Election 2012 - The Week

Campaign Spending Who's winning the 2012 presidential money race?

The assumption was that Obama would have a big fundraising advantage over Romney, but GOP-friendly super PACs are proving prognosticators wrong

Obama vs Romney

45%

44%

Senate races map

Romney to be elected president:

39%

A young Obama fan's memento — and more revealing moments on the trail

The Obama Campaign

Edward Morrissey: The Catholic mega-lawsuit is a 2012 nightmare for Obama

Dozens of religious organizations sue the administration over a contraception mandate. Not exactly what the president was hoping for heading into November

May 22, 2012, at 10:10 AM

President Obama with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick at a campaign fundraising event in Boston: Obama's opponent Mitt Romney and the groups backing the GOP candidate have outraised Obama $402 million to $340 million.

Campaign Spending

Who's winning the 2012 presidential money race?

The assumption was that Obama would have a big fundraising advantage over Romney, but GOP-friendly super PACs are proving prognosticators wrong

May 22, 2012, at 9:15 AM

Mitt Romney's former company Bain Capital has become the go-to focus of Team Obama's attack ads.

2012 Presidential Race

Attacking Mitt Romney's Bain Capital: Fair game?

Obama is relentlessly going after the private equity firm founded by his GOP challenger, and some say the Democrat's punches are hitting below the belt

May 21, 2012, at 3:35 PM

The Romney Campaign

Robert Shrum: Bain is just chapter one in the Book of Romney

Republicans are desperate to declare Obama's attacks on Mitt's business background off-limits. But in the life of Romney, vulture capitalism is an inescapable theme

May 21, 2012, at 12:00 PM

Hawaii has received so many requests for President Obama's birth certificate that it passed a law in 2010 essentially exempting Obama from the state's public-records rules.

The Obama Campaign

Will Arizona keep President Obama off the 2012 ballot?

Arizona's secretary of state insists that he's not a birther... while simultaneously threatening to bar Obama from the November ballot over birth certificate suspicions

May 21, 2012, at 10:25 AM

Newark Mayor Cory Booker speaks at a conference held by the American Federation for Children on May 4: After criticizing President Obama for attacking Mitt Romney's private equity days, Booker took to Twitter to clarify his statements.

The Obama Campaign

Did Cory Booker sandbag Obama by calling the Bain attacks 'nauseating'?

The Newark mayor went on Meet the Press, purportedly to help President Obama's re-election effort. He may have done more harm than good

May 21, 2012, at 7:00 AM

In the first scene of Mitt Romney's new campaign ad "Day One," he promises to approve the Keystone pipeline to "create thousands of jobs that Obama blocked."

The Romney Campaign

Romney's 'Day One': Does his first ad set him apart from Obama?

With a TV commercial airing in swing states, Mitt Romney declares that he'd begin his presidency by reversing key Obama policies

May 18, 2012, at 5:01 PM

Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) is facing off in a June 5 recall vote with Tom Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee.

2012 Elections

Scott Walker's battle for Wisconsin

The union-busting Republican governor faces a recall vote next month that will resonate throughout the nation. What's at stake?

May 18, 2012, at 10:35 AM

The Romney Campaign

Mitt Romney's newfound popularity: 5 theories

Romney's favorability ratings have jumped significantly since the days when he was fighting a heated primary battle. Who's warming to Romney, and why?

May 18, 2012, at 9:30 AM

In praising former President Bill Clinton to bash President Obama, Mitt Romney has suggested that Obama's supposed abandonment of "the Clinton doctrine" is due to "a personal beef with the Clintons."

The Romney Campaign

Is Bill Clinton an effective ally... for Mitt Romney?

Romney has been talking up the former chief executive as a way to paint President Obama as a leftist Democratic outlier. Could the ploy backfire?

May 18, 2012, at 9:05 AM

The proposed attack against President Obama's old ties to Rev. Jeremiah Wright are "ridiculous," says TIME, because after three-and-half years of Obama's term, we know that he "isn't much of a churchgoer," and therefore probably didn't hear Wright's incendiary sermons.

The Obama Campaign

5 reasons a Jeremiah Wright attack on Obama would fail

President Obama's connection to the Rev. Wright was toxic in 2008. A look at why, four years later, it's not such a big deal anymore

May 18, 2012, at 7:00 AM

President Obama and Jeremiah Wright in 2005: Wealthy conservative Joe Ricketts reportedly wanted to bankroll harsh ads tying Obama to Wright, but has since said that he "rejects" this approach, which was "only a suggestion" in the first place.

2012 Presidential Race

The Right's 'shameless' plan to tie Obama to Jeremiah Wright... again

After a barrage of criticism, conservatives abandon a scheme to make the president's controversial ex-pastor an even bigger issue than he was in 2008. Smart move?

May 17, 2012, at 6:10 PM

The youthful Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal damaged his national political prospects with a shaky response to President Obama's 2009 congressional address.

2012 Veepstakes

Bobby Jindal: A sudden VP frontrunner?

An endorsement from powerful anti-tax activist Grover Norquist thrusts the Louisiana governor to the head of the GOP veepstakes pack. Does he belong there?

May 17, 2012, at 11:02 AM

Former employees of GS Technologies, a now-defunct steel mill in Kansas City, Mo., say that Mitt Romney's Bain Capital destroyed their jobs.

2012 Presidential Race

Anatomy of a campaign ad: 'Steel'

The Obama campaign releases an ad labeling his GOP challenger Mitt Romney as a "vampire" who "sucked the life" — and jobs — out of a thriving steel company

May 17, 2012, at 7:23 AM

2012 Presidential Race

Dana Liebelson: What HBO's Girls can teach Obama and Romney

The buzzy new show about twenty-somethings struggling with life and love in New York City isn't overtly political. But it still holds plenty of political lessons

May 16, 2012, at 6:20 PM

James Lipton host of "Inside the Actors Studio" says that Romney's personality void is "a potentially fatal flaw for any actor, but especially for a presidential candidate."

The Romney Campaign

Humanizing Mitt Romney: Could James Lipton's master acting tips help?

The famed Inside the Actor's Studio host offers unsolicited advice to "Mittbot" on how to warm up his mechanical laugh, dress better, and, above all, "act like a human"

May 16, 2012, at 3:58 PM