Washington (CNN) – Calling the nation's falling educational standards "the civil rights issue of our time," on Wednesday Mitt Romney proposed dramatically expanding school choice for low-income and disabled children.

Romney told members of the Latino Coalition gathered at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that millions of American children were "getting a third-world education," adding: "America's minority children suffer the most. This is the civil rights issue of our era."
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(CNN) - After repeatedly pinning the president for the unemployment level, which now sits at 8.1%, Mitt Romney pledged he could cut the rate by two points if he makes it to the White House.

"I can tell you that over a period of four years, by virtue of the policies that we'd put in place, we'd get the unemployment rate down to 6%, and perhaps a little lower," the presumptive GOP nominee said in a TIME interview published Wednesday.
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(TIME) - In a 36-minute Wednesday Manhattan interview, Romney pushes back on President Obama's Bain attack, predicts he can drive unemployment down to six percent by the end of his first term and says he wants Washington to sit still during the lame-duck session.

Washington (CNN) – A nagging head cold hasn't kept Mitt Romney from working feverishly to fill his campaign's coffers this week.

After giving an education policy speech in Washington, the presumptive GOP nominee will continue this week's punishing fund-raising schedule with a small finance event in the nation's capital, a campaign aide said.
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Editor's note: Gloria Borger is CNN's chief political analyst, appearing regularly on shows such as "AC360°", "The Situation Room," "John King, USA" and "State of the Union."

(CNN) - As the presidential campaign veers off onto the Bain Capital ramp, the predictable arguments ensue: Is the turn simply a political attack meant to distract from bad economic news? (So says Mitt Romney). Or is it an important, valid argument at the heart of the contest? (So says President Barack Obama.)

Distill all the arguments down to an essential core, and they're really about one thing: experience. As in, does past experience matter? Is it an indicator of future behavior? Or of your values? And if you behaved one way at another job in your past, what does that tell us about how you would behave as president? Finally, should your previous experience (or lack of it) in any way disqualify you from the presidency?

(CNN) – Richard Grenell, the former Mitt Romney spokesman who resigned after two weeks on the job, said in an op-ed published Wednesday that gay Republicans have an important role in the conservative political movement and should not stay silent.

"The claim that gays should be barred from conservative activism is not only bigoted but is a bipartisan view," Grenell, who served as the director of communications for the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations from 2001 to 2009, wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "The intolerant assault comes from the far right, who object to Republicans who are gay, and the far left, who object to gays being Republicans. When the extremists on both sides are the only ones speaking up, the majority suffers."
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(CNN) – Piling on to the debate over Mitt Romney's private equity career, the president's former "car czar" Steve Rattner penned an op-ed Wednesday criticizing Romney's job creation claims.

"Adding jobs was never Mitt Romney's private sector agenda, and it's appropriate to question his ability to do so," Rattner wrote in the New York Times.
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(CNN) – President Barack Obama faced unlikely challenges in two Southern state primaries Tuesday, though the results won't pose any threat to his status as the Democratic presidential nominee, and both states are expected to vote solidly Republican in November's general election.

In Arkansas, Obama won the Democratic presidential primary with 58% of the vote, facing a challenge from lawyer and perpetual presidential candidate John Wolfe. Wolfe had 42% of the vote on Wednesday morning, with 53 of 75 counties reporting results.
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Washington (CNN) – The Obama re-election campaign is putting in almost $150,000 for an additional buy of its two minute ad going after Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital, according to a Republican media buying source.

The ad, which is called "Steel," chronicles the buying of a Kansas City steel plant GST in 1993 by Bain Capital headed by Romney at the time. The steel mill later went bankrupt in 2001, and more than 750 people lost their jobs. Romney, however, had already left Bain by the timing of the closing.
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(CNN) - A poll released Wednesday morning indicates that Mitt Romney holds a six point lead over President Barack Obama in the crucial battleground state of Florida.

According to the Quinnipiac University survey, 47% of registered voters in the Sunshine State say they back Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, with 41% saying they support Obama, with 7% unsure.
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