Charles Dharapak / AP Photo

So one of Mitt Romney’s closing plays is that he’s the great conciliator. He released an ad several days ago and has been hitting the theme ever since, arguing that we need (as Romney said in the first debate, quoted in the ad) “leadership that … could not care less if it’s a Republican or a Democrat” that said leader is working with.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo

With Election Day just around the corner and the world awash in idle banter about “Obama’s broken dream,” his “vanished charm,” and even, while we’re at it, “the assassination of hope,” it is not idle to point out what should be obvious: that in four years the 44th president of the United States has pulled off no fewer than three revolutions.

Jacquelyn Martin / AP Photo

Washington was under assault by torrential rains as President Obama stepped to a White House podium and briefed the nation on the progress of a deadly hurricane.“The great thing about America is when we go through tough times like this, we all pull together,” Obama said Monday afternoon as the television cameras rolled.

Steve Helber / AP Photo

President Obama will focus first and foremost on the impact of Hurricane Sandy, no matter how many previously scheduled campaign appearances he must drop, according to a senior White House official and a top campaign aide.“The president’s first priority is to keep Americans safe and make sure FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] is working.

Richard Drew / AP Photo

Hurricane Sandy is literally putting a damper on everything—even everyone’s favorite monthly data announcement. The U.S. Labor Department is waiting until the “weather emergency” subsides to determine whether they’ll go ahead with the Friday release of October’s jobs report.

Super-storm or not, the political show must go on. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney is prepared to hit all of his scheduled campaign stops Monday, rally-hopping from Ohio to Illinois to Iowa and ending his day in Wisconsin.

Mary Altaffer / AP Photo

On Thursday night former New Hampshire governor John Sununu suggested—no, he plainly stated—that Gen. Colin Powell endorsed President Obama for a second term because both he and the president are black. Yes! Mr. Sununu, you are right.

Latino voters are super-excited about Election Day. Forty-five percent of those polled by Latino Decisions said they’re more enthusiastic this year than in 2008—and 84 percent of registered Latino voters participated in 2008. Eighty-seven percent of Hispanic voters said they will almost certainly vote Nov.

Jim Young / Newscom

Prominent Republicans seem genuinely surprised that Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama, again. So baffled was Romney adviser John Sununu that he chalked Powell’s decision up to racial solidarity. But that’s silly. African-Americans motivated by racial solidarity don’t spend their careers serving Republican presidents.

J.D. Pooley / AP Photo

It’s been an epic strategic game of Risk. After four or more long years of offensive and defensive board game moves, the generals feel powerless. (Been there.) It is now up to the troops on the ground. Turnout matters. And with a little over a week to go until Election Day, victory is but a dice roll away for President Obama or Mitt Romney.

Nikki Kahn / The Washington Post-Getty Images

You always know the Democrats are in big trouble when the media starts harping on the gender gap. This time it’s “gender gap near historic highs.” Repeat after me: so what? Even when that gap hit its historic high of 20 points, with Al Gore’s near miss in 2000, it didn’t actually put him in the White House.

Photos clockwise from top left: Jewel Samad / AFP-Getty Images, Nicholas Kamm / AFP-Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images, Jewel Samad / AFP-Getty Images, Kevin Winter / Getty Images, Saul Loeb / AFP-Getty Images

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney may appear to be originals. But they—like all the rest of us—have inherited some of their political perspectives.The “genetics of politics,” as academics call this budding field, is beginning to establish some of the biological foundations of conservative and liberal attitudes and voting habits.

Mehdi Ghasemi / Iranian Students News Agency-AP

Everyone knows there could be a surprise before Nov. 6—a news story that finally makes up the minds of those undecided voters in the swing states and settles the presidential election.Right now, Barack Obama certainly needs one.

Sullivan: Romney ‘An Alien That Ripped Off His Mask’Our very own Andrew Sullivan might win the “simile of the campaign” award for this gem (or ridiculous analogy, depending on your political persuasion), dropped at This Week’s Sunday roundtable.

Will a relative handful of Ohio door knocks decide the election? Likely voters in one of the most crucial swing states are split 49–49 for President Barack Obama and opponent Mitt Romney, according to a new poll conducted by The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Ohio Newspaper Organization.