Barack Obama, 2012 Presidential Election | featured news

President Obama, Republican challenger Mitt Romney and their backers are stressing different aspects of today's jobs report -- the ones that bolster their respective campaigns.

... the last three months do suggest that the U.S. labor market is on an upward trajectory... whoever wins the presidential election next week will likely get to take credit for the recovery that’s now underway.

U.S. employers added 171,000 jobs in October, and hiring was stronger in August and September than first thought. The unemployment rate inched up to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent in September... The government revised its data to show that 84,000 more jobs were added in August and September than previously estimated. The jobs gains in October were widespread across industries. And the percentage of Americans working or looking for work rose for the second straight month.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, portions of his city still underwater, has endorsed President Obama for reelection, citing the 44th president’s initiatives to counter climate change and saying that Mitt Romney has “reversed course” on stands he took as governor of Massachusetts.

Stumping in western Virginia on Thursday, Mitt Romney resumed his full-throated critique of President Barack Obama, mocking the president's proposed new cabinet position to oversee businesses' needs and predicting four more years of a stagnant economy should the incumbent be re-elected.

... And for all his shortcomings, Mr Obama has dragged America’s economy back from the brink of disaster, and has made a decent fist of foreign policy. So this newspaper would stick with the devil it knows, and re-elect him.

After three days of tending to storm business, President Obama gets back on the campaign trail Thursday with plans to offer a closing argument focused on middle-class security.

Less than a week before Election Day, President Barack Obama holds a statistically significant lead over Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the battleground of Iowa, while the two candidates are locked in tight races in New Hampshire and Wisconsin.

Gallup suggests voter turnout for the presidential election will be lower than in 2004 and 2008. In polling taken before superstorm Sandy hit, Gallup says registered voters were giving less thought to the election and saying they were less likely to vote in the contest between President Obama and Mitt Romney.

The U.S. presidential race remains a dead heat one week before Election Day but most Americans think President Barack Obama will defeat Republican Mitt Romney, according to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released on Tuesday.