent polls and his own forecast are right, Obama’s “efforts to compete in Florida mostly serve the function of a bluff.”

Here are the latest polls from the battleground, updated through the day:

Florida: Obama 47%, Romney 46% (SurveyUSA)

Florida: Obama 48%, Romney 45% (Grove Insight)

Ohio: Obama 47%, Romney 47% (Gravis)

Ohio: Obama 49%, Romney 48% (Public Policy Polling)

Virginia: Obama 49%, Romney 47% (Public Policy Polling)

“With less than three weeks to go until Election Day, campaign finance reports filed on Saturday show that Colbert’s super-PAC – Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow – is holding tightly to nearly $1 million,” The Hill reports.

Nevada Progressive looks at the final voter registration report and finds Nevada Democrats now have a 7.17% advantage in the key swing state. Back in March, they had roughly a 4% statewide edge.

The Las Vegas Review Journal notes early voting in Nevada starts today and ends November 2.

Washington Post: “The Romney campaign may have misfired with its suggestion that statements by President Obama and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice about the Benghazi attack last month weren’t supported by intelligence… ‘Talking points’ prepared by the CIA on Sept. 15, the same day that Rice taped three television appearances, support her description of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate as a reaction to Arab anger about an anti-Muslim video prepared in the United States.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports the assault “appears to have been an opportunistic attack rather than a long-planned operation, and intelligence agencies have found no evidence that it was ordered by Al Qaeda.”

The Economist: The utterly useless Benghazi argument.

CBS News: “Priorities USA Action, the chief Democratic super PAC supporting President Obama, will close out the campaign season by reprising a television ad about a man who lost his job as a result of decisions made by Bain Capital while Republican nominee Mitt Romney ran it.”

[Read more…]

“This shouldn’t be a race. The only reason it is, is because Americans are impatient on things not made before yesterday and they don’t understand why the economy is not totally hunky-dory again.”

— Bill Clinton, quoted by the AP.

New York Times: “A serial chief executive, the Republican presidential nominee is steeped in management theory and eschews gut instincts. He is not so much a micromanager as a microprocessor, wading deeply into the raw data usually left to junior aides. He entrusts advisers with responsibility, but keeps them on a short leash, monitoring them through a flurry of progress reports and review sessions. Mr. Romney is, colleagues said, ‘conflict-avoidant.’ His decision-making process is unhurried and Socratic, his instinct to exhaustively debate and prod.”

Bloomberg: Do CEOs make good presidents?

President Obama embraced the term “Romnesia” like it was a new toy, blasting Mitt Romney both for being a right-wing extremist and for holding no convictions at all, Politico reports.

“Obama’s use of Romnesia, borrowed from liberal blogs, is the campaign’s latest effort to create a shorthand to describe both Romney’s ideological flexibility and the ‘severely’ conservative views he espoused during the GOP primary contests. Romnesia covers both concepts with one word.”

“The two Obama attack lines could stir more distrust of Romney among persuadable voters — or they could muddle the Obama message in the campaign’s closing weeks.”

Here are the latest polls from the battleground:

Florida: Romney 51%, Obama 46% (Rasmussen)

Florida: Romney 49%, Obama 48% (CNN/ORC)

Florida: Romney 48%, Obama 45% (Fox News)

Iowa: Romney 49%, Obama 48% (Public Policy Polling)

Nevada: Obama 51%, Romney 43% (Mellman)

New Hampshire: Romney 49%, Obama 48% (Public Policy Polling)

North Carolina: Obama 47%, Romney 44% (Grove Insight)

Ohio: Obama 46%, Romney 43% (Fox News)

Virginia: Romney 50%, Obama 47% (Rasmussen)

Wisconsin: Obama 50%, Romney 48% (Rasmussen)

The Onion bypassed Obama and Romney and endorsed former Sen. John Edwards instead.

“Mr. Edwards conducted a protracted extramarital affair with a younger
woman while his wife was dying of cancer, and we like that he did this.”

The Salt Lake Tribune endorses President Obama over Mitt Romney, the candidate “we knew, or thought we knew, as one of us.”

“Sadly, it is not the only Romney, as his campaign for the White House has made abundantly clear, first in his servile courtship of the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now as the party’s shape-shifting nominee. From his embrace of the party’s radical right wing, to subsequent portrayals of himself as a moderate champion of the middle class, Romney has raised the most frequently asked question of the campaign: ‘Who is this guy, really, and what in the world does he truly believe?'”