Ad Tying Romney to Cancer Death Airs ‘In Error’

A controversial TV ad tying Mitt Romney to a woman’s cancer death aired today for the first time in Ohio, apparently in error, according to the pro-Obama

super PAC that produced it.

“Station error is all,” explained Priorities USA Action senior strategist Bill Burton. ”Kind of like when the Florida station accidentally aired Restore

Our Future’s anti-Gingrich ad in June.”

The ethics and accuracy of the claims in the 30-second spot — titled “Understands” — have been the subject of intense debate since it first appeared

online one week ago.

Republicans and some Democrats say the group crossed a line in suggesting Romney’s role at Bain Capital contributed to a woman’s death, especially after

fact-checkers debunked the suggestion that the woman died immediately after her husband’s layoff from a Bain-owned factory or entirely lacked health

insurance because of the move.

The Obama campaign has refused to disavow the ad, claiming no affiliation with the super PAC, even though administration officials have fundraised for it and

former White House staffers run its operations.

Burton has argued that criticism of the ad is overblown and that it fairly reflects the long-term consequences of bankruptcies and corporate buyouts by

Romney’s Bain Capital.

With the outcry and debate, there has been much speculation about whether the ad would air at all. Priorities USA officials have been coy about the delay in

the ad’s hitting the airwaves, insisting only that it has been “shipped to television stations” and would air on demand.

The free attention garnered by the controversy alone seemed to be a desired effect of Priorities. The spot has had over 700,000 views online, and as of

Friday, four of the top five states in which it’s been viewed online include Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, a Priorities official said.

BuzzFeed’s Zeke Miller first reported tonight that the ad officially aired in Cleveland this morning, citing an “ad buy tracking source.”

Taylor Swift Has 'Cool News' For Fans On Monday

Taylor Swift has some big news for her Swifties, but those fans will have to wait almost a week to hear what the country star has to share with them.

The singer announced on Tuesday (August 7) that she will be doing a live webcast on Monday (August 13) at 7 p.m. ET. The event will go down on her official

YouTube channel. The date of the livestream is hardly a coincidence as 13 just so happens to be Swift's lucky number.

"Hey, it's Taylor. So I really want to talk to you about something. I would love it if you would join me August 13 for a live webchat," she said in a video

tease posted online. "You can ask questions. I want to share some news with you, some really cool news. Not gonna go into it too much, but it's cool. I'll

see you there."

Fans who want to get in on the action can ask Swift questions through a live social chat that will take place during the stream. Additionally, there will be

a Google+ Hangout created around the event.

Given that Swift has been hard at work on her follow-up to 2010's chart-topping Speak Now, it seems likely that Swift's "really cool news" has something to

do with some new music.

She has worked with folks like British singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran on the release, and when MTV News last caught up with the singer at the top of 2012, she

explained that this album will show her growth as an artist.

"I made my last album, Speak Now, with this idea I really wanted to make an album without writing with anyone else just because I always wanted to do that.

And now I have a different approach to this record. I'm getting to work with people that I've always wanted to work with." That means that she's seeking out

some assistance "from all different places in music."

"I'm trying to be as much of a sponge as possible," she explained. "You have to evolve and try new things and change and that's what I've loved to do with

this album."

While some of what she's putting out may sound different, there will remain one central Swift-ism that remains. She will be writing about the ups and downs

of love.

"I think that love is always going to be a huge theme in what I write about just because there are no two similar relationships, there are no two times that

you feel love the same way or hurt the same way or [feel] rejection [in] the same way. It's all different and I'm fascinated by that," she said. "I really

love to go back to human interaction and the way we make each other feel. But that at 22 is different than it was at 18 or 19 when I made my last album and

16 and 17 when I made Fearless. As you grow, you change in the way you process emotion."

What do you think Taylor will reveal? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!

NOTE IT!

ABC’s AMY WALTER: As Ohio goes, so goes the election. And right now even many GOPers concede that the state is tilting heavily toward Obama. This is a huge

change from earlier this year when many Democrats were privately writing off the Buckeye State. If Romney can’t bring Ohio back, it’s hard to see how he

captures the White House.

ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Add tax cheat to the list of horrible things President Obama and his supporters are calling Mitt Romney. Another new ad drops as two new

national polls show Obama opening up some breathing room against Romney — a seven-point gap in a new CNN poll, nine points in Fox polling. The scattershot

strategy stands in contrast with the Romney campaign; to cite this week’s example, the Romney folks didn’t make a big — that is, candidate-level — deal

out of David Plouffe’s speechmaking. (Think Team Obama would have let that one slip by?) It puts more pressure on the Romney campaign to deliver on their

one big piece of messaging, around the economy, meaning the veepstakes-fueled bus tour needs extra mileage.

Olympic Daily Preview - Thursday, August 9th

Jamaican sprinting star Usain Bolt will try to captivate the crowd at Olympic Stadium with another historic performance as the London Games hit Day 13 on

Thursday.

Bolt will aim for his fifth Olympic gold medal when he races in the 200-meter final. Four years ago in Beijing, he won gold in the men's 100, 200 and 400-

meter relay and he's already won the 100 here in London. Bolt joined Carl Lewis of the United States as the only men to win consecutive 100 golds and no man

has ever claimed two Olympic titles in the 200.

Once again, the biggest threat to end Bolt's run of gold is expected to come from his countryman Yohan Blake, who beat Jamaica's national hero in both the

100 and 200 earlier this summer at the country's Olympic trials.

Bolt easily qualified for the final of the 200 on Thursday with a time of 20.18 seconds. Blake had the best time of the three heats, running the half- lap in

20.01 seconds. American sprinter Wallace Spearmon was next after Blake, finishing only .01 seconds behind. Spearmon crossed the finish line third at the

Beijing Games, but was later disqualified for stepping out of his lane.

Also, U.S. athlete Ashton Eaton will try to finish strong in the decathlon to win gold. The world record holder in the event is leading the field in London

with 4,661 points -- 220 more than countryman Trey Hardee.

The decathlon concludes Thursday with the final five disciplines: the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meters.

Thursday's track and field competition will also see the women battle for gold in javelin, while the men will vie for medals in the triple jump and 800

meters.

Following a thrilling semifinal victory against Canada, the U.S. women's soccer team will try to capture its third consecutive Olympic gold. The Americans

only reached the final after winning their semifinal on an Alex Morgan header in stoppage time of the second extra period against Canada.

The U.S. will face Japan, which edged France on Monday to advance. The final will be a rematch of the 2011 Women's World Cup final, which was won by Japan.

However, the Americans have won three of four gold medals in women's soccer since the sport became part of the Olympic program in 1996.

Brazil's Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego will play Germany's Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann in the gold medal match for men's beach volleyball. The bronze

medal match will feature Latvia's Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins against Reinder Nummerdor and Rich Schuil of the Netherlands.

Reigning Olympic champion Chen Ruolin heads into the semifinals of the women's 10-meter platform event as a heavy favorite. Chen, who has already captured

synchronized platform gold with Wang Hao in London and is the world champion in both platform events, was the top finisher in the preliminaries Wednesday.

She will be looking to sweep the platform events for the seconds straight Olympics. Brittany Viola, the daughter of 1988 American League Cy Young Award

winner Frank Viola, was among the 18 divers who qualified for the semis. The final is Thursday night.

Rhythmic gymnastics kicks off its slate for the London Games, with Russia's Evgeniya Kanaeva looking to win her second straight all-around Olympic gold. On

the group side of things, Italy has won the past three world titles, but has never won Olympic gold in the group all-around.

Thursday will feature the individual gymnasts doing a pair of routines -- the hoop and ball -- while the groups will perform one routine with five balls.

The U.S. women's basketball team will look to move another step closer toward a fifth consecutive gold medal, as it plays Australia in the semifinals. The

Americans have a 39-game Olympic winning streak, which began 20 years ago and was continued with a quarterfinal win against Canada. Australia has taken

silver behind the U.S. at each of the last three games.

In the other women's basketball semifinal, France plays Russia, which has won the last two bronze medals. Semifinal winners move on to Saturday's gold medal

game.

Gold medals will be awarded in women's boxing for the first time in Olympic history, and an American has a chance for one. Claressa Shields will fight

Russian Nadezda Torlopova, the 2011 world champion, in the middleweight final. Great Britain's Nicola Adams fights Ren Cancan for flyweight gold, while

Ireland's Katie Taylor is up against Russian Sofya Ochigava for the lightweight title.

There are four sprint canoe medal events Thursday -- the men's 1,000-meter canoe double and kayak four, and the women's 500m single and double kayak.

In sailing, medals will be awarded in the men's 470 class. Australians Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page head into the medal race with a four-point advantage

over Great Britain's Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell. Additionally, there are sail-offs to determine fifth through eighth place in the women's Elliott 6m

match racing competition.

The U.S. women's water polo team will try to capture its first gold, as it plays Spain in the final of that tournament. Since women's water polo became an

Olympic sport in 2000, the American women's team has won two silvers and a bronze, but have a chance to make history. Australia and Hungary play for bronze.

Great Britain's Keri-Anne Payne will try to capture gold for the host country in the women's 10-kilometer swimming marathon. She won silver four years ago in

Beijing, and is the reigning world champion in the event. Haley Anderson will compete for the United States.

In women's volleyball, the U.S. team will try to get back to the gold medal match as it plays South Korea in a semifinal. The Americans finished with silver

at the 2008 Beijing Games. Brazil, which won four years ago, takes on Japan the other semifinal.

The final medals in equestrian will be handed out at the London Olympics after the dressage individual grand prix freestyle while synchronized swimming will

be back with teams technical routines.

Two taekwondo weight classes will be contested -- the women's 57-kilogram and men's 68kg. Additionally, freestyle wrestling medals will be awarded in women's

55kg and 72kg classes. Ali Bernard, a bronze medalist at the 2011 world championships in the 72kg weight class, competes for the U.S.

Semifinals will take place in women's handball and men's field hockey, while BMX has men's quarterfinal action.

Majority say foreign talent is the way to go

   
I am for foreign talent if they can also push our local athletes to a higher level.

I read with disappointment the number of discouraging reports about Singaporeans not being proud of Feng Tianwei for winning the bronze at the recent

Olympics because she is not a "local".

We must all agree that despite the many promises of our local athletes, all of them have failed when it really mattered.

I think one of the main reasons is that we do not really have a sporting culture in Singapore.

Yes, we have the Singapore Sports School, but focus there is also on academic excellence, rather than sporting excellence alone.

I watched Feng during the Olympics and was hugely impressed by her determination and her never-say-die spirit.

Sure, detractors will say that she was playing for the $250,000 carrot dangled by the SNOC but I choose to believe in what I saw - a woman representing

Singapore and playing her heart out for the country.

If Singapore wants to establish itself as a sporting nation, getting foreign talent is the way to go.

- Deborah Kong

Accept the universal reality of engaging FT

FOREIGN talent is the way to go for Singapore if we want to achieve and excel in sports, arts, sciences and music etc. for the following reasons:

1. Our small population will get smaller and smaller because of the declining birth rate. With a smaller population, it will be more difficult to develop

talent.

2. Most, if not all Singaporean parents, do not encourage their children to pursue professional sports as a career. So how can we groom local talent?

Generally parents emphasise careers that provide material gain.

3. Singapore can make good use of the screening and training infrastructure of countries such as China to attract budding talent.

After they have received the fundamental training, let them bloom in Singapore. Singapore's attractiveness as a place to live will draw FT.

4. Most important, as long as the heart, soul and mind of the foreign talent is for Singapore after he or she has settled in, it does not matter where they

came from originally.

5. With globalisation, it is not only Singapore attracting foreign talent, every country in the world also seems to be doing this.

So let's wake up and accept reality.

- Patrick Chia

We celebrated Feng's triumph

I WAS down with high fever, watching the table tennis match between Feng Tianwei and Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa with my two children.

Every time Feng won a point and released a yell, my two kids jumped up and down, with my daughter also doing a victory dance from the living area to her

room.

In the end, the triumph was fantastic and gave us joy.

Feng is an imported foreign talent. A medal won by a foreign import is for Singapore.

Whatever awards won during that individual's representation as a Singapore citizen belongs to Singapore.

When he or she flies the Singapore flag, that's the country he or she is representing at that point in time.

I respect and applaud Feng for her passionate and arduous fight in the sport she loves and for the country she represents.

So stop complaining, Singaporeans.

- Nigel Gan

Yes, and no...

IS FOREIGN talent the way?

Yes, if they stay here long enough to adapt and speak English or are groomed from young. No, if you want to focus on our training systems as well as coaches

to further enhance the competitiveness of the locals.

- Jamil Pungot

What about grooming locals?

I AM against pursuing Foreign Talent (FT) to represent the Republic in local and overseas competitions.

It is a waste of public funds to groom FT.

What is the point of having the Singapore Sports School (SSS) when most of the time the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and other sporting

associations focus on FT to boost their medal chances in competitions.

The SSS graduates have little chance of competing with the FT who receive great support, and train and play full time.

Why can't Singapore focus on locals as do Malaysia and Thailand?

A Thai girl lost in the quarter-final against a Chinese player, but her effort made the Thais proud. I will be proud if we have such a player.

What is so great about Feng Tianwei's bronze-medal triumph?

She is a product of very strong support from the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) who use much of their funds to develop FT.

In a report in The New Paper, we read that in the STTA stable are five Chinese FTs waiting to take over from Feng and company.

Where is the talk about grooming local talent?

- Daniel Chan

It's a shame...

I STRONGLY feel that it's a shame to use foreign talent to gain glory for Singapore.

They may be citizens, but only on paper. They are not truly Singaporean.

- Cheong Koon Guan

Olympics 2012: Lolo Jones's marketing blitz masks reality about ability

We interrupt this Lolo Jones Program to bring you some less-titillating news.

She might not win the 100-meter hurdles on Tuesday. It may go to an Aussie or a Turk or even another American
 That might shock millions of people who don’t realize there actually are other American women who can hurdle. One of them is even the defending gold

medalist.

Ever heard of Dawn Harper?

Maybe if you subscribe to Track and Field News. Almost every other magazine and TV show went loco for Lolo in the buildup to London.

She has a compelling story—poor upbringing, deadbeat dad, redemption after falling in Beijing. But let’s be honest.

If Jones wasn’t H-O-T, she might as well be rowing for Burma. Among her many skills is marketing, and she has preened her way to the top of the Olympic

medal stand.

Lolo was on the cover of Time magazine’s Olympic preview edition. She’s been profiled by Rolling Stone, HBO and NBC Nightly News. She did the Tonight Show.

All that, and she barely made the U.S. team.

Harper won the Olympic Trials and Kellie Wells was second. The fact fame can out-race accomplishment isn’t exactly a shock. Ask Tim Tebow.

But isn’t the whole point of the Olympics to run really fast?

What Paris Hilton rock have I been living under? Celebrity inevitably trumps substance, so we might as well enjoy Lolo’s semi-nude magazine spreads. It’s

just hard not to be bothered if you actually have a substantial resume.

“Hmm,” Harper said. “At one point it did.”

When that point ended, she didn’t say. You get the feeling we’re not there yet.

Harper has a pretty good story of her own. She was raised in tough East St. Louis. She didn’t even have a shoe sponsor last Olympics, so she went to China

with scruffy old spikes.

Embarrassed, she borrowed some nice ones from training partner Michelle Perry. Harper won, but most people just remember Jones hitting the next-to-last

hurdle to lose.

And it’s not as if Harper isn’t attractive. It’s easy to imagine her posing in only a red ribbon, as Jones did for Outside magazine.

Harper has been asked to pose for a few pictures at the Olympic Village the past week. But if Lolo is Tebow, she is Matt Hasselbeck.

“I’ve had my family issues as well,” Harper said. “But I’m not willing to say all of them just so I can be in the paper.”

It sure sounds as if Lolo-mania rankles her. Jones went from genuine article to marketing maven when she came out as the Almost-30-year-old Virgin a couple

of months ago.

Then she did the Tonight Show and told Jay Leno she might ask Tebow on a church date.

Talk about media catnip. Kim Kardashian probably fired her publicist that day for not thinking up a Tebow/virginity angle .

Jones is now up to 247,660 Twitter followers, by far the most of any U.S. track and field athlete. She has a half-dozen sponsors, ranging from Red Bull to

Asics to Oakley to BP.

Harper has one. Nike has spared her the indignity of borrowing shoes for London’s races.

“Everything Lolo’s gotten is wonderful,” Harper said. “I don’t want to take anything away from her. That’s her journey.”

You can’t blame Jones for taking it. But when the hurdlers go on their big Olympic journey Tuesday night, I can’t help but pull for Harper.

Even if all she does well is run really fast.

Firestone agony for Furyk after last-hole collapse

(Reuters) - PGA Tour veteran Jim Furyk knows better than most how cruel professional golf can be, and he was on the receiving end of a bitter reversal of

fortune at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday.

Having led the elite World Golf Championships (WGC) event from the opening round at Firestone Country Club, Furyk stayed in control until the 72nd hole where

he wound up with a double-bogey to lose the title by one shot.

While his playing partner Keegan Bradley savored unexpected ecstasy after sinking a 15-foot par putt at the last to win the tournament, Furyk had to deal

with the agony of a squandered chance at landing a 17th PGA Tour title.

"Right now I'm just a little bit in shock with the way I finished up," Furyk told reporters after his one-stroke lead coming down the par-four last had been

wiped out with an ugly six, having missed a five-foot putt for bogey.

"I turned a five into a six and lost the golf tournament on the last hole. There's no way I should have made double bogey.

"I've lost some tournaments in some pretty poor fashions, but I don't think I've let one ever slip nearly as bad as this one. This was my worst effort to

finish off an event."

Furyk, who had tumbled out of a tie for the lead with three holes to play at the U.S. Open in June, played good golf for virtually the entire final round on

a Firestone layout softened by overnight and early morning rain.

He birdied the first three holes and initially resisted a stirring Bradley charge after the turn with rock-solid pars and an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-

five 16th.

FINAL-HOLE NIGHTMARE

His final-hole nightmare began when his second shot ended up in the rough on the edge of a greenside bunker from where he had an awkward stance.

From there, he chunked his chip to just short of the fringe, then chipped from a poor lie to five feet short of the hole before missing a five-foot bogey

putt to gift the title to Bradley.

"If I wanted one shot over, I guess it would be the third especially as I had the ball sitting high in the rough," 2003 U.S. Open champion Furyk said. "I got

too steep. I got the ball real high in the face.

"That's why it came out kind of dead, didn't have any power to it, and I kind of dumped it short there. The third shot was the one that probably is the thorn

in my side.

"I've known it's a cruel game for a long time. I go back to the U.S. Open and the chances I had there, coming in tied with three holes to play, and I played

poorly the last three holes."

At Firestone, however, Furyk had been in complete control since firing a dazzling 63 in the opening round and his failure to finish the job was a bitter pill

for him to swallow.

"I led the golf tournament the entire way and lost it on the very last hole," said the 42-year-old, who is renowned for his rock-steady play and unorthodox

looping swing.

"To get that close and to know that I played more than good enough to win the golf tournament and not close the door is disappointing."