US election 2012: September 9 as it happened 22.30 (17.30) Our US editor, Peter Foster, has filed on the new momentum in the race. Barack Obama claimed the early momentum in the US presidential election on Monday night as he pulled clear of Mitt Romney in four polls and even managed to raise more money than his Republican rival for the first time in months. Each of the polls showed the president with at least a five-point lead, a potentially significant advantage now that the campaign proper has started following the end of the party convention season. Also encouraging for Mr Obama, were the latest fund-raising figures which showed that his campaign had out-raised Mr Romney for the first time since April, raking in $114m in August, up sharply from the $75m they raised in July. The Republican challenger also faced claims that he had 'flip flopped" over the president's landmark healthcare reforms after an interview on Sunday in which he suggested he was now in favour of some of its key provisions. 22.10 (17.10) At the White House, Obama has just finished a meeting with senior advisors about the US's national security system on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. The meeting is largely symbolic but it's a way for Obama's aides to remind people that they have the incumbency and all the advantages that come with it. Part of that means Obama gets some credit for national security advances, like the killing of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Pennisula's deputy leader earlier today. 21.28 (16.28) CNN has just released a new poll and it provides further evidence of an Obama "bounce" coming out of the conventions. Obama now leads 52 - 46 among likely voters. The score last week - after the Republican convention but before the Democrat one - was a dead tie at 48 per cent. The poll has lots of nuggets of good news for Democrats but one of the most interesting is that when voters were asked who shares your values they broke 51-44 for Obama. Before the conventions they were essentially evenly split with Obama on 47 and Romney on 45. The key question for Democrats: is this a temporary blip in the wake of a successful convention, or something that can be sustained through November? 21.10 (16.10) Charles Whitfield has been keeping an eye as Romney makes his first campaign appearance of the day: Speaking to a crowd of about 1,200 in Mansfield, Ohio, Mitt Romney gave a fairly standard stump speech, with one tweak from the version he gave on Saturday. That previous speech had included a pledge not to "take God off our coins." The Obama campaign complained that the line was misleading to voters, as the Democrats have no intentions of secularising US currency. Romney replaced the phrase with a promise not to "take God out of the public square." The Republican nominee's quip about putting "students first" and "teachers" unions behind" is a line he's used for months, but it was especially well-received today, in light of the Chicago teachers" strike. 21.00 (16.00) Mitt Romney just lost a crucial endorsement. Or a sort-of endorsement. That wasn't really crucial. Last week the internet went beserk as popstar Nicki Minaj appeared to throw her backing behind Romney. In a song lyric, she announced: "I'm a Republican voting for Mitt Romney, you lazy b------ are f------ up the economy." No one was quite sure what it meant - the next line of the song was about zombies - but people chalked it up as a point to Romney. When asked how he felt about losing the colourful singer's vote, Obama this morning offered a different interpretation: that Minaj was channeling one of her large cast of alter-egos and parodying the Republicans.  "I'm not sure that's actually what happened," he told Power 95.3 in Florida. I think she had a song on there, that - a little rap that said that. But she likes to play different characters. It turns out Obama is a better analyst of rap lyrics than the internet because soon after Minaj tweeted that the President had cracked her code. 19.20 (14.20) Remember Todd Akin, the Republican Senate candidate who infamously said that in cases of "legitimate rape" the female body shuts down to prevent pregnancy? He defied his party's leadership and refused to drop out of the race, threatening the Republicans' chances of reclaiming the Senate and then enjoyed an initial bump as some conservatives rallied around him. But it now seems things are going less well. Apparently several television stations in Missouri are cancelling his ads because he failed to pay up - suggesting that is campaign is running out of cash. 18.55 (13.55) Charles Whitfield has more on the teacher's strike in Chicago, which is pitting Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff, against the teachers unions, which normally back the Democrats. This is an awkward turn of events for Democrats. After 10 months of negotiations, the 30,000-strong teachers union in Chicago is on strike, citing concerns over health benefits, pay, and new teacher evaluation metrics. Democratic Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has said the strike as harmful to students, but he must tread carefully. In 2010 and 2011, Republicans in Wisconsin and Ohio came under fire for their rough dealings with state teachers" unions, and then-candidate Emanuel was among their critics. "I totally reject the notion that it would happen here [in Chicago]," he said of the Wisconsin union fight in 2011. Democrats are sometimes criticised for paying lip service to teachers" unions while quietly undermining them, and if this fight drags on, such criticism could gain momentum. Meanwhile, Chicago's public school students are suffering: upwards of 400,000 students are missing what should be their second week of classes. Rahm Emanuel 18.28 (13.28) We're coming up to the one-year anniversary of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), the US military policy that allowed homosexuals to serve in uniform as long as they kept their sexuality a secret. Obama scrapped the law in December 2010, eliciting huge applause from the gay community as he directed the armed forces to allow people to serve in the open. But many conservatives and some military officers opposed the repeal, arguing that openly gay troops would undermine the forces' readiness. A group of 1,167 retired admirals and generals signed an open letter in 2009 warning that repeal would "break" the all-volunteer military. Nearly one year on from the day the military stopped enforcing DADT, the Palm Center has published a report into the impact of the repeal on the military's readiness. Its conclusion? The repeal of DADT has had no overall negative impact on military readiness or its component dimensions, including cohesion, recruitment, retention, assaults, harassment or morale. Worth noting that the Palm Center is focused a gay and lesbian research organisation - so you would expect it to come to that conclusion - but the reports' authors are respected academics, many of whom work in the military's own academies. Full report here: Don't Ask, Don't Tell 17.40 (12.40) Scott Van Duzer, the giant-sized pizza shop owner who lifted the President off the ground yesterday, is fast becoming an internet phenomenon and the Yelp review page for his Big Apple Pizza restaurant is lighting up like Newt Gingrich's face at a space museum. Most of the comments are overwhelmingly positive but he's getting flak from some corners for his man-hug with Obama: Well.. I'd eat there but after seeing the owner grab our leftist President I felt compelled to disrespect his establishment as much as the President disrespects our constitution. Shame on you Scott Van Duzer for thumbing your nose at all the small business owners this President has disrespected for the last four years. I hope you're prepared for many more Yelps like this!!! Maybe you weren't thinking, or maybe you are the only liberal pro Obama business owner, who knows.. but you won't get mine or anyone else's business for your treachery. 17.35 (12.35) My colleague Charles Whitfield notes that Congress is back in session today, just don't expect much from that great engine of democracy. The only bill that's sure to pass is a bipartisan extension of funding for federal agencies, which will avoid a "government shutdown" that Congress flirted with last year. Also up for consideration will be a farm bill to provide relief to states plagued by drought and natural disasters, but no deal is guaranteed there. The elephant in the room? The "fiscal cliff." With the Bush-era tax cuts set to expire and a draconian debt-reduction bill going into effect, the US economy could be plunged into recession in 2013 unless Congress finds a compromise in the partisan mire. Unfortunately, Congress is sure to be paralysed on this issue until after the November election. 15.10 (11.10) The Romney campaign are describing Obama's post-convention lead in the polls as a "sugar high" that won't last long. The quote comes from a slightly-desperate sounding memo but Neil Newhouse, Romney's pollster, who argues that his candidate is still in a strong position to win this race. Don't get too worked up about the latest polling. The reality of the Obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the Obama Presidency, and Mitt Romney will win this race. Newhouse also compares the race to 1980, where Carter led Reagan until the final weeks of the campaign: Political campaign historians will recall President Jimmy Carter led Ronald Reagan by a near double digit margin late in the fall in 1980. In that race, the voters made their decision based on the key issues confronting the nation and it determined the outcome. On the economy, the most important issue of this race, Mitt Romney leads by 51%-45%, according to the most recent CNN/ORC poll. 15.30 (10.30) To the immense frustration of everyone with a sense of humour, we don't know who the bikers in this photograph are. I just called the Cruisers Diner in Seaman, Ohio, where the manager told me they weren't locals and were just passing through. They're reportedly from a group called "the Shadowmen," and I'm making it my mission today to figure out who they are. The Veep's staff kicked out Michael Memoli, the on-duty pool reporter, before the snap was taken. Excerpts of his pool report from are below: VP then walked over to a set of booths to the left of the entrance. At the first, he was offered some of the fried pickles on the table. He didn't have one, though. He the posed for a photo with one diner before switching to the other side of the booth to snap another photo with the other. At the second booth he sat with Larita and Adam Hayden of Cincinnati and their 18-month old daughter Zoe. The VP joked of the child's non-plussed reaction: "Vice President, heck. Give me a bottle. .... After the pool was shooed out, an AP photographer, Carolyn Kaster, was allowed back in without the rest of the pool to capture the VP sitting at a booth with a group of bikers, who we're told are called "the Shaddowmen." Pool had asked to join but did not get to go in. Kaster's photos show first the VP with a group of male bikers, and later a female biker with the group sitting on the VP's lap. He said at one point, "I know who runs the show." No further detail on the exchange there unfortunately. 14.55 (9.55) Team Obama released a new ad yesterday aimed at Catholic voters, in which the President makes a rare public reference to his own prayer habits. "There have been many times over the years when I have fallen on my knees asking God for guidance, not just in my personal life but the life of this nation," he says. The ad itself is fairly shameless - Biden yukking it up with a bunch of nuns, no mention of abortion - but I found it interesting for a couple of reasons. It shows just how important the Catholic vote has become in the United States and how many prominent Catholics there are at the top tiers of US politics. Long gone are the days when JFK had to pledge that he would be loyal to America and not the Vatican. Instead we have two Catholic vice-presidential candidates, both of whom talk far more openly about their faith than their principles. The ad raises questions about Obama's own religiosity. He described how he was born-again at a church in Chicago in the 1990s but is less outward about his faith than many of his predecessors. He goes to church sometimes and his understated approach to religion led Richard Dawkins to gleefully speculate that he's an atheist. 13.20 (08.20am) Several polls have Obama moving ahead of Mitt Romney, achieving the desired post-convention "bounce." Reuters-Ipsos has him ahead by four points, up from level-pegging when Democrats' jamboree in North Carolina begain. Rasmussen Reports has the president up by four points, his biggest lead in their polls since March. But was it Obama himself who made the difference, or Bill Clinton, or even Michelle Obama, or as Philip Sherwell muses, the Obama children Malia and Sasha, who are being used more and more by the campaign? 13.15 (08.15am) It wasn't only the vice-president getting up close and personal with voters over the weekend. Barack Obama however had less choice in the matter when he was lifted off his feet by the over-enthusiastic owner of a pizza restaurant in Florida. You can see the video here. Way to go Joe. Or not. All of Washington will be talking about Joe Biden's encounter with a female voter in Seaman, Ohio, over the weekend. BuzzFeed has a report on how what is probably the best picture of the campaign to date came about. 12.30 (07.30am) In his morning email on the campaign, Alex Spillius reports on Obama's early "bounce" from last week's Democratic national convention. Despite the damp squib of Friday's stagnant monthly job report, two polls taken over the weekend show he has extended his lead to four percentage points and another to five. But unless Obama can maintain that lead and extend it over the next few weeks, the race will technically remain neck and neck. The White House will be quietly very encouraged by a poll by Public Policy Polling that gave him his biggest lead - of five points - since early May.