Wire Presidential Election News

The awkwardness of presidential politics was on full display Sunday morning as three former rivals of Mitt Romney were questioned about their past criticisms of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Hispanic voters are a crucial constituency in the presidential election, but reaching young Hispanics will require new tactics - and some experts say mobile-phone outreach will be key.

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As Ann Romney immersed herself in the elite world of riding over the past dozen years, she relied on Jan Ebeling as a trusted tutor and horse scout. In her, he found a deep-pocketed patron.

An analysis of the state-by-state race to 270 electoral votes, the total needed to win the presidency, and where Democratic President Barack Obama and probable Republican nominee Mitt Romney stand now. The numbers reflect electoral votes:

President Barack Obama faces new warning signs in a once-promising Southern state and typically Democratic-voting Midwestern states roughly five months before the election even as he benefits nationally from encouraging economic news.

The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.

In the risky business of running for president, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are largely playing it safe.

This just in from the technology-and-politics desk: A cell phone user who takes a pollster's call is more likely to be a Democrat. A land-line user who takes a pollster's call is more likely to be a Republican.

The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.

The battle between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney will be the most expensive presidential contest ever - by a long shot.

The Democratic Party shouldn't write off Florida yet.

TITLE: "Day One: Part Two."

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is planning a swing-state summer bus tour that will also roll through South Carolina, the early presidential primary battleground.

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney decried President Barack Obama as beholden to the nation's teachers' unions and unable to stand up for reform, he glossed over four years of a relationship that has been anything but cozy.

President Barack Obama delivered his harshest rebuttal yet to rival Mitt Romney on Thursday, dismissing his challenger's claims as "a cowpie of distortions" while seeking to rekindle the all-but-faded Iowa magic that launched him in 2008. Escalating his criticism of Romney's background as a venture capitalist, Obama said it wasn't adequate preparation for the presidency.

The following editorial appeared in the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday, May 23:

Mitt Romney struggled to find support for his education proposals while campaigning at an inner-city school Thursday, one day after declaring education the "civil rights issue of our era."

Mitt Romney's campaign has released a new ad promoting "Day One" of a potential Romney presidency, describing which of President Barack Obama's policies the Republican will reverse first if he wins the White House.

As President Barack Obama readies for a return to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, his campaign is reminding voters that it was in that same spot where Republican rival Mitt Romney declared last year that "corporations are people."

Mitt Romney's vice presidential search has entered a new phase: auditions.

President Barack Obama's campaign says Republican rival Mitt Romney is trying to "move the goal posts" and reverse his position on unemployment. Actually, that's a fumble of the facts.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney likes to portray himself as a better job creator than President Barack Obama, but he may have a hard time backing up those boasts.

Arizona's secretary of state said Wednesday that Hawaii's official verification of President Barack Obama's birth records meets necessary requirements, meaning the president's name will appear on Arizona's ballot in the fall.

TITLE: "Personal" and "Sacred Trust."

Mitt Romney swept all the delegates in GOP primaries in Kentucky and Arkansas and picked up more endorsements from party leaders, putting him one win away from claiming the Republican nomination for president.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is beginning to express some confidence that the president's historic, yet politically risky, embrace of gay marriage may not hurt him in the November election.

Mitt Romney says that if elected Congress should wait until he takes office to block automatic spending cuts and to keep tax cuts from expiring.

Mitt Romney is defending his work at the private equity firm he co-founded and says it's part of why he's qualified to be president.

His cash advantage threatened, President Barack Obama and his party are redoubling their fundraising efforts after robust hauls by Republican rival Mitt Romney and a slew of GOP-leaning super PACs that are raking in cash from the party faithful highly motivated to topple the Democrat.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is airing two new ads, one focusing on his work with veterans returning home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and another aimed at seniors dependent on Medicare.

Originally planning to focus on education, Mitt Romney instead reignited the debate over his business credentials on Wednesday, welcoming scrutiny of the private equity firm he co-founded and declaring he's a far more qualified steward of the economy than President Barack Obama.

Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm didn't wait long to make a nearly $1 million donation to a group supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney after he became one of Romney's top energy advisers in March. Just weeks after Hamm joined the Romney campaign, he gave $985,000 to a pro-Romney super PAC, according to campaign reports.

Some presidential primary voters in Kentucky and Arkansas are taking a swipe at President Barack Obama, denying the incumbent nearly 4 out of every 10 votes cast on the Democratic side.

TITLE: Basketball

The presidential campaign debate over Republican Mitt Romney's tenure at a private equity firm is going down the drain.

An independent group seeking to oust President Barack Obama launched a new TV ad Tuesday suggesting Obama had let down the voters who vaulted him into the White House in 2008. A pro-Obama group answered with an ad slamming Republican Mitt Romney, featuring a woman who lost her job at a factory that closed after it was bought by the private equity firm Romney co-founded.

Mitt Romney's courtship of female voters in his typical campaign speech sounds a bit like a movie's casting call.

With about five months to go, the presidential race is tightening, polls show, with voters nearly evenly divided between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, his likely Republican challenger.

Mitt Romney has swept all the delegates in the Kentucky and Arkansas primaries, putting him within one win of claiming the Republican nomination for president.

A conservative-leaning independent group is launching a $10 million television ad campaign saying President Barack Obama has not lived up to the expectations voters had for him.

Anxious to show voters he's working to create jobs, President Barack Obama is putting tax credits to boost clean energy in the spotlight this week as he heads to the political battleground state of Iowa.

The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong.

The core of his presidential candidacy under attack, Mitt Romney has yet to shape a playbook to defend a quarter-century in the business world that created great riches for him and great hardship, at times, for some American workers.

President Barack Obama sought to undermine Mitt Romney's key rationale for his presidential candidacy Monday, sharply attacking his Republican challenger's background as a venture capitalist and arguing that profit-making alone is not a qualification for the White House.

Add Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker to the long list of political stand-ins for both President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney who've veered wildly off message in a presidential contest notable for its attention-grabbing gaffes.

President Barack Obama on Monday defended his criticism of presumptive Republican presidential Mitt Romney's ties to the private equity firm Bain Capital, saying it was rightly part of the campaign debate because Romney himself was emphasizing his business background.

Almost two weeks after President Barack Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, polls provide some measure of the impact - zero.

Chasing President Barack Obama's cash advantage, Republican challenger Mitt Romney expects to raise $10 million during a three-day fundraising swing through the New York area that included a video meeting with donors in China.

The presidential race is shaping up as a battle between Republican calls for more government austerity and Democratic appeals for more spending to promote jobs and growth with tax hikes on high-income earners. It mirrors a fight raging in Europe.

Effectively clinching the Republican presidential nomination last month allowed Mitt Romney's campaign to marshal larger checks and chip into President Barack Obama's huge lead in the money chase heading into the general election.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and U.S. Sen. Scott Brown publicly support each other and even share key advisers. But on many topics, from foreign policy to social issues, the Massachusetts Republicans take very different positions.

Massachusetts Republicans Mitt Romney and Scott Brown have a history of supporting each other throughout their political careers.

Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker is backing off comments he made earlier Sunday, when he criticized President Barack Obama's re-election campaign for its attacks on Bain Capital, the private equity firm once run by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney and his party raised a sizable $40 million last month from donors who want him to replace President Barack Obama. But even as Romney solidifies his position as the eventual GOP nominee, many supporters who backed his primary election challengers have not yet come to his aid.

Donors who backed Republican rivals of presidential candidate Mitt Romney appear to be slow coming to his aid.

One of her potential Republican rivals recently depicted Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a spiked collar, calling her "Obama's attack dog." Another lost to the Democratic congresswoman from Florida by more than 22 points just two years ago. Another was the butt of a joke on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" when he tried to explain a group he heads called "Americans Against Hate."

Are Republican lawmakers deliberately stalling the economic recovery to hurt President Barack Obama's re-election chances? Some top Democrats say yes, pointing to GOP stances on the debt limit and other issues that they claim are causing unnecessary economic anxiety and retarding growth.

For freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising GOP figure seen as a possible Mitt Romney running mate, there are questions about whether potential vulnerabilities in his personal and political background might hold him back.

Minutes after President Barack Obama endorsed gay marriage on May 9, Colorado's Democratic governor choked back tears as he ordered state lawmakers to reconsider a civil-unions measure defeated the day before by Republicans.

Mitt and Ann Romney are opening their personal checkbooks as wide as allowed to their presidential campaign's joint fund with the Republican National Committee.

President Barack Obama holds a cash advantage of more than 2-to-1 over Republican challenger Mitt Romney but the president's money advantage is beginning to dwindle.

The presidential candidates have just placed their opening bets, and three states stand out as keys to the 2012 election: Ohio, Virginia and, perhaps surprisingly, Iowa.

TITLE: "Day One"

Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney on Friday criticized a restored 19th century bridge as another "Bridge to Nowhere" and a fresh symbol of the waste he says is rampant in President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan.

A Republican senator has asked both political parties to refund the millions of federal dollars each has received to help pay for this summer's presidential nominating conventions.

In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell runs TV ads hailing the state's business growth. Ohio Gov. John Kasich tells anyone who will listen that 100,000 jobs have been created or retained on his watch. And Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder promotes a state budget that's on solid ground for the first time in a decade.

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are being buffeted by crosswinds as Obama fights to keep his job and Romney works to wrest it from him. Both know where they want to go, but getting there is something else.

Barack Obama was the first Democrat in 44 years to win Indiana in the 2008 presidential race. A repeat coup seems doubtful this year.

Mitt Romney is on a charm offensive.

The early border skirmishes of Campaign 2012 are reviving questions about one candidate's former pastor and shining a spotlight on the other's high school hijinks. Can a fresh round of questions about President Barack Obama's birth certificate be far behind?

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday said that a potential political attack on President Barack Obama reportedly funded by the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs is an insult to the nation.

The long-shot prospect of taxpayer help to renovate Wrigley Field grew more remote Thursday, upended by revelations that the patriarch of the Chicago Cubs' ownership team had considered using a super PAC to run racially tinged attack ads that linked President Barack Obama to his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"Super PACs," the free-ranging groups formed to exploit a new era of unbridled campaign spending, have dominated the 2012 presidential race, buoying a succession of Republican candidates and helping propel Mitt Romney to the party's nomination.

Mitt Romney and his Republican Party raised $40 million in April, an unexpectedly strong haul in the first month of the general campaign that illustrates enthusiasm within the GOP and threatens President Barack Obama's overwhelming cash advantage.

Mitt Romney's first general-election TV commercial promises he would introduce tax cuts and approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline on the first day of his presidency.

Vice President Joe Biden says the business background that Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney touts on the campaign trail doesn't necessarily make him fit to run a country.

President Barack Obama is declaring a "new chapter" in U.S. relations with Myanmar, the former pariah state also known as Burma.

Mitt Romney said Thursday that he rejected the proposal presented to a GOP "super PAC" that intended to tie President Barack Obama to incendiary comments by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. - a risky approach that former Republican presidential candidate John McCain ruled out when he ran against Obama in 2008.

Their faces bob and flutter, catching the light off the Nile, zipping past on buses or on the sides of the motorized rickshaws known as tuk-tuks that buzz through the market dust of poor neighborhoods.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney sought to distance himself Thursday from a GOP-leaning independent group's plan for a $10 million TV ad campaign renewing attention to President Barack Obama's ties to his controversial former pastor. Obama's campaign accused Romney of failing to show "moral leadership in standing up to the very extreme wing of his own party."

Mitt Romney swiftly and firmly distanced himself Thursday from a group exploring plans to target President Barack Obama's relationship with a controversial former pastor. But the revival of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue momentarily placed race at the center of the presidential contest and showcased the independent groups playing a new role this year with big-money TV ads.

A super PAC working to defeat President Barack Obama is preparing an ad campaign highlighting Obama's ties to his controversial former pastor.

Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney and his party together raised $40.1 million in April.

Facing new attacks from Democrats, the private equity firm Mitt Romney helped create is defending its record.

TITLE: Obama's Promise

The 2012 campaign air battle grew more intense Wednesday with the news that Crossroads GPS, the cash-flush conservative advocacy group, is pouring another $25 million into television ads castigating President Barack Obama for "broken" promises.

Don't bet on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney winning his home state or even trying.

President Barack Obama is taking a break from active campaigning for a few days to host back-to-back world summits. Yet U.S. presidential politics will be lurking just offstage at both.

Mitt Romney is trying harder than ever these days to stay on script - and keep his traveling national press corps at arm's length.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the mayor of New Jersey's largest city are channeling the Seinfeld-Newman rivalry in a video parody that spoofs the mayor's heroics and Christie's vice presidential potential.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won most of the delegates in the Oregon primary, leaving him 153 delegates shy of the number of delegates needed to win the Republican nomination for president.

President Barack Obama raised a combined $43.6 million in April for his campaign and the Democratic Party as he faces a unifying Republican effort around Mitt Romney for the White House.

Vice President Joe Biden, campaigning in Democratic territory with high unemployment, went after Republican Mitt Romney's business background Wednesday and cast him as a corporate raider more interested in profits than people.

After months of silence, George W. Bush finally weighed on the presidential race - with four short words.

Upstart state Sen. Deb Fischer triumphed in Nebraska's bitterly contested Republican primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday night, winning the right to face Democrat Bob Kerrey in November.

Upstart state Sen. Deb Fischer triumphed in Nebraska's bitterly contested Republican primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday night, winning the right to face Democrat Bob Kerrey in November.

Remember Newt Gingrich calling Mitt Romney a liar? Michele Bachmann saying Romney's unelectable? Rick Santorum calling Romney "the worst Republican in the country" to run against President Barack Obama?

An independent group favoring Republican Mitt Romney is launching a $25 million, monthlong advertising campaign against President Barack Obama in 10 states, further escalating an expensive TV ad war in presidential battleground states less than six months before Election Day.

Mitt Romney is adding two more victories to his win column.