The president may be vacationing in quiet Martha's Vineyard, but his 2008 campaign trail rival says the noise about Obama's soon-to-be revealed jobs creation package is all too loud.

"I haven't frankly heard this much hype about a secret plan since Nixon had a plan for us to get out of Vietnam," Arizona Senator John McCain (R) said on FOX News Tuesday morning.

The president announced last week that he would be sending a job-creation package to Congress in September. Few details of what McCain called the "job creation and Nirvana" plan have emerged.

"I want the president to come forward with a plan, we want to work together, we want to get this thing done," McCain said, adding that the package should include a two-year moratorium on new federal regulations to incentivize business growth.

McCain, who has been outspoken on American involvement in Libya, also had some advice to offer the president on how to approach a post-Qaddafi regime.

"Democracy is tough. It took us over a hundred years and a bloody civil war to figure out what kind of country we are. So let's try and help them out. Not through money - they've got enough money. But they need the kind of technical help that makes governments run," he said. (read more)

Despite his army of grassroots supporters and a strong finish in the Iowa straw poll, the media are ignoring the "Ron Paul Revolution," the presidential hopeful says - and a new study suggests he may be right.

Nine of the twelve potential presidents surveyed attracted more media attention this year than Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a study from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellency in Journalism found.

Paul has been the lead subject of only 27 campaign stories* between January 1 and August 14, according to Pew's research. That's less than a quarter of the coverage former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has attracted, and a small fraction of the 221 stories written about President Obama's reelection campaign. (read more)

Under the shadow of a potential financial doomsday, House Speaker John Boehner kept his debt plan off the floor on Thursday night. Instead, he turned legislators to the important business of renaming post offices.

Boehner used the seemingly inconsequential suspension bills to buy time as he tried to drum up much-needed votes to pass his debt plan. But if anyone is critical of the House's penchant for renaming post offices, it's the speaker himself.

"With all the challenges facing our nation, it is absurd that Congress spends so much time on naming post offices, congratulating sports teams, and celebrating the birthdays of historical figures," Boehner said in a September 2010 speech in Washington.

Promising reform, the newly-minted Republican majority established rules preventing resolutions that commend, congratulate, or celebrate an "entity, event, group, individual, institution, team, or government program."

"We're pretty well committed to the House doing substantive work," Boehner said in May. "All of the commemorative resolutions that used to be brought to the floor of the House, some of them, I thought were quite meaningless."

Missing from that list of once-common suspension bills is a ban against renaming post offices. (read more)

As the House inches closer to a vote on House Speaker John Boehner's controversial debt ceiling plan, a group of business associations is urging lawmakers to support the bill or face losing more private sector jobs.

"This legislation is necessary to extend the debt limit and avoid a default on the obligations of the United States," reads the letter sent to members of Congress on the eve of the vote.

The group behind the letter, which includes a wide swath of industry associations and chambers of commerce, warns that default could trigger "immediately higher" interest rates, stock market woes, higher oil prices, and a "loss of economic growth and jobs."

It's the second time this week the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce has thrown its weight behind an appeal to pass Boehner's "Budget Control Act of 2011."

"While this legislation is not a solution for all of America's debt and deficit problems, it is a necessary first step in the right direction," wrote R. Bruce Josten, the second-ranking officer at the trade association, in a Tuesday letter to lawmakers.

The endorsement counters arguments against the bill from conservative economic policy think tanks like Americans for Prosperity and the Club for Growth. Americans for Prosperity sent its own letter to Congress calling the bill's "paltry" spending cuts "unacceptable." (read more)

The Tea Party flexed its muscle to help Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives in 2010, and this year one group hopes to "revolutionize" the vetting process for the next presidential election - starting Wednesday with the first presidential Twitter debate. But four of the GOP field's most visible candidates have declined to participate.

Along with local tea party groups, Arizona-based grassroots organization TheTeaParty.net is holding the debate in Concord, New Hampshire. From remote locations, candidates will tweet their answers to questions 140 characters at a time, limited by a pre-determined time constraint.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, businessman Herman Cain, former Sen. Rick Santorum, and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson have confirmed their attendance. The group also expects Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter to join.

"We're hoping to revolutionize the debate process in America," says Dustin Stockton, media events director for the group, which provides resources and guidance to local tea party organizations.

"Looking forward to participating in the first ever presidential debate on Twitter today at 3pm," Gingrich tweeted Wednesday morning. (read more)

Republican presidential hopeful and former Senator Rick Santorum raised a modest $582,000 in the 2nd quarter, the campaign reported Friday.

Santorum, an outspoken critic of President Obama and one of the most socially conservative candidates in the GOP field, raised $582,000 and has $229,000 remaining on hand, according to the report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

"In the short amount of time since Senator Santorum has been a candidate for president, he was able to raise a significant amount of resources," campaign finance director Amanda Kornegay said. "It is worth noting that Senator Santorum didn't hold his first official fundraiser until June 22, and between that day and June 30, he raised nearly half of the money he raised as an official presidential candidate."

That compares to the $18 million raised by former Massachusetts governor and presumed Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney in the past three months. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who like Santorum polls in the bottom tier, raised $4.5 million. (read more)

A retreat to Camp David famously helped forge an agreement between Israel and Egypt in 1978, but as debt limit negotiations escalate to a higher pitch with each passing day, leaders from both sides of the House are snubbing the storied presidential woodland retreat.

"The only thing I hope he doesn't ask us to do is go to Camp David," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a press conference Thursday. "That goes beyond the pale. Driving down the street for these meetings is one thing."

Daily debt meetings have brought congressional leaders to the White House, and with negotiations stalling, rumors surfaced late Wednesday night that President Obama was mulling over inviting congressional leaders to Camp David this weekend in hopes of fleshing out an agreement.

The White House would not confirm any plans for a bipartisan pow-wow at the presidential retreat, located about 60 miles northwest of Washington in Frederick County, Maryland. Though President Obama has spent much less time at the retreat than his predecessor, he floated the idea of a congressional summit at the Camp during the contentious lame duck session of Congress in late 2010. An invitation there traditionally has been considered an honor. (read more)

A flurry of past and present public officials offered their condolences after former First Lady Betty Ford died Friday night. Here are a few of the statements commemorating the life of the longtime women's rights advocate:

From the family of President and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford:
"It is with great sadness that we inform you that our beloved mother Betty Ford has passed away at 93 years of age. She died peacefully today at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Mother's love, candor, devotion, and laughter enrichefd our lives and the lives of the millions she touched throughout this great nation. To be in her presence was to know the warmth of a truly great lady. Mother's passing leaves a deep void, but it also fills us with immeasurable appreciation for the life we and Dad shared with her."
Susan Ford Bales
Steven Meigs Ford
John Gardner Ford
Michael Gerald Ford (read more)

Blame high gas prices, an anemic housing market, or the string of disasters in Japan for the sluggish economy - or just fault President Obama. According to White House hopeful and Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, the blame for Friday's disappointing economic reports lies squarely in the Oval Office.

"Today's unemployment report is another stark reminder of the failure of President Obama's economic policies," Bachmann said minutes after the Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent in June.

That's an increase over May's 9.1 percent unemployment rate. According to the report, the economy produced 18,000 net jobs in June. Employers added the fewest jobs in nine months.

Bachmann, who touts her experience in the House Financial Services Committee as the basis for her understanding of what ails the job market, says the president's "massive" stimulus package and government spending are to blame for the numbers.

"Clearly the president's policies have failed," Bachmann said on FOX & Friends Friday morning. "The unfortunate thing is, the president isn't learning from the failures that he's done for the last two and a half years." (read more)

Since announcing her candidacy days ago, GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann has fielded a barrage of questions over historical gaffes. But the Minnesota congresswoman on Wednesday said the media are hungry for more than verbal missteps: They want a mud fight.

"They want to see two girls come together and have a mud-wrestling fight," she said at a suburban Charleston, South Carolina campaign stop when asked about the media's portrayal of her relationship with fofrmer Alaska governor Sarah Palin. "And I'm not going to give it to them."

"I have great respect and admiration for the governor. I appreciate her and I wish her well," she said of Palin, a Fox News contributor who has not yet made her 2012 intentions known. "I think this race is wide open. We can accommodate all the candidates who want to come in."

Beyond interest in how the two would interact if Palin throws her hat in the ring, the media onslaught over Bachmann's apparent historical errors has drawn quick comparison to Palin's rocky relationship with the press - as some question whether the early vetting belies a deeper bias against female candidates. (read more)