Wall Street Journal: “Trailing in most polls of battleground states, Mr. Romney embarks on his busiest week of campaigning since August’s Republican convention. He is in the middle of two days of events in Colorado before heading east for a speech in New York at the Clinton Global Initiative, then appearances in Ohio as part of a bus tour of the state.”

“In its latest bid to re-energize the campaign, the Romney camp has begun rolling out messages tailored to key groups in individual states, offering a housing plan in Nevada, where foreclosures have been high, and saying in Florida that Mr. Obama is undermining the space program, which is important to the state’s economy. Mr. Romney has run ads aimed at raising doubts about Mr. Obama’s energy policy in coal-rich parts of Ohio and Virginia. Aides said that effort will continue in coming weeks.”

A new Politico/GWU Battleground poll finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney by three points among likely voters, 50% to 47%.

Key finding: “The universe of voters who might change their mind also has shrunk significantly. One in five supporting a candidate said they’d consider someone else last month. Now it’s closer to one in 10. Regardless of who they’re supporting, 60 percent now expect Obama to win.”

A new Zogby Poll shows Obama with an eight point lead nationally, 49% to 41%.

A new Angus-Reid poll finds Obama ahead by two points, 48% to 46%.

A new Winston Group poll also finds Obama ahead by two points, 48% to 46%.

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Florida finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney by four points, 50% to 46%.

“Well, it doesn’t need a turnaround. I’ve got a very effective campaign. It’s doing a very good job.”

— Mitt Romney, in an interview on 60 Minutes.

Philadelphia Inquirer: “In the Columbus media market, home to the broadcast stations she watches, 18,482 presidential campaign ads aired during a typical late August week… That was three times more than in the close 2004 election and double the volume of four years ago.”

“Most of the spots are negative: President Obama, hapless failure; Republican Mitt Romney, heartless plutocrat.”

“The ads will not let up in Columbus, or Cleveland or Cincinnati or Toledo because Ohio is perhaps the most closely contested political real estate in the nation, a pivotal swing state with 18 electoral votes. Democratic and Republican strategists alike consider it a must-win.”

“Mitt Romney I think has an advantage, because he’s been through 20 of
these debates in the primaries over the last year.”

— Obama adviser Robert Gibbs, quoted by CNN.

A must-read: Oops! A Diary from the 2012 Campaign Trail by Jay Root.

Only available in iBooks format so far.

A new Mason-Dixon poll in Montana finds challenger Denny Rehberg (R) with a slight edge over Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) in U.S. Senate race, 48% to 45%.

Said pollster Brad Coker: “Usually, if an incumbent is trailing, that’s a problem. But this is just too close to call.”

The New York Times looks at the unlikely revival of Ralph Reed who soon “plans to unleash a sophisticated, microtargeted get-out-the-evangelical-vote operation that he believes could nudge open a margin of victory if Mr. Romney can keep the race close.”

“White evangelicals are a crucial voting constituency, 26 percent of the 2008 electorate and overwhelmingly Republican in recent presidential cycles, exit polls show. With so few truly undecided voters left, bumping up evangelical turnout in swing states like Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio would almost certainly help Mr. Romney.”

A new Enquirer/Ohio Newspaper Organization poll in Ohio shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney in the crucial battleground state by five points, 51% to 46%.

Key finding: “When survey participants were asked which candidate would do the best job of improving economic conditions in Ohio, Obama prevailed by 5 points.”

Said pollster Eric Rademacher: “Clearly, how Ohioans view the two candidates in terms of their ability to improve Ohio’s economy over the next four years will go a long way in determining who wins Ohio’s 18 electoral votes.”

Politico: “Republican super PACs are about to face a potentially existential test of their reach and impact as the 2012 election cycle comes to a close, with their spending being closely watched as a way of answering a central question at the core of modern American politics: can an avalanche of money from outside groups move the needle in the presidential race and Senate contests across the country.”

A new Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll in Florida finds President Obama edging Mitt Romney, 48% to 47%.

Said pollster Brad Coker: “It’s still very much a toss-up. It’s a turnout game.”

The New York Times reports New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who is mulling a presidential bid in 2016, and his inner circle have their eyes fixed on Hillary Clinton, “whose already sky-high stature among Democratic activists was enhanced by her husband’s crowd-pleasing speech this month at the party’s convention in Charlotte, N.C., and who can count on broad support if she decides to run.”

“Mrs. Clinton complicates Mr. Cuomo’s ambitions in several ways. Despite the fact that she hails from Illinois, she is now viewed as a New Yorker and commands deep loyalty from the state’s Democratic establishment. And Mr. Cuomo, 54, reveres her husband, former President Bill Clinton; he views Mr. Clinton as a mentor who helped him begin a career in politics, according to Cuomo friends and associates.”

One Democrat close to Cuomo said “the situation was making the Cuomo camp cranky, in part because the governor, a skilled strategic thinker, did not like to be captive to others’ ambitions.”

Mitt Romney’s campaign packed the audience for the Univision forum at the University of Miami this week by busing in supporters “after exhausting the few conservative groups on campus,” BuzzFeed reports.

Staffers even threatened to reschedule the event if organizers did not allow the exception to their student-only rule.

Mitt Romney himself also refused to come out on stage after anchors noted he “had agreed to give the network 35 minutes, and that Obama had agreed to a full hour the next night.” Romney insisted they re-tape the introduction.

Said one of the Univision anchors: “It was a little bit of disrespect for us.”

A voter-ID mutiny launched by two Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania counties “showed signs of spreading across the state Friday, as Philadelphia and a handful of other local governments said they, too, would consider issuing poll-ready identification cards through county-run nursing homes and colleges,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“The move exploits a loophole in the new law that allows both colleges and senior-care centers to provide such cards to anyone who lives in the county — not just to the people who attend those colleges or reside in those centers.”