“We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.”

— Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R), quoted by BuzzFeed, at the Value Voters Summit.

A fascinating hidden camera video shows Mitt Romney talking at a fundraiser about investing in a Chinese factory that he described as surrounded by barbed wire and packed with 12 women per dormitory room.

Romney’s point in telling the story was that “95% of life is settled if you’re born in America.”

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John Heilemann: “And so it does, with the past week proving another maxim: that when shit rains, shit pours. In the space of 72 hours, what began, horrifically enough on September 11, with the murder of four Americans (including one of our best and bravest, Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya) at the consulate in Benghazi spiraled into a region-wide upheaval, with angry Muslim protests directed at American diplomatic missions erupting in sixteen countries. Suddenly, the president was facing just the kind of externality that his team had been bracing for: a full-blown ­foreign-policy crisis less than eight weeks out from Election Day. And a campaign marked by stasis and even torpor was jolted to life as if by a pair of defibrillator paddles applied squarely to its solar plexus.”

“Moments like this are not uncommon in presidential elections, and when they come, they tend to matter. For unlike the posturing and platitudes that constitute the bulk of what occurs on the campaign trail, big external events provide voters with something authentic and valuable: a real-time test of the temperament, character, and instincts of the men who would be commander-in-chief. And when it comes to the past week, the divergence between the resulting report cards could hardly be more stark.”

“I am the adoptive father of four children, each of them either — each of them either black, Hispanic, Native American, and I am incensed that this president pays money to an entity that was
created for the sole purpose of killing children that look like mine — a
racist organization, and it continues specifically to target minorities
for abortion destruction.”

— Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), quoted by NBC News, on President Obama’s support for Planned Parenthood.

Mashable talks to @InvisibleObama, the Twitter handle born during Clint Eastwood’s bizarre convention appearance last night.

“I remain very, very skeptical of hearing anything that will change the course of history. We have a debt problem. We have a spending problem, but how many things did he list to cut?”

— Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), in an interview with Bloomberg TV, on Romney’s speech to the Republican convention.

In an Obama campaign conference call with reporters, senior adviser David Axelrod said that former President George W. Bush’s policies and legacy — but not Bush himself — will be key to the Obama campaign’s effort to draw a sharp contrast with Mitt Romney, Greg Sargent reports.

“Axelrod joked that Bush the man would get about as much of a mention at the DNC as he did at the RNC — which is to say, almost none at all — but said Bush economics would be very much on the agenda.”

Said Axelrod: “We are going to take issue with the policies that were in place in the last decade, because this is where they want to go back to. These are the policies that they want to embrace once again.”

Alex Castellanos, a former political adviser to Mitt Romney:

“At some point in a debate, Obama is going to turn and challenge Romney, saying, ‘Mitt, you have nothing new to offer. In fact, on social issues, foreign policy, taxes, spending, Medicare and everything else, you have nothing different to offer than taking us back to what George Bush proposed. That’s what got us into this mess.’ Romney has yet to answer that question. He has until the first presidential debate Oct. 3, in Denver, to find a response.”

“Republican voters, if you ask them about my particular policy positions, often agree with me. So there’s a difference between Republicans in Washington and Republican and Republican-leaning voters around the country. I think that after this election, we’ll be in a position to once again reach out to Republicans and say that the American people have rendered a judgment, and the positions we’re taking are well within what used to be considered bipartisan centrist approaches.”

— President Obama, in an interview with Parade, on how he’ll be able to work with Republicans after the election.

Runner’s World is investigating claims by Rep. Paul Ryan that he ran a marathon in under three hours but “has been unable to find any marathon results by Ryan.”

“Requests for more information from Ryan’s Washington and Wisconsin offices, and from the Romney-Paul campaign, have so far gone unanswered.”

A federal judge in Ohio “is giving all voters in the swing state the option of casting their ballot in person during the three days before Election Day,” the AP reports.

The judge issued a preliminary injunction granting the request from President Obama’s campaign that targets a state law that cuts off early voting for most residents on the Friday evening before a Tuesday election.

Rick Hasen: “This could get very ugly very quickly. This is certainly not the last word, unless SOS Husted chooses not to appeal.”

A new West Virginia Poll shows Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) crushing challenger John Raese (R), 66% to 27%.

In the presidential race, Mitt Romney has a solid lead over President Obama, 52% to 38%.