Washington (CNN) – The presidential campaigns are blowing smoke so thick that some voters are having a hard time peering through it.
But both are using a time-tested tactic in trying to define their opponents' weaknesses while distracting voters from their own, experts say.
FULL STORYWashington (CNN) – Partisan legal showdowns in battleground states over a spate of new voting laws could turn the 2012 elections into a repeat of the 2000 presidential vote recount saga, political experts say.
"Whenever you change the rules by enacting new laws, it triggers a round of litigation. I don't think we'll see an end to this anytime soon," said Dan Tokaji, an Ohio State University law professor. "It could come down to the states counting of absentee ballots. ... We could see a replay of the 2000 election, where we don't have a winner for weeks."
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Washington (CNN) - When Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York unveiled their bill Monday to regulate the online and mail-order sale of ammunition, they did so in a state most friendly to Democrats - New York.
But across the country, voters might not be as receptive. Gun control can be seen as political quicksand for Democratic lawmakers.
FULL STORY(CNN) – Longtime Republican strategists see something familiar in President Barack Obama's re-election campaign's attacks on GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's tenure as head of the private equity firm Bain Capital.
Those critiques, they say, seem to borrow a page from the 2004 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign that called into question the service record of then-Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran.
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Washington (CNN) – Depending on whom you ask, either Democratic efforts to force big-dollar donors out of the shadows are a smokescreen that hides union clout, or Republicans opposing the efforts are just blowing smoke in an attempt to ensure well-heeled donors stay anonymous.
"Right around an election, when the campaigns start rolling in the money, we're going to hear about disclosure from whichever side is getting less," said Lisa Rosenberg, a government affairs consultant who lobbies for financial transparency for the Sunlight Foundation. "Whichever party is feeling beaten up is going to say, 'We need to fix it.'"
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(CNN) - When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, pronounced this week that "17 angry old white men will wake up and realize they've just bought the country," after the elections, he echoed the distaste many Americans feel at the secrecy surrounding the flood of money pouring into campaigns.
Political experts estimate $6 billion will be spent during the 2012 presidential elections - a large chunk of it via anonymous donors thanks to a Supreme Court ruling which allows unlimited corporate campaign donations. That's enough money to give 6/7ths of the world's population $1 each. Politicos and even comedians have made much ado about the influence of anonymous super rich donors and well heeled super PACs, groups that can raise money from a number of sources and spend unlimited amounts independent of and in support of political campaigns.
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Washington (CNN) – She's a "grand old flag" and that's exactly why the two men running for president want you to know that all of their official campaign paraphernalia was made in the good old USA.
Those "I bark for Barack" car magnets.
Made in the USA.
FULL STORYWashington (CNN) - Thomas Dean is sick of all the congressional bickering over the health care law.
Sure, the small town doctor understands the law's technical nuances and what's at stake for the millions of people covered by President Barack Obama's biggest policy achievement.
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Washington (CNN) - Mitt Romney's course correction on whether the health care mandate is a tax puts him in line with Republicans who have pinned hopes for winning down-ballot races in part on hammering President Barack Obama for imposing what they've called the biggest tax in the nation's history.
But amid criticism of Romney's campaign as muddled and clumsy, the messaging shift could also cement Romney's image as a flip-flopper, political experts say.
FULL STORYWashington (CNN) - It was 2002, and things weren't going well for Mitt Romney, then a candidate for Massachusetts governor.
A series of commercials depicting him working blue-collar jobs baling hay and frolicking shirtless with his wife on the beach bombed with voters and hurt him in the contest against Democratic state Treasurer Shannon O'Brian.
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