Michael Conroy / AP Photo

Women’s bodies are yet again at the axis of the 2012 election season. All it took was an Indiana Republican Senate candidate saying aloud what many evangelical anti-abortion activists seem to believe—that a pregnancy resulting from a rape is “something God intended to happen.

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As a member of the Nassau County Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit, Officer Arthur Lopez was among those who provided security for the second debate between President Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney.A 29-year-old cop known to shovel snow from his elderly neighbor’s walk and welcome new neighbors with apple pie, Lopez had been decorated twice for saving lives.

Charles Dharapak / AP Photo

With just two weeks to go until Election Day, the popular vote is, as everyone knows, effectively a dead heat. The Real Clear Politics average has Romney enjoying a 0.9-point advantage. And while the latest Rasmussen numbers give Romney a 4-point edge and he is ahead 5 in Gallup, there are other polls that have Obama leading.

Charlie Neibergall / AP Photo

Demographics are destiny, but Team Obama may be taking that a bit too literally.Play-to-the-base campaigns are particularly risky for Democrats given that only 21 percent of Americans identify as liberal, but the Obama campaign has staked its reelection on an even more elusive target—the evolution of the American electorate.

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP / Getty Images

Rich Beeson, political director of the Romney campaign, is not moved by reports of a huge “ground game” advantage on the part of the Obama campaign. “The only metric anyone has seen is the number of offices and the number of staff on the ground,” Beeson said.

Mandel Ngan, AFP / Getty Images

It’s the last two weeks of a presidential campaign: a time for suspense, for intrigue, for plot twists and…well, a whole lot of silliness.We’re not just talking horses and bayonets here.Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump is back.

What does the president really think? An off-the-record interview forThe Des Moines Register gave him a chance to say it, and on Wednesday, the president agreed it could be published. In the interview, Obama says he’s confident immigration reform will be completed next year because Republicans will be interested in the growing Latino vote.

David Goldman / AP

With two weeks to go until the big day, the presidential race is closer than ever. Gone are the days of Romney’s wide lead or Obama’s wide lead—a Washington Post/ABC News poll found the race almost tied at 49 percent for Romney and 48 percent for Obama (and within the poll’s margin of error).

Obama for America campaign / AP Photo

Mitt Romney may be gaining in the polls, but his campaign spots trail President Obama’s, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks and analyzes political advertisement spending data.

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Thirteen days. The final countdown. Barring an external event of significant proportion, not much will change to affect the outcome. And it’s now all a turnout game.Forget the national polls showing President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney in a dead heat or a statistical tie in the race for the White House.

Feng Li / AFP / Getty Images

In the third and final U.S. presidential debate on Monday, Mitt Romney once again vowed to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. Most Chinese observers think this position is as extreme as it is unlikely, but ever since Romney first made that pledge a year ago, the reaction by policymakers in China has been a mix of frustration and exasperation.

Michael Conroy / AP Photo

Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock publicly apologized—sort of—Wednesday for comments during a debate implying that pregnancy caused by rape may be “intended” by God. “I did not intend to suggest that God wants rape,” Mourdock said during the presser, clarifying that he’s not apologizing for what he said but for how it was interpreted.

Stan Honda / AFP / GettyImages)

Although he appears without his trusty empty chair, Clint Eastwood is featured in a new Mitt Romney ad paid for by American Crossroads, Karl Rove’s super PAC. “When someone doesn’t get the job done, you have to hold them accountable,” Eastwood explains.

Genevieve Ross / AP Photo

Will it outsell Rielle Hunter? Herman Cain’s former mistress Ginger White says she is writing a tell-all about her time with the onetime Republican presidential candidate. White said she hopes the book will help Cain “to be a little more honest with his wife, because the details that I share, only she would know.

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To be fair, he does know a thing or two about divorce. Donald Trump is inserting himself in the presidential campaign again, as rumors are swirling Tuesday that Trump has unearthed supposed divorce papers filed by the Obamas, according to a tweet this morning from Douglas Kass, a financial adviser who appears on CNBC.