President Barack Obama faces new warning signs in a once-promising Southern state and typically Democratic-voting Midwestern states roughly five months before the election even as he benefits nationally from encouraging economic news. Obama's new worries about North Carolina and Wisconsin offer opportunities for Republican Mitt Romney, who must peel off states Obama won in 2008 if he's to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to oust the incumbent in November.

An analysis of the state-by-state race to 270 electoral votes, the total needed to win the presidency, and where Democratic President Barack Obama and probable Republican nominee Mitt Romney stand now. The numbers reflect electoral votes: SOLIDLY DEMOCRATIC (186): California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Voters who click on President Barack Obama's campaign website are likely to start seeing display ads promoting his re-election bid on their Facebook pages and other sites they visit. Voters searching Google for information about Mitt Romney may notice a 15-second ad promoting the Republican presidential hopeful the next time they watch a video online.

Poll after poll shows public support for same-sex marriage steadily increasing, to the point where it's now a majority viewpoint. Yet in all 32 states where gay marriage has been on the ballot, voters have rejected it. It's possible the streak could end in November, when Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington state are likely to have closely contested gay marriage measures on their ballots.

President Barack Obama faces new warning signs in a once-promising Southern state and typically Democratic-voting Midwestern states roughly five months before the election even as he benefits nationally from encouraging economic news. Obama's new worries about North Carolina and Wisconsin offer opportunities for Republican Mitt Romney, who must peel off states Obama won in 2008 if he's to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to oust the incumbent in November.

An analysis of the state-by-state race to 270 electoral votes, the total needed to win the presidency, and where Democratic President Barack Obama and probable Republican nominee Mitt Romney stand now. The numbers reflect electoral votes: SOLIDLY DEMOCRATIC (186): California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

In the risky business of running for president, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are largely playing it safe. For all the small daily dramas of the 2012 campaign, there's a risk-averse dynamic playing out: Neither candidate has been making bold new policy proposals or displaying a free-wheeling personal style.

The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.

What, exactly, makes someone American Indian? Even Indians themselves don't agree as they debate the case of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, whose disputed claim of Native American identity is shining a rare spotlight on the malleable nature of Indian heritage and the long history of murky claims to such ancestry.

U.S. House members who are trying to make the step up to the Senate this year are finding themselves on the defensive about Washington experience that traditionally has been a big asset. Even those not under direct attack for being part of Congress are finessing the way they talk about their work in the nation's capital — evidence that the strong anti-incumbent sentiment among voters in 2010 is still there two years later.

The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.

President Barack Obama will meet with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on June 8 at the White House. The White House says Obama looks forward to discussing the strategic, economic and "people to people" ties between the U.S. and the Philippines and their cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

What, exactly, makes someone American Indian? Even Indians themselves don't agree. The question arises because Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's disputed claim of Native American identity is spotlighting the subjective nature of Indian heritage. Warren, a Democrat running in Massachusetts against Republican incumbent Sen.

The battle between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney will be the most expensive presidential contest ever — by a long shot. There are two main reasons. It's the first time both major-party candidates are declining post-Watergate federal campaign financing — and the spending limits attached.

The story line on the Republican Senate race in Texas is a now familiar one: A veteran politician supported by the GOP establishment is challenged by a young insurgent backed by national conservative groups. In this distinctly Texas episode in the saga for control of the Senate, David Dewhurst is the reserved, self-made millionaire and lieutenant governor facing off against Ted Cruz, the feisty son of a Cuban exile who calls himself "a proven fighter for liberty because his family knows what it means to lose it.

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney decried President Barack Obama as beholden to the nation's teachers' unions and unable to stand up for reform, he glossed over four years of a relationship that has been anything but cozy. Obama has promoted initiatives that encourage districts to tie teacher evaluations to student performance and to expand the number of charter schools — actions the teacher unions have long been against, and which Romney himself promoted Wednesday in a speech in Washington outlining his education platform.

President Barack Obama delivered his harshest rebuttal yet to rival Mitt Romney on Thursday, dismissing his challenger's claims as "a cowpie of distortions" while seeking to rekindle the all-but-faded Iowa magic that launched him in 2008.

Mitt Romney's vice presidential search has entered a new phase: auditions. As his campaign evaluates potential running mates, Republicans with a possible shot at the No. 2 spot on the presidential ticket are starting to engage in unofficial public tryouts for the traditional vice presidential role of attack dog.

TITLE: "Day One: Part Two." LENGTH: 30 seconds. AIRING: Mitt Romney's campaign would not identify states where the ad will air. KEY IMAGES: Still photos and video of children in a classroom, children playing, Republican presidential candidate Romney in a factory, containerized ship cargo and a welder are followed by footage of Romney appearing before a large crowd.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is planning a swing-state summer bus tour that will also roll through South Carolina, the early presidential primary battleground. It's officially aimed at selling books, not winning votes, but the freshman senator and possible vice presidential pick is set to make multiple stops not just in his home state of Florida but also in North Carolina and Virginia, critical presidential battlegrounds this fall.

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney decried President Barack Obama as beholden to the nation's teachers' unions and unable to stand up for reform, he glossed over four years of a relationship that has been anything but cozy. Obama has promoted initiatives that encourage districts to tie teacher evaluations to student performance and to expand the number of charter schools — actions the teacher unions have long been against, and which Romney himself promoted Wednesday in a speech in Washington outlining his education platform.

Mitt Romney struggled to find support for his education proposals while campaigning at an inner-city school Thursday, one day after declaring education the "civil rights issue of our era." The visit, the first by the likely Republican presidential nominee to such a school, came as he begins to court a broader cross-section of the electorate he needs to defeat President Barack Obama in November.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney likes to portray himself as a better job creator than President Barack Obama, but he may have a hard time backing up those boasts. "We were able to create over 100,000 jobs," Romney said recently, recycling an old unsubstantiated claim.

Four years ago, Heather Wilson gave up her House seat from New Mexico to make a run for a rare opening in the Senate. She lost in a bare-knuckled Republican primary. This year she has the luxury of sitting back as the Democratic successor to her House seat takes a similar gamble.

Mitt Romney is trying to counter President Barack Obama's argument that he would bring back Republican Party economic policies that have proved unworkable. Romney tells Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" that Obama is attacking capitalism while trying to drive America toward a European-style, government-dominated society.

As President Barack Obama readies for a return to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, his campaign is reminding voters that it was in that same spot where Republican rival Mitt Romney declared last year that "corporations are people." Democrats slammed Romney's assertion as a gaffe that showed the former Massachusetts governor was aligned with big business.

Mitt Romney's campaign has released a new ad promoting "Day One" of a potential Romney presidency, describing which of President Barack Obama's policies the Republican will reverse first if he wins the White House. The ad promises that in his first day in the Oval Office, Romney will announce deficit reductions, ending what the campaign calls "the Obama era of big government.

Mitt Romney's vice presidential search has entered a new phase: auditions. As his campaign evaluates potential running mates, Republicans with a possible shot at the No. 2 spot on the presidential ticket are starting to engage in unofficial public tryouts for the traditional vice presidential role of attack dog.

His cash advantage threatened, President Barack Obama and his party are redoubling their fundraising efforts after robust hauls by Republican rival Mitt Romney and a slew of GOP-leaning super PACs that are raking in cash from the party faithful highly motivated to topple the Democrat.

President Barack Obama's campaign says Republican rival Mitt Romney is trying to "move the goal posts" and reverse his position on unemployment. Actually, that's a fumble of the facts. In an interview with Time magazine, Romney predicts the nation's unemployment rate will sink to 6 percent from the current rate of 8.

Arizona's secretary of state said Wednesday that Hawaii's official verification of President Barack Obama's birth records meets necessary requirements, meaning the president's name will appear on Arizona's ballot in the fall. The inquiry launched recently by Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett gave official weight to a long-simmering political controversy generated by those who say that Obama was not born in the U.

Originally planning to focus on education, Mitt Romney instead reignited the debate over his business credentials on Wednesday, welcoming scrutiny of the private equity firm he co-founded and declaring he's a far more qualified steward of the economy than President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is beginning to express some confidence that the president's historic, yet politically risky, embrace of gay marriage may not hurt him in the November election. In a conference call announcing efforts to get gay and lesbian voters engaged in the Obama campaign, officials said poll numbers on same-sex marriage were increasingly tilting in their favor.

A spokesman for President Barack Obama's campaign is accusing Mitt Romney of moving the goal posts on unemployment. Actually, that's a fumble of the facts. Romney told Time magazine in an interview published Wednesday that he would bring unemployment to 6 percent, down from the current 8.

President Barack Obama has to tread carefully in targeting Republican rival Mitt Romney's business resume. He risks reinforcing criticism that he's anti-business. He doesn't want to look like he's assailing free enterprise. Obama's campaign has put out a biting TV ad featuring laid-off workers from a now-bankrupt steel company that was bought by Romney's Bain Capital.

TITLE: "Personal" and "Sacred Trust." LENGTH: Both 30 seconds. AIRING: Broadcast and cable stations in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia. KEY IMAGES: In "Personal," a female narrator talks about President Barack Obama's commitment to Medicare.

Mitt Romney swept all the delegates in GOP primaries in Kentucky and Arkansas and picked up more endorsements from party leaders, putting him one win away from claiming the Republican nomination for president. With no serious opposition left, the former Massachusetts governor should get that win next Tuesday when voters go to the polls in Texas.

Mitt Romney is defending his work at the private equity firm he co-founded and says it's part of why he's qualified to be president. Romney told Time magazine on Wednesday that "someone who spent their career in the economy" is better qualified to fix the economy than someone who spent their life in politics and as a community organizer.

Mitt Romney says that if elected Congress should wait until he takes office to block automatic spending cuts and to keep tax cuts from expiring. In an interview with Time magazine on Wednesday, the Republican presidential candidate said he wants Congress to deal with major issues to keep the U.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is airing two new ads, one focusing on his work with veterans returning home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and another aimed at seniors dependent on Medicare. In the veterans spot, Obama credits veterans for allowing the U.

North Dakota's prosperity from an energy boom as the rest of the country slowly crawls out from under a collapsed economy is making a contest of a Senate race that Democrats had all but conceded. Heidi Heitkamp, a former state attorney general with ties to the energy industry and a one-time candidate for governor, is perhaps the state's only Democrat who can prevent the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen.

Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm didn't wait long to make a nearly $1 million donation to a group supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney after he became one of Romney's top energy advisers in March. Just weeks after Hamm joined the Romney campaign, he gave $985,000 to a pro-Romney super PAC, according to campaign reports.

Some presidential primary voters in Kentucky and Arkansas are taking a swipe at President Barack Obama, denying the incumbent nearly 4 out of every 10 votes cast on the Democratic side. In Kentucky's closed primary, about 42 percent of registered Democrats who voted selected "uncommitted.

Mitt Romney swept the Kentucky and Arkansas Republican presidential primaries Tuesday, inching closer to the GOP nomination he is certain to win. With no serious opposition left, the former Massachusetts governor easily won both contests.

Romney wins GOP presidential primary in Arkansas. ___ May 22, 2012 09:11 PM EDT Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Romney wins GOP presidential primary in Kentucky. ___ May 22, 2012 07:06 PM EDT Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The presidential campaign debate over Republican Mitt Romney's tenure at a private equity firm is going down the drain. Vice President Joe Biden argued Tuesday that Romney's experience doesn't make him any more qualified to be president than it does to make him a plumber.

Mitt Romney's courtship of female voters in his typical campaign speech sounds a bit like a movie's casting call. Woman Whose Husband Took an Upholstery Class. Woman Who Is Going Back To College. Woman Who Owns Duplexes. Romney's campaign won't identify these women, making it impossible to check the accuracy of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's accounts.

Democratic hopes for toppling Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in next month's recall election may hinge on a strong turnout from young voters, who came out in heavy numbers for President Barack Obama in 2008 but were less active when Walker was elected two years later.

TITLE: Basketball LENGTH: 60 seconds (A 30-second version also is airing.) AIRING: Network affiliates in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, considered swing states. KEY IMAGES: This ad from Crossroads GPS, a group with ties to Republican political strategist Karl Rove, uses actors to evoke a potent mix of middle-class hopes and fears.

With about five months to go, the presidential race is tightening, polls show, with voters nearly evenly divided between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, his likely Republican challenger. Obama and Romney are locked in a dead heat over handling the economy, the top concern of voters, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell declined Tuesday to renew the presidential endorsement he gave Barack Obama four years ago, saying he wasn't ready "to throw my weight behind someone" at this time. The former chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff and Cabinet member under President George W.

An independent group seeking to oust President Barack Obama launched a new TV ad Tuesday suggesting Obama had let down the voters who vaulted him into the White House in 2008. A pro-Obama group answered with an ad slamming Republican Mitt Romney, featuring a woman who lost her job at a factory that closed after it was bought by the private equity firm Romney co-founded.

Anxious to show voters he's working to create jobs, President Barack Obama is putting tax credits to boost clean energy in the spotlight this week as he heads to the political battleground state of Iowa. The president will visit TPI Composites, a wind manufacturer in Newton, on Thursday to highlight his push for tax credits to encourage investments in clean energy technologies.

The core of his presidential candidacy under attack, Mitt Romney has yet to shape a playbook to defend a quarter-century in the business world that created great riches for him and great hardship, at times, for some American workers. Romney and his aides have struggled to respond consistently to intensifying criticism about his tenure at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he helped found, and how it would be reflected in his presidency.

Richard Carmona arrived in Washington a political novice in 2002 and left four years later scarred and frustrated. He didn't go quietly. A year after his term as the nation's 17th surgeon general, the one-time $500 campaign donor to President George W.

President Barack Obama sought to undermine Mitt Romney's key rationale for his presidential candidacy Monday, sharply attacking his Republican challenger's background as a venture capitalist and arguing that profit-making alone is not a qualification for the White House.

President Barack Obama on Monday defended his criticism of presumptive Republican presidential Mitt Romney's ties to the private equity firm Bain Capital, saying it was rightly part of the campaign debate because Romney himself was emphasizing his business background.

Add Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker to the long list of political stand-ins for both President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney who've veered wildly off message in a presidential contest notable for its attention-grabbing gaffes. An Obama backer, Booker forced the president's campaign into damage-control mode over the weekend when he called its attack on Romney's tenure at a private equity firm "nauseating.

Add Newark Mayor Cory Booker to the list of people who speak for the presidential candidates, and then veer wildly off message. Booker on Sunday criticized President Barack Obama's campaign for attacking Republican Mitt Romney's tenure at a private equity firm.

Federal officials are investigating questionable campaign contributions to two Ohio officeholders, freshman Rep. James Renacci and state treasurer and Senate candidate Josh Mandel, spokesmen for both Republicans confirmed Monday. Renacci spokesman Shawn Ryan said the U.

Chasing President Barack Obama's cash advantage, Republican challenger Mitt Romney expects to raise $10 million during a three-day fundraising swing through the New York area that included a video meeting with donors in China. Romney's top finance aide told donors in New York City on Monday that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was set to raise at least that — and "potentially substantially more" — during more than a dozen events.

Mitt Romney is set to raise about $10 million during a fundraising swing through New York and Connecticut. Romney's top finance aide told donors in New York City on Monday that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was set to raise at least that — and possibly "substantially" more — during more than a dozen events during two days this week.

The presidential race is shaping up as a battle between Republican calls for more government austerity and Democratic appeals for more spending to promote jobs and growth with tax hikes on high-income earners. It mirrors a fight raging in Europe. Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney has embraced a House-passed Republican budget blueprint outlining deep government spending cuts, particularly in social programs.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is keeping up its effort to paint Mitt Romney as a job-destroying corporate raider at Bain Capital. In a video being released Monday, Obama's campaign zeroes in on a Marion, Ind., company, American Pad & Paper, also known as Ampad.

Massachusetts Republicans Mitt Romney and Scott Brown have a history of supporting each other throughout their political careers. But with each facing a tough election, neither the presidential candidate nor the U.S. senator is playing up that history, perhaps with good reason.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and U.S. Sen. Scott Brown publicly support each other and even share key advisers. But on many topics, from foreign policy to social issues, the Massachusetts Republicans take very different positions. ABORTION: Romney opposes abortion rights and says the Roe v.

Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker is backing off comments he made earlier Sunday, when he criticized President Barack Obama's re-election campaign for its attacks on Bain Capital, the private equity firm once run by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney and his party raised a sizable $40 million last month from donors who want him to replace President Barack Obama. But even as Romney solidifies his position as the eventual GOP nominee, many supporters who backed his primary election challengers have not yet come to his aid.

Donors who backed Republican rivals of presidential candidate Mitt Romney appear to be slow coming to his aid. Romney raised more than $40 million last month as he solidified his chances of being the GOP nominee. Yet an Associated Press review of new financial data finds only a handful of his recent contributions came from donors to his former primary challengers.

Massachusetts Republicans Mitt Romney and Scott Brown have a history of supporting each other throughout their political careers. But with each facing a tough election, neither the presidential candidate nor the U.S. senator is playing up that history, perhaps with good reason.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and U.S. Sen. Scott Brown publicly support each other and even share key advisers. But on many topics, from foreign policy to social issues, the Massachusetts Republicans take very different positions. ABORTION: Romney opposes abortion rights and says the Roe v.

Illinois Republican leaders have chosen a November ballot replacement for longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson after he abruptly announced his retirement last month. GOP officials from 14 counties settled on Rodney Davis on Saturday.

For freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising GOP figure seen as a possible Mitt Romney running mate, there are questions about whether potential vulnerabilities in his personal and political background might hold him back. The 40-year-old Florida lawmaker has close ties to a colleague accused of questionable financial dealings.

Minutes after President Barack Obama endorsed gay marriage on May 9, Colorado's Democratic governor choked back tears as he ordered state lawmakers to reconsider a civil-unions measure defeated the day before by Republicans. In the week that followed, the debate over equal rights for same-sex couples consumed the Capitol.