2012 Presidential Election | featured news

The lone Virgil Goode campaign sign on a stretch of Virginia road was far outnumbered by placards promoting Mitt Romney. That Goode's sign was there at all in this pivotal state served as a reminder that plucky third-party candidates like the Constitution Party's nominee could muck up the works on Election Day. Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson is daring unsatisfied voters to "waste" their vote on him in the 48 states where he's on the ballot.

In an era when hackers can humble businesses, it's a reasonable question: Could our votes be at risk? The answer, experts say, can be boiled down to campaign-speak: There is work to be done, but we're better off now than we were four years ago.

President Obama ripped Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Friday for running a misleading TV ad implying that U.S. auto workers are going to lose their jobs because Chrysler is moving the production of Jeeps for Chinese consumers to China.

How, other than an assumption that voters are too dim to remember what Mr. Romney has said across the years and months, to account for his breathtaking ideological shifts? He was a friend of immigrants, then a scourge of immigrants, then again a friend. He was a Kissingerian foreign policy realist, then a McCain-like hawk, then a purveyor of peace. He pioneered Obamacare, he detested Obamacare, then he found elements in it to cherish. Assault weapons were bad, then good. Abortion was okay, then bad. Climate change was an urgent problem; then, not so much. Hurricane cleanup was a job for the states, until it was once again a job for the feds.

Democratic claims that a large number of Americans could be prevented from voting because of photo identification laws are probably overstated based on evidence from Georgia and Indiana, the two states where the laws have been in place for multiple elections, Reuters found... Data and numerous interviews by Reuters reporters also suggest there is little evidence to bolster Republican assertions that ID laws are needed to combat rampant voter fraud.

With the presidential contest entering its final days, Mitt Romney and his top advisers are preparing to make a series of personnel announcements as early as next week — immediately after the election — should the Republican nominee win the White House, according to aides who have been working on his campaign and his transition plans.

President Obama, Republican challenger Mitt Romney and their backers are stressing different aspects of today's jobs report -- the ones that bolster their respective campaigns.

... the last three months do suggest that the U.S. labor market is on an upward trajectory... whoever wins the presidential election next week will likely get to take credit for the recovery that’s now underway.

U.S. employers added 171,000 jobs in October, and hiring was stronger in August and September than first thought. The unemployment rate inched up to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent in September... The government revised its data to show that 84,000 more jobs were added in August and September than previously estimated. The jobs gains in October were widespread across industries. And the percentage of Americans working or looking for work rose for the second straight month.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, portions of his city still underwater, has endorsed President Obama for reelection, citing the 44th president’s initiatives to counter climate change and saying that Mitt Romney has “reversed course” on stands he took as governor of Massachusetts.