Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) became the most prominent Republican to call on Indiana senate candidate Richard Mourdock to apologize for claiming, during a debate on Tuesday night, that pregnancies resulting from rape are a “gift from God.” The Arizona senator told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Wednesday night that he would withhold his support until Mourdock “apologizes and says he misspoke, and he was wrong and he asks the people to forgive him”:

Like Mitt Romney, McCain endorsed and campaigned for Mourdock, though the GOP presidential candidate has yet to pull his ad touting the Indiana state treasurer or explicitly renounce him.

Mourdock refused to apologize for his comments in a press conference earlier today.

Polls show President Obama leading Romney among women by an average of 9 points.

Will Rogers reportedly once said “politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.” Between his campaign — which has raised at least $283 million to date — and the more than $90 million raised for his “independent” super PAC, calling the amount going to elect Mitt Romney “a lot” would be an understatement. While Romney will owe the top donors and bundlers to his campaign a great personal debt of gratitude even if he loses in November, should he win, those who bankrolled his campaign will likely expect access and influence.

A ThinkProgress review of the top donors to Restore Our Future Inc. and top “bundlers” (supporters who volunteer to collect large bundles of campaign contributions for the former Massachusetts governor) identified by USA Today and the Sunlight Foundation, finds eight have done the most for Romney’s campaign. Each has raised large sums for the campaign and also contributed at least $500,000 to the pro-Romney super PAC.

They are:

1. Ed Conard of New York, NY. Romney’s former partner at Bain Capital, Conard headed Bain’s New York office and led the firm’s controversial acquisitions of large industrial companies. Conard is perhaps best known for his 2012 book Unintended Consequence:Why Everything You’ve Been Told About The Economy Is Wrong in which actually makes the case that American needs more income inequality and defends off-shoring of American jobs. He has claimed that “predatory lending and Wall Street greed did not cause the collapse of the housing market.” He has donated at least $1 million, to date, to Restore Our Future.

2. John A. Paulson of New York, NY. The billionaire founder of Paulson and Co., among the world’s largest hedge funds, gained about $4 billion as the subprime mortgage market melted down in 2007. While he earns more in an hour than the average American earns in a year, he pays a lower tax rate, thanks in part to the hedge fund “carried interest” loophole. He has donated at least $1 million, to date, to Restore Our Future and let the Romney campaign hold an April fundraiser at his Manhattan townhouse.

3. Paul E. Singer of New York, NY. The billionaire manager of Elliott Management Corp., another major hedge fund, has been a persistent critic of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms and Federal Reserve Bank monetary policy. A major funder for right-wing media, the mainstream press has dubbed him a “vulture capitalist” for his controversial record of buying up debt from developing nations at a discounted price and then suing for full repayment. Fortune called him “a passionate defender of the 1%” and noted that he is viewed by many as “an intellectual with the tenacious spirit necessary to help them turn back the clock on regulation and resist higher taxes on the wealthy.” Singer is chairman of the the anti-regulation Manhattan Institute and has donated heavily to the Club for Growth. In one regard, his support for Romney is ironic, given that Singer is a strong supporter of marriage equality and his openly gay son married in Massachusetts in 2010 — despite Romney’s unyielding attempts to revoke that right from same-sex couples. He has donated at least $1 million, to date, to Restore Our Future.

4. Joseph W. Craft III of Tulsa, OK. The billionaire head of Alliance Resource Partners LP, a major coal producer, is the lone person on this list who did not make his or her fortune in investment banking or hedge-fund management. The coal industry has strongly opposed environmental protection standards that would hurt coal companies’ bottom lines and the pro-deregulation Romney campaign has hit the Obama administration repeatedly for what it calls a “war on coal.” Romney has proposed increasing production and consumption of dirty energy sources. Alliance owns and operates the Dotiki Mine in Providence, Kentucky, where two miners were killed in a roof collapse in April 2010. Alliance had been cited for 840 safety violations in the 16 months preceding the Dotiki collapse. He has donated at least $1,000,000, to date, to Restore Our Future and also has given $1,250,000 to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads.

5. William Laverack, Jr. of New Canaan, CT. The chairman and chief executive officer of Laverack Capital Partners, a privately-held investment firm, is also a senior advisor to Tiger Infrastructure, another private equity group known for investing sectors like power and natural resource infrastructure. The New York Times reported in February that his initial contributions to Restore Our Future appeared to hidden from public view. Tiger Infrastructure’s website highlights its investment priorities including “monopolies with sustainable competitive advantage underpinned by regulation, contracted revenues or barriers to entry.” He has donated at least $750,00 to Restore Our Future, to date.

6. Kelly Loeffler of Atlanta, GA. The vice president of investor relations and corporate communications at IntercontinentalExchange, she helps lead a company that provides online marketplaces for investors to trade futures, energy contracts, and financial derivatives. The company has lobbied extensively on Dodd-Frank implementation, focusing on derivative rules. Before that, she held a similar position for Crossroads Investment Advisers, a private equity firm. She co-owns and co-chairs the Atlanta Dream, a WNBA franchise. Should Romney win Georgia, Loeffler will also serve as a Romney elector from that state. She has donated at least $500,000 to Restore Our Future, to date.

7. Warren A. Stephens of Little Rock, AR. The billionaire head of Stephens Inc., an investment banking firm, has been an outspoken opponent of government regulation of business and Wall Street. He has complained that “CEOs literally cannot keep up with the changes in regulation and the behavior of the regulators” and has endorsed legislation to make it harder for government to regulate industry. He has called proposed increased taxes for billionaires like himself “just not a good idea,” putting him in line with Romney, who has proposed lower taxes for the richest Americans. He has donated at least $500,000, to date, to Restore Our Future.

8. Stephen M. Zide of Old Greenwich, CT. The Bain Capital Private Equity managing director, is another former colleague of Romney’s. Zide reportedly is on the board of a Bain-purchased company that is laying off 170 employees and off-shoring jobs to China. He has donated at least $500,000, to date, to Restore Our Future.

The bundler data is based on a USA Today review of political fundraiser invitations. The Romney campaign has, steadfastly refused to disclose the identities of its campaign bundlers — except for a small list of registered lobbyists who bundle, as required by federal law. President Obama, on the other hand, voluntarily discloses all of its major bundlers, as did President George W. Bush (R) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and in their 2000, 2004, and 2008 races.

Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock ignited a media firestorm Wednesday after he called pregnancies that result from rape “a gift from God.” Mourdock stood by his comments during a press conference Wednesday morning. The outcry has elicited defenses from the Romney campaign and the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, while other Republicans including Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Indiana gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence distanced themselves from Mourdock. Yet, amidst the hubbub, Fox News has chosen to stay silent on the controversy.

As of 1:30 pm, Fox News had not mentioned Richard Mourdock or the word “rape” in connection to Mourdock even once. In comparison, other cable networks are covering Mourdock and the fallout from his comments exhaustively. MSNBC mentioned “rape” in 15 segments about Mourdock, while CNN mentioned it 22 times.

Silence seems to be Fox’s favored tactic for dealing with stories that may be unpalatable for conservatives. When Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) made his highly-covered blunder, claiming that women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape,” Fox barely mentioned his name. Though Fox may continue to ignore these controversies, stories of Republican candidates’ extreme positions on abortion and contraception are becoming all too common in the news cycle.

Former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin has a new Facebook post out, accusing President Obama of lying to the American people, using language deeply entwined with America’s Jim Crow past.

Titled “Obama’s Shuck and Jive Ends With Benghazi Lies,” Palin’s piece lays out how in her mind newly revealed emails concretely prove that the Obama administration has lied about the Sept. 11 attack against a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya:

We now know that the State Department sent an email to the White House, the Pentagon, the FBI and others in the intelligence community about this Islamist group claiming responsibility. And yet for days afterwards the White House and State Department led everyone to believe that the attack was the result of a spontaneous protest over an obscure YouTube video that had been uploaded months prior. Anywhere from 300 to 400 people from the administration and our intelligence community would have seen that email. Why the lies? Why the cover up? Why the dissembling about the cause of the murder of our ambassador on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil? We deserve answers to this. President Obama’s shuck and jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end.

Palin’s title and final sentence show an extreme insensitivity to the racial history of the phrase. The concept of “shuck and jive” originated in the Deep South, as a term that referred to the overly subservient language that African-Americans used towards whites. Blacks, during the time of slavery or the Jim Crow segregation period, could shuck and jive to either put on the illusion of doing work when being watched or to feign obedience to those in power. While the phrase has morphed over the years to mean something more bland, akin to “acting facetiously,” the connection between the President’s race and Palin’s phrasing can’t be overlooked.

U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock (R-IN) refused to apologize for suggesting that pregnancies that result from rapes are a “gift from God,” during a press conference on Wednesday morning. Instead, he doubled down, claiming that while God would not condone rape, life that results from the violent act is a gift: “Life is precious, I believe it is a gift from God, I believe that God would never want anyone harmed, sexually abused, raped.” Watch it:

Mourdock made the initial controversial remarks at a debate on Tuesday evening, causing some prominent Republicans to distance themselves from the candidate.

“I spoke from my heart…when speaking from the deepest level of my faith, I cannot apologize,” Mourdock explained, though he expressed regret that some people misunderstood what he said and claimed that the controversy demonstrates “what’s wrong with Washington today.” He also reiterated that he still does not believe that women should be able to obtain abortions in cases of rape.

“The one exception I see for abortion is for that choice when the doctor realizes that the woman’s life is in danger,” he said. “I said life is precious. I believe life is precious. I believe rape is a brutal act. It is something that I abhore and that anyone can come away with any meaning with what I just said is regrettable and for that I apologize. I know the reverence I have for life.”

At Tuesday’s debate, Mourdock said: “I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.”

CONWAY, New Hampshire — Pressed to name even one policy difference between House Republicans and a future President Romney, a Tea Party congressman conceded that he couldn’t foresee any.

ThinkProgress spoke with Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH), who was elected to Congress in the 2010 Tea Party wave, at a debate late last week. We asked five separate times whether there were any policy areas of disagreement, but Guinta couldn’t name a single difference. He ultimately said that he couldn’t foresee any policy disagreements, but offered that “I’m sure there’ll be differences.”

KEYES: Are there any policy differences you see between House GOP and a future President Romney?

GUINTA: Oh sure, a President Romney would bring his own ideas to the table. [...]

KEYES: Are there any major policy differences you can think of though between House GOP and a President Romney?

GUINTA: I think candidate Romney is talking about fueling the economy through predictability, through tax reform, through spending modifications.

KEYES: Is that different than the House GOP?

GUINTA: We’ve done a lot of that. We’ve done a lot of that. And a lot of it we’ve done bipartisanly.

KEYES: But any difference I guess between the House GOP and a President Romney?

GUINTA: I’m sure there’ll be differences. There’s always differences within parties and across parties.

KEYES: But none that you can foresee at the moment?

GUINTA: No.

Listen to it:

Recent polls have shown poor approval numbers for House Republicans over the past few years. An AP poll from August found just 31 percent of respondents approved of Republicans in Congress, compared to 66 percent who disapproved. Just 6 percent said they strongly approved, compared to 36 percent who strongly disapproved.