The Early Word: Holding On September 19, 2012, 6:00 am Mitt Romney fully embraced the substance of his comments about lower-income people in a secretly recorded fund-raiser video, attempting to find some benefit in the political furor, Jim Rutenberg and Ashley Parker report. While his campaign tried to keep the episode from becoming a campaign turning point, the developments gave Democrats new ammunition for their case that Mr. Romney is out of touch with the needs of the middle class. If he is elected president, Mr. Romney's comments over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the secret video could undermine his effectiveness in bringing the two sides together, David Sanger reports. Any dealings with the mullahs of Iran could also be in jeopardy, as he described them as "crazy people." By standing by the remarks, Mr. Romney fully joined the battle on entitlements, wading into an ideological clash pitting two strands of conservative thinking against one another, Annie Lowrey and Michael Cooper report. The longstanding goal of reducing the burden on the poor with tax credits is up against the growing anxiety that the nation's "takers" are now overrunning its "makers." Though Mr. Romney's aides were hoping that a statewide Republican resurgence in Wisconsin would rub off on their candidate, a new poll showed that President Obama holds a 51-45 lead among likely voters there, Jeff Zeleny and Marjorie Connelly report. A judge in Pennsylvania who upheld a new voter identification requirement will get two weeks to determine whether the state is doing enough to provide voters who lack the required photo IDs with alternative forms of identification, Ethan Bronner reports. If not, the law will be barred from taking effect. Averting a government shutdown is considered an actual accomplishment for the 112th Congress as it is set to enter the record books as the least productive body in a generation, Jennifer Steinhauer writes. Lawmakers will leave town at the end of the week and not return until after the election, leaving behind many bills of pressing importance to voters. Politico says that the secret recording of Mitt Romney at the Florida fund-raiser may be illegal. President Obama will participate in an ambassador credentialing ceremony for several ambassadors in the Oval Office. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will deliver remarks at the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace laureate and democracy advocate, at the United States Capitol. The Foreign Relations Committee will hold hearings on the nomination of Robert Stephen Beecroft to be ambassador to Iraq.