Mitt Romney | featured news

President Obama for the first time has opened a sizable lead over his most likely Republican opponents, thanks to growing support among independent voters, according to a new Pew Research Center poll .

I love budgets. And not just because I love tables, charts and appendixes — though, to be clear, I do. I love budgets because they force us to run the numbers, to make trade-offs, to set priorities. The annual budget is, frankly, about as honest as the government ever gets with itself, and with the American people.

Reversing his embarrassing string of setbacks earlier this week when he lost Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri to Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney eked out a narrow win in the straw poll tied to Maine's multiday caucuses Saturday, defeating Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who was the only other candidate to actively campaign in Maine.

The Republican presidential front-runner, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, has struggled to gain enthusiastic support from conservatives on the campaign trail, and some analysts say he could be facing an "enthusiasm gap" as the campaign continues.

In an effort to reverse a three-state losing streak, the Romney campaign announced that its candidate would put off his first trip home in 2012, and instead visit two caucus sites in Maine.

Paying taxes is bad enough. Finding out you pay a larger percentage of your income than presidential candidate Mitt Romney or billionaire Warren Buffet makes it even worse. But that's the case for millions of American, who pay higher rates because most or all of their income comes from a salary rather than dividends. The capital gains tax rate on investments currently tops out at 15 percent, while the highest rate for earned income is more than twice that at 35 percent.

Rick Santorum scored victories in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado nominating contests Tuesday night, winning him no actual delegates, but nonetheless blocking Mitt Romney's bid to keep alive a streak of victories in the Republican presidential primary. Santorum scored broad victories in the Minnesota caucus and a primary in Missouri, according to NBC News projections. But Santorum's most significant upset came in Colorado, where the state GOP declared him the apparent victor in caucuses there.

The Romney campaign's broadening of its attack this week to include Rick Santorum reflects some of the uncertainty surrounding votes Tuesday in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri -- the first multi-state election day of the campaign.

Despite his strong showing in early voting contests in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney's support among Republicans nationwide has dipped slightly during the past month, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

Boosted by improved public confidence in his economic stewardship, President Obama for the first time holds a clear edge over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a hypothetical general-election matchup, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.