Yet another national poll -- Quinnipiac -- shows Rick Perry leading the GOP field. Without Palin in the race, Perry is ahead of Mitt Romney by six points, 26%-20%, with Bachmann in third at 12%. (With Palin in the race, Perry’s lead remains at six points, 24%-18%.)

In general election match ups, Romney ties Obama, 45%-45%, while Perry trails him by three points, 45%-42%. 

BACHMANN: “Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann may not be Jewish -- despite a misperception among some political donors -- but that didn't stop her from making a campaign stop in the Big Apple yesterday to talk up her pro-Israel positions,” the New York Post reports.

Per NBC’s Jamie Novogrod, The Palm Beach Post runs a piece quoting Florida Rep. Allen West pushing back against Bachmann’s position on oil and gas drilling in the Everglades. According to the newspaper, West calls Bachmann's statement "an incredible faux pas." (Bachmann told reporters Saturday she’d consider exploration in the Everglades if it could be done without harm to the environment.) As the Palm Beach Post notes, West is a Tea Party Caucus member. But this isn't the first time West has voiced dissatisfaction with colleagues -- during the debt debate he spoke out against Tea Party groups who criticized him for supporting Boehner.

The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier writes about Iowa Rep. Steve King and his likely endorsement of Bachmann, calling it “only a matter of time.”

CHRISTIE: He tells The Daily Beast that when people try to recruit him to run for president, he hears: “The thing I hear most is ‘authenticity.’ They feel that I say what I think and I do what I say I'm going to do.” But he still says he’s not running. Why? “Cause I just don't feel it. In the end this is an extraordinarily personal decision … If I felt it, I'd think about doing it. If I don't feel it, then I can't do it. It's really not a lot more complicated than that.” Asked if he’s 100% certain he won’t run, he said, “Yes.”

And in the kicker to the story, Christie expresses doubt about his own gubernatorial re-election possibilities: “I don't worry about reelection. I feel like I'm playing with house money anyway. Nobody expected me to win this race. The more I start thinking about reelection and trying to calculate either my actions or my decisions based upon that, I'm probably moving closer and closer to not getting reelected. Be myself, be who I am, let the chips fall where they may.”

PALIN: She’s going to New Hampshire now after speaking in Iowa…

PAUL: Ron Paul on what the U.S. has learned since 9/11: “I don’t think we’ve learned a whole lot because our foreign policy hasn’t changed,” he said on Lou Dobbs’ radio show, per The Hill.

PERRY: Perry signed the National Organization for Marriage’s anti-gay marriage pledge. “The pledge confirms Perry’s reversal of an earlier statement he made that he would leave the definition of marriage up to the states,” the Boston Globe points out.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Texas cannot force women to view a sonogram 24 hours before undergoing an abortion. In a statement, Perry said, "Every life lost to abortion is a tragedy, and today's ruling is a great disappointment to all Texans who stand in defense of life. This important sonogram legislation ensures that every Texas woman seeking an abortion has all the facts about the life she is carrying and understands the devastating impact of such a life-changing decision."

The Texas Tribune’s lead story this morning: "Perry's Anti-Abortion Stance Has Grown More Insistent"

The Dallas Morning News reports on the bundlers that Perry's lined up so far.

ROMNEY: AP: “As Texas Governor Rick Perry gains popularity among Tea Party members - and threatens to give former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney a run for his money - Romney is trying to court Tea Party support of his own. The Romney campaign confirmed yesterday that Romney will attend a Tea Party Express event on Labor Day weekend in New Hampshire, a must-win state for him.”

Although he had originally declined to participate in Sen. Jim DeMint’s Palmetto Freedom Forum on Monday because of a scheduling conflict, Mitt Romney announced that he would in fact be attending the event. According to The State, forum organizer Luke Byars said, “He was able to move his event to Sunday night, which allowed him to fly out of New Hampshire in the morning and as such he could be here.” 

Romney impressed Foster's Daily Democratic editorial board. "The Mitt Romney that visited Foster's last week has come a long way since he dashed in and out our doors in 2008. This time there was no entourage, no hurried pace and no doubt that the former Massachusetts governor had done his homework." More: "Romney seems to have come of age, thus the phrase 'comfortable in his own skin.' This initial perception of him was reinforced as the editorial board meeting went on."

On the other hand, the Boston Globe’s Johnson points out of the irony of Romney attacking Harvard -- like he did yesterday -- even though he has a J.D./M.B.A from there. “Not only is Harvard a major player in Massachusetts, the state Romney led for four years as governor,” Johnson writes, “but it also is the school from which he received the business and law degrees that helped propel him toward his highly lucrative venture capital career. It is success in that arena, he says now, that makes him best equipped to replace President Obama as the country’s leader.”

Plus, his sons all went to Harvard Business School and “a large number of the advisers who help Romney speak about foreign policy - the subject of his speech yesterday - are also Harvard alums or teachers.”

SANTORUM: Here’s your Rick Perry attack dog: “[L]look at Governor Perry, and he talks about his unemployment rate, but a lot of those jobs were dead-end jobs that that were not resulting in a growing economy in the middle. And that's where manufacturing comes in, and we need to make things in America."