Originally published on Tue October 2, 2012 3:20 pm
There's always a lot of noise around a presidential campaign — minor flaps that suck up a lot of media attention but are forgotten by Election Day.
John Sides, a political scientist at George Washington University and a founder of the blog The Monkey Cage, says there's no need to worry about a lot of the ephemera that news coverage tends to focus on.
"I'm telling you, all the fun things don't matter," Sides says.
Both President Obama and rival Mitt Romney say the tax code is too complicated. But they haven't been specific about which tax breaks they want to eliminate.
Here's something President Obama and Mitt Romney agree on: America's tax system is too complicated. Both men have outlined changes that are broadly similar, but with some important differences.
The Problem:
Today's tax code is like a department store, where the price tags are high, but there are lots of coupons, sales and weekend specials. That creates some inequities. Just as shoppers can pay different prices depending on which day they buy, taxpayers with the same income can pay very different rates depending on which deductions they qualify for.
Representative Todd Akin, the Republican challenging Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill in this election, was on the defensive again today in Kansas City.
Political endorsements and the promise of PAC dollars have come streaming back to Representative Todd Akin, who’s challenging incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill for the U.S. Senate seat in Missouri.
3rd District Kansas Congressman Kevin Yoder told an audience at Kansas Community College yesterday that during an election season, partisan bickering escalates.
President Obama talked of the world's need to crack down on human trafficking at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York on Tuesday.
Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney proposes linking foreign aid to economic reforms abroad at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting on Tuesday.
Job seekers fill out applications Aug. 21 at a construction job fair in New York. Polls show voters want the presidential candidates to provide more details on how they would reduce unemployment, change tax policy and alter government spending.
As this presidential election year was kicking off, strategists were saying the focus would be on the economy. But now — even as absentee ballots are being filled in — the candidates are still dodging details about how to improve growth.
"President Obama doesn't have a plan," says Kevin Hassett, an economic adviser to Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
Jeffrey Liebman, an economic adviser to President Obama, says Romney has revealed no plan other than "going back to the failed policies of the past decade."
One former president, one would-be: Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (left), spoke this morning at former President Bill Clinton's annual forum in New York City. President Obama addresses the Clinton Global Initiative later today.
Saying that foreign aid must play a role in bringing peace to the Middle East, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney made the case today for what he calls "prosperity pacts" that would aim U.S. assistance packages at nations that develop "the institutions of liberty, the rule of law, and property rights."
Romney was addressing the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, a forum that will host President Obama later today.
If he's elected in November, Romney said (per his prepared remarks):
Originally published on Mon September 24, 2012 3:22 pm
Say what you want about Rep. Todd Akin, he's no quitter.
Tuesday is the last day Akin can remove his name from the Missouri ballot as the Republican nominee for Senate. As the deadline approached, he made it clear he has no intention of dropping out.
"For about the hundredth time or so, I am in this race," Akin said at a news conference Monday at the Amtrak station in Kirkwood, a suburb of St. Louis. "The people of Missouri chose me to do a job."
The first official presidential debate isn't until Oct. 3 in Denver. But as The New York Times writes, last night on CBS News' 60 Minutes there was something of a "shadow debate that offered a likely preview of the tone and substance" of what will happen on stage next week.
Many pundits and pollsters say that this year's Presidential race is already over: polls show Democratic President Barack Obama with a commanding lead over Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.
Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill and Republican challenger Todd Akin sparred about budgets, Medicare and other big issues in their first face-to-face debate earlier today.
Originally published on Thu September 20, 2012 5:46 pm
President Obama may have the overwhelming support of Latino voters in his race against Republican Mitt Romney, but that didn't get him a free pass during his appearance Thursday at Univision's presidential candidate forum.
Obama faced repeated tough questions from the hosts of the forum on the Spanish-language channel, and from some in the audience, for his failure to deliver on his promise as a candidate in 2008 to push comprehensive immigration reform during his first year in the White House.
