The White House “was subtlety gleeful today as Mitt Romney’s campaign dealt with the latest group to be offended during the Republican presidential candidate’s overseas tour that was intended to showcase his foreign policy credentials,” ABC News reports.

“Romney’s newest diplomatic fumble has insulted the Palestinians by suggesting that the discrepancy between the wealth of Israel and Palestinians was due in part to their different cultures. A top Palestinian labeled the analysis racist.”

National Journal: “For any man who would be president there are unwritten rules of
foreign diplomacy. Mitt Romney seems to have internalized some, while
others apparently slipped out of the briefing book on his flight across
the Atlantic to debut as a potential leader of the free world.”

Fred Hiatt: “In this Romney-Obama matchup, the only motivation that surfaces clearly for voters is the desire to stop the other side — the conviction that the opponent’s agenda would be dangerous. If the pattern holds after the conventions, this may be what propels voters to the polls in November…”

“It is a blocking election. The candidates give us little sense of what they would actually do in office. Neither tries to rally Americans behind a positive vision and agenda for the next four years. The rationale instead is the frightening specter of an enemy win.”

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign released a new video featuring a small businessman criticizing President Obama’s now infamous “you didn’t build that” line.

Says Dennis Sollmann: “I mean, I’m thinking, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ He was trying to say: ‘Hey, you didn’t build that business on your own. The government helped you build it.’ And that’s what ticked me off more than anything.”

However, the Huffington Post reports Sollmann’s electric company has relied heavily on government contracts.

This is the second time this has happened: A previous Romney ad starred a New Hampshire businessman who also received significant government assistance.

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A new Democracy Corps (D) survey shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney nationally by four points, 50% to 46%.

Even more interesting: The poll finds President Obama’s approval rating at 50%.

Businessweek says it’s not about Bain Capital or offshore tax havens. It’s an ad about bullying being run in Michigan by attorney Geoffrey Fieger.

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Howard Kurtz reports on Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) failed efforts to advise Mitt Romney and his frustration at a behind-the-scenes role in the campaign.

“When Mitt Romney declared, during a Republican primary debate in Tampa, that he would pressure illegal immigrants to ‘self-deport’ back to their home countries, John McCain was downright disturbed. Worried that his former rival was grievously wounding himself with Hispanic voters, the Arizona senator staged an intervention. He and fellow senator Lindsey Graham placed a joint call to Romney in January, urging him to tone down his rhetoric. Romney listened politely, sources say, and did not use the phrase again.”

“It was a rare instance of Romney taking counsel from the man who beat him in the last campaign — and who has been relegated to a behind-the-scenes role in this one. Four years after his own presidential bid, McCain’s luster as a Republican Party spokesman appears to have dimmed: a number of proposed campaign trips on Romney’s behalf have quietly evaporated, and there has been no offer of a speaking slot at the GOP convention.”

First Read has the backstory behind giving Bill Clinton a prime speaking slot at the Democratic convention:

“But what shouldn’t be ignored about this decision is that Wednesday Sept. 5 is the NFL’s first game of the regular season, which will air on NBC. (It’s Giants-Cowboys; not exactly a matchup of teams that have small fan bases.) The Obama camp realized that it needed a big draw to compete with the NFL game and to convince the other networks to cover (NBC will NOT be airing any of the convention on the NFL night). In addition, moving Biden to Thursday isn’t a snub at all; in fact, it means that more male eyeballs will be on him than would have been the case if he went on Wednesday. Per NBC’s Dann, sources say the decision to bump Biden to the final night of the convention was made jointly by the VP and the president. Both Biden and Obama will speak at the football stadium.”