Much has been written about the effect of abortion on the 2012 presidential race and the apparent sudden shift in polls from the pro-life plurality (or majority, which we have seen in recent years) to a plurality or bare majority self identifying as pro-choice.

What has not been reported is that 1) of those who voted on the basis of abortion, the pro-life vote for pro-life candidates essentially equaled the pro-abortion vote for pro-abortion candidates; and 2) basic attitudes on abortion itself have not changed. A plurality, or even majority, of the public continues to oppose the vast majority of abortions that are actually performed.

While much has also been written about the “women’s vote,” race and ethnicity was a much greater determinant of how people voted than gender.

The CNN exit poll found that Mitt Romney won 59% of the white vote while Obama won 93% of the black vote and 73% of the Hispanic vote.

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama enjoys a massive lead over Mitt Romney among registered voters who say they have no religion, according to the Gallup tracking poll of the presidential race.

In the three-week period that ended on Sept. 2, according to Gallup, Obama led Romney 69 percent to 23 percent among those who have no religion. That was exactly the same result Gallup got in the previous three-week period ending Aug. 26.

Since Gallup started publishing demographic breakouts of its tracking poll on May 6, Obama has always held a large lead among registered voters who say they have no religion. Even so, he has managed to grow that lead.

In the three week period ending May 6, Obama led Romney 63 percent to 27 percent among registered voters with no religion...

Mitt Romney asked Thursday where all the "hope and change" has gone, as President Obama's supporters pressed ahead with plans to air a misleading TV ad and a top campaign aide was accused of "lying" about her knowledge of its contents.

The Republican presidential candidate, in his most forceful comments to date, suggested Obama's supporters should be "embarrassed" over the super PAC ad that ties him to a woman's death from cancer. But he wasn't holding out hope that the group would pull it down, after the Democratic operative behind the ad claimed it'll be airing soon in battleground states despite the furor.

"You know, in the past when somebody pointed out that something was inaccurate campaigns either pulled the ad - they were embarrassed," Romney said on Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" radio show. "Today, they just blast ahead"...

Four more chances.

That's what President Obama has left to prove he's helped turn the economy around -- with just four more monthly jobs reports remaining before the November election. Those reports could determine whether he gets four more years.

The last three employment snapshots released by the Labor Department have been persistently weak, and marked a distinct slowdown from earlier in the year. In the latest report, the department said employers added a meager 80,000 jobs in June, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 8.2 percent. The number of jobs added in June was lower than expected, and rounded out a poor second quarter for 2012.

The average number of monthly jobs created in the first quarter of the year was 226,000 -- by contrast, that average in the second quarter was just 75,000.

With the economy typically polling as the top issue in the 2012 race, Obama is now under heavy pressure to demonstrate a turnaround sometime between July and October.

House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday that President Barack Obama can't run for re-election on his economic record so his campaign will "pull out every bogey man that they can."

The Ohio Republican tells CBS News that he and Obama were close to a deal to break the budget stalemate when Obama "lost his courage."

Boehner says he agreed to raise revenue by overhauling the tax code and Obama initially accepted changes in entitlement programs. Instead, the speaker says, Obama ended up advocating higher tax rates for the wealthy...

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Tuesday he is suspending his campaign.

He made the announcement at the Gettysburg Hotel in Gettysburg, Pa., talking about his young daughter's illness and reflecting on the campaign.

His 3-year-old daughter Bella was taken to a Virginia hospital Friday with pneumonia. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, left the campaign trail until this afternoon. The child has a life-threatening genetic disorder known as Trisomy 18...

Lake in the Hills, Ill. - Whether it's high gas prices, social security, paying off the national debt, or encouraging innovation in America, Newt Gingrich has big solutions for them all: increased domestic drilling, private savings accounts, the vision of a settlement on the moon.

Now, after two humbling defeats in Alabama and Mississippi, Gingrich told reporters he is ready to make changes to his campaign, "I think what you'll see is a much clearer definition of a visionary conservative as compared to the more traditional Romney Santorum conservatism."

But prompted for more details - would he plan to hone his message so it doesn't sound like he has an array of ideas - Gingrich said, "No, I'm going to fine tune my message to say, without vision the people perish. We need a visionary leader with very big and bold ideas.

Thanks to the massive unpopularity of the Obamacare law that includes abortion funding, rationing concerns and now a mandate that forces religious employers to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions, Obama is losing to the top two GOP candidates in key states.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of the nation’s dozen top battleground states, a majority of Americans calls passage of Obamacare a “bad thing” and support repealing it should Republicans win control of the Senate from Democrats in November and the White House.

The Gallup survey queried voters in Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Michigan, which casts votes tomorrow, was also included.

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum tops Obama 50%-45% in the 12 swings states and, nationwide, leads Obama 49-46 percent.

Rick Santorum pushed back Monday against Mitt Romney’s constant needling of the former Pennsylvania senator’s “take one for the team” comment during last week’s Republican presidential debate in Arizona, dubbing Mr. Romney the “most liberal guy” in the GOP race.

Mr. Santorum said during the debate that a number of votes he cast in Congress reflected his loyalty to the party rather than his personal preferences. Mr. Romney, locked in a tight battle with Mr. Santorum in the Arizona and Michigan primaries Tuesday, repeatedly has criticized Mr. Santorum’s defense as a failure of leadership.

“I’ll tell you what team I was on. I was on George Bush and the Republican conservatives’ team, and I have a voting record that backs it up — a 90 percent conservative voting record,” Mr. Santorum said Monday in an interview with The Washington Times-affiliated “America’s Morning News”...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Soaring gasoline prices are threatening to undercut President Barack Obama's re-election prospects and offering Republicans an easy target. With prices pushing $4 a gallon and threatening to go even higher, Obama sought Thursday to confront rising public anxiety and strike back at his GOP critics.

"Only in politics do people root for bad news, do they greet bad news so enthusiastically," Obama said of Republicans. "You pay more; they're licking their chops."

Obama said dismissively that all the Republicans can talk about is more drilling — "a bumper sticker ... a strategy to get politicians through an election" — when the nation's energy challenges demand much more. In a speech in Miami, he promoted the expansion of domestic oil and gas exploration but also the development of new forms of energy.

For all the political claims, economists say there's not much a president of either party can do about gasoline prices. Certainly not in the short term.