Herman Cain jabbed Mitt Romney while talking to the Gainesville Sun saying that he would have been doing better if he was the Republican presidential nominee, claiming he’d probably have a “substantial lead” on President Obama at this point.

Said Cain: “The reason is quite simple: I have some depth to my ideas.”

Jonathan Chait: “Mitt Romney’s campaign has been notable for its reliance on President Obama’s gaffes. It built its entire convention theme around Obama’s slightly disjointed disquisition about infrastructure (‘You didn’t build that’) and has, at other points, seized gleefully on such lines as ‘the private sector is doing fine’ and ‘our plan worked,’ Joe Biden’s ‘chains’ metaphor, among others.”

“Yesterday, two gaffe-exploitation attempts collided somewhat awkwardly, when Romney had to interrupt his message about Obama’s 1998 gaffe endorsing neoliberal redistribution to seize upon a fresh new gaffe in which Obama said change has to come from outside Washington.”

“Has a presidential campaign been more reliant upon seizing on its opponent’s words (and wrenching them out of context)? This appears to be the hallmark of the Romney 2012 campaign method.”

Here are the today’s swing state polls, updated as needed throughout the day:

Colorado: Obama 48%, Romney 45% (Purple Strategies)

Florida: Romney 48%, Obama 47% (Purple Strategies)

Michigan: Obama 39%, Romney 30% (Michigan State)

North Carolina: Obama 46%, Romney 43% (HPU/Fox)

North Carolina: Obama 48%, Romney 46% (Purple Strategies)

Ohio: Obama 48%, Romney 44% (Purple Strategies)

Pennsylvania: Obama 48%, Romney 47% (Susquehanna)

Virginia: Obama 46%, Romney 43% (Purple Strategies)

Finally, a poll from Arizona suggests it might be a swing state as well.

Arizona: Romney 48%, Obama 45% (Purple Strategies)

Politico: “Mitt Romney was expected to use a billionaire-fueled fundraising juggernaut to crush President Barack Obama’s once vaunted small-donor army. But things haven’t gone according to plan.”

“Headed into the home stretch of the 2012 presidential race, it is Obama who looks to have an edge, thanks to an awakening donor base, aggressive summer spending on ads and ground game, and a Romney hoarding strategy that left him with plenty of cash in the bank, but not much to show for it.”

New York Times: “Mitt Romney entered the final months of the presidential campaign with a cash balance of just $35 million, racing to find new large donors and rally low-dollar contributors in August even while he raised tens of millions of dollars for the Republican Party.”

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign “gave out about $200,000 in bonuses to senior employees just after the Republican National Convention, which ended with the candidate not getting much of a bounce in the polls,” Politico reports.

“Social Security right now is a collectivist system, it’s a welfare transfer system.”

— Rep. Paul Ryan in a 2005 audio recording talking about privatizing the “socialist-based system” of social security — or as he jokingly said he preferred, “personalizing” it.

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Jon Karl reports that at one recent Texas fundraiser for Mitt Romney, a donor told the GOP nominee, “I am happy to write a check, but why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in Ohio?”

Nate Silver points out that a simple average of the four national tracking polls put President Obama 3.4 points ahead of Mitt Romney, essentially no different than a week ago, when the same technique gave him a 3.5-point lead.

“It’s at least possible that Mr. Obama’s bounce was fading — but that the attention to Mr. Romney’s ’47 percent’ comments has since given Mr. Obama renewed momentum. It will take a few more days before we can come to any sort of conclusion about this, however, especially since some of the tracking polls use long field periods and have only conducted a fraction of their interviews since Mr. Romney’s remarks were uncovered.”

First Read: “Idaho and South Dakota today are the first states to begin early-in-person voting. Also today, absentee voting begins in Minnesota, West Virginia, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Georgia, Arkansas, Idaho, and Maryland. This brings the total number of states already accepting ballots to 12. Thirteen additional states (South Carolina, New Jersey, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Delaware, Virginia, Louisiana, and Missouri) will begin absentee or early voting on Saturday.”

So by tomorrow, half the country will be casting votes.

Jon Stewart asks Bill Clinton: “So, give any good speeches lately?”

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John Avlon points out that “no one who has ever run against Mitt Romney walks away liking the guy.”

“I’ve come to believe this disconnect is rooted in Mitt Romney’s essentially businesslike approach to politics… This businesslike approach to politics also explains Mitt’s willingness to go negative. On the surface, the ‘death star’ approach of burying opponents in an avalanche of negative ads, as Romney did in Iowa and Florida, seems inconsistent with a man of deep morals and religious faith.”

“But if you believe that politics is essentially a dirty business — a necessary evil to get ahead and eventually do good, then you make a mental division: you render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. And so going negative is simply the coin of the realm. Honor in politics is misplaced.”

Peggy Noonan: “It is true that a good debate, especially a good first one, can invigorate a candidate and lead to increased confidence, which can prompt good decisions and sensible statements. There is more than a month between the first debate and the voting: That’s enough time for a healthy spiral to begin.”

“But: The Romney campaign has to get turned around. This week I called it incompetent, but only because I was being polite. I really meant ‘rolling calamity.'”

Ann Romney complained to Radio Iowa about the Republican critics of her husband’s presidential campaign last night.

Said Romney: “Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring. This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.”