Election Ad Tracker
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Maybe it’s the better-than-expected jobs report. Maybe it’s Mike Bloomberg coming down from his royal throne to endorse Barack Obama. Maybe it’s the hurricane cleanup or the candidates racing to last-minute rallies in Ohio and Wisconsin.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Years ago I worked on a political campaign in Michigan. We were losing, badly, but our campaign manager didn’t believe it. To him, every devastating setback was a secret boost to our efforts, every sign of failure proof of our imminent victory, every poll that hurt us was rigged in favor of the other side.
Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Imeages
Unlike baseball, there can be no rain delay for Election Day. So while Hurricane Sandy left a trail of devastation, flooding, and power outages in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, residents will still have to vote for president on Tuesday.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
The campaign has come down to a race between Mitt’s media and Mitt’s mistakes—and the mistakes are winning. We have now crossed the billion dollar mark in ad purchases. In Ohio alone, the two sides, Super PACs and all, are spending $30 million in the closing week—and in the battleground states overall, Romney forces are outspending Obama by $30 million.
Jewel Samad, AFP / Getty Images
It's the home stretch now. A CNN/ORC poll released Thursday showed President Obama leading 50 percent to 48 percent among likely voters in Colorado, but the president's slim lead is well within the margin of error. The tightly contested battleground state—with nine electoral votes went for Obama in 2008, and this time around, he has a tiny lead with independents.
Mladen Antonov / Getty Images
After coming out as a transgender woman, Claire Swinford recalled her first time back at the polls as an “incredibly uncomfortable, very, very embarrassing” experience.When Swinford, 41, voted in Arizona’s 2010 primary, she was stopped by a poll worker who refused to let her cast her ballot because of her identification documents.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo
Draw a line along President Obama’s endorsements by Mayor Bloomberg and The Economist, his post-Sandy stand with Chris Christie, and the deployment of Colin Powell ads to the swing states, and you’ll see why the president suddenly has the Big Mo—Moderate Momentum—heading into the preelection weekend.
Charles Dharapak / AP Photo
President Obama’s campaign is leaving little to chance as it quickly rebuts Mitt Romney’s surprise, even head-scratching, media buys in at least three states assumed to be Obama wins on Election Day: Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
@Elizabeth Evans / Youtube
Less than a week out from Election Day, the political press corps has gone gaga over a weepy 4-year-old in a pink-and-white Hello Kitty jacket.Abigael Evans became a viral sensation this week when her mom posted a video clip of the strawberry-blond cherub sobbing piteously that she was “tired of Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney.
Charles Dharapak / AP Photo
Mitt Romney is a pimp. He’s pimping his base, lying every opportunity he gets with the hope that the uninformed—as well as those who are supporting him because they just want to get that black man out of the White House—will spread his ill will and surrender to his lack of compassion for those who have suffered because of what President Bush and corporate America have done to Americans.
Pool / Getty Images ; AFP / Getty Images
Well, that was bound to happen eventually. GOP candidate Mitt Romney and President Obama went back on the attack Thursday after a few days of relative decency in light of Hurricane Sandy. Romney attacked Obama on defense, arguing again that if the president is reelected it will result in “a smaller Air Force and an older Air Force.
‘The Simpsons’ villain is already sizing up the Lincoln Bedroom. See more toxic presidential endorsements.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
When leading pundits, pollsters and prognosticators seem to agree that the re-election of President Obama is all but inevitable, why do grassroots Democrats seem so anxious and depressed?If the president’s most ardent supporters feel soul-deep certainty that their candidate has richly earned another term in office, then how is it that they universally acknowledge that he’ll draw far fewer votes than he did as an untried freshman senator four years ago?A revealing report by Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle found local liberals “so freaked out about the prospect of President Obama losing his re-election bid that they can’t sleep at night.
Colckwise from top left: Kevin Winter / Getty Images; Pete Souza / The White House; Stan Honda / AFP-Getty Images; Andy Martin Jr. / ZUMA Press
It’s nothing new for celebrities to do a few laps around the press circuit for their favorite candidate. Frank Sinatra sang in support of President Kennedy and Mary Tyler Moore preached about President Carter’s stance on women’s issues.
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And the Republican Party was so close to Election Day without anymore candidates making comments on rape. Washington state congressional candidate John Koster gave his two cents on the "rape thing" in comments captured on tape over the weekend and released Wednesday.
While he makes first campaign stops.More
In speech on counterterrorism Thursday.More
Responsible for four American deaths.More
Lois Lerner insists she did nothing sketchy or illegal. More
For mayor of New York.More
On 'The Daily Show's first post-election episode, Jon Stewart questioned the Sunshine State's relevance. Sorry, Florida, we elected a president without you.
The Daily Beast’s map of the Electoral College results—updated live as they come in.
From Obama’s win to Akin’s defeat, Sullivan’s celebration to Rove’s meltdown, watch the most memorable moments.
Losing sucks—and healing is hard. Paul Begala offers advice to hurting Republicans.
Three of the most dramatic races ended in wins for Dems Elizabeth Warren and Maggie Hassan, and a loss for the GOP’s Linda McMahon.
It’s finally over! Mark McKinnon looks back on two years of big moments that changed the 2012 race.
As the candidates face off in the election, the books they’ve read recently and their professed favorites also go head to head. Who wins?