Rich Beeson

Campaign chiefs behind Barack Obama and Mitt Romney do not just conjure conflicting visions for America: they have irreconcilable diagnoses of the true nature of next week's election.

Less than a week before the US presidential elections, political pundits are eyeing two key states, Pennsylvania and Virginia, struggling to recover in the wake of the monster storm.

An off-the-cuff comment by Mitt Romney about women job applicants went viral online Wednesday in a bizarre twist of a potentially decisive election duel for the hearts and minds of female voters.

An intense Barack Obama bounced off the ropes and accused Mitt Romney of untruths in a furious opening to his bid to blunt his opponent's momentum surge in their second presidential debate.

Struggling Barack Obama and surging Mitt Romney face off Tuesday in a make-or-break debate, vying for command of the presidential race just three weeks from election day.

Barack Obama will be "strong" and "passionate" in his make-or-break second debate Tuesday with Mitt Romney, a top advisor said, as the president's re-election hopes hang in the balance.

A flurry of polls showing widening leads for President Barack Obama heaped pressure on Mitt Romney to use their first head-to-head debate next week to launch a major comeback bid.

Mitt Romney insisted he would win Ohio Wednesday, but new polls showed him needing a sharp turnaround in the must-win state if he is to grab the White House from President Barack Obama.

Mitt Romney's senior advisors insisted Tuesday they were unbowed by public polls showing the Republican White House hopeful is trailing significantly in key battlegrounds such as Ohio.

Rick Santorum on Tuesday won primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. ?Rick Santorum on Tuesday won primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, ensuring that the GOP nominating contest will extend into late spring and possibly beyond. Speaking to supporters in Lafayette, Santorum suggested the momentum was on his side. ?People have said, 'You know you're being outspent.' And everybody is talking about all the math and all the things ... that this race is inevitable. Well for someone who thinks this race is inevitable, he spent a whole lot of money against me for being inevitable.? Santorum, however, lost to Romney in the delegate count, adding 35 delegates to Romney's 41. Romney now has 495 delegates to Santorum's 252. Newt Gingrich, who came in second in Alabama and Mississippi, has 131 and Ron Paul 48. Romney's increased delegate count was due to a wide-margin win in the Hawaii caucuses, and the fact that states divide their delegates proportionally. ?Tuesday's results actually increased Gove

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitt Romney's march to a possible Republican presidential nomination just got a lot longer and harder.