Democrats at the 2012 Democratic National Convention are set to approve a platform today that is unambiguously pro-abortion and opposes any effort whatsoever to stop any abortions. The platform also calls on forcing Americans to pay for abortions at taxpayer expense.

The platform Democrats will approve rejects efforts to stop forcing taxpayers to fund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business and supports the Obama HHS mandate that forces religious groups to pay for and refer women for abortion-causing drugs under Obamacare.

Democrats also support Roe v. Wade and its 40-year legacy of 55 million abortions, and President Obama’s decision to strike the Mexico City Policy, which President George W. Bush put in place to protect taxpayers from having to fund groups that promote or perform abortions overseas. Unlike the Republican platform, Democrats say nothing about China’s one-child policy that includes forced abortions...

It has been said that President Obama on Friday “walked back” a statement earlier in the day that “the private sector is doing fine.”

But in truth, the president doubled down, explaining again his argument that the only real problem that the private sector really has is the decline in government hiring as federal stimulus funds have dried up.

The attempt at a do-over was more noteworthy to most because the president flubbed again in trying to undo his previous flub, saying “It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine. That’s the reason I had the press conference.” (Imagine if George W. Bush had said that he held a press conference to fix the economy.)

But that was just a slip. Obama really meant that he held the press conference to try to spur Congress to act on his latest re-offering of a stimulus or at least to remind voters that he is offering a plan to keep the sputtery economy propped up.

Members of the Republican money machine that powered presidential elections from their time as “Rangers” for George W. Bush are betting almost entirely on Mitt Romney, but a large majority has so far sat out of the 2012 race altogether.

The role of these donors has only been heightened as loosened campaign-finance laws mean some “bundlers” who affected previous races by gathering contributions from equally wealthy colleagues have instead given massive amounts directly.

This year, 620 bundlers for Mr. Bush and Sen. John McCain tracked by The Washington Times have given more than $12 million of their own funds in federal elections, with more than $1.5 million going to Romney vessels, vastly more than for any other presidential candidate.

The elites’ second-favorite candidate, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, has dropped out of the race, and the only other contender to receive significant backing was Texas Gov.

WASHINGTON – When President Barack Obama jets to Scranton, Pa., Wednesday to promote his jobs package, he'll log his 56th event in a presidential battleground state this year, putting him well ahead of President George W. Bush's record-breaking swing-state travel in 2003.

Obama's extensive travels this year have opened the president to criticism from Republicans that he is intertwining campaigning and governing at a time when he has called for bipartisanship on intractable national problems. Most of the cost is typically born by taxpayers.

Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 17 of his third year in office, Bill Clinton held 40 events over 24 days in the battlegrounds of his time, according to data compiled by Brendan Doherty, a US Naval Academy assistant professor who is widely viewed among political scientists as an expert on presidential travel. Over that same stretch, George W.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A beleaguered president seeks re-election. His challenger, a candidate with Massachusetts roots and a presidential demeanor straight out of central casting, has to fight through a primary contest fending off charges of flip-flopping. In the end, the challenger’s strength also proves his vulnerability.

Election 2012 is looking a lot like the presidential race of 2004.

Democrats in and around President Barack Obama’s campaign are preparing to run against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — the man they believe likely to emerge from the Republican contest — by borrowing from the playbook George W. Bush and Republicans used to defeat Sen. John Kerry seven years ago.

As candidates, Kerry and Romney are remarkably similar.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, announced Thursday a list of 22 foreign policy advisers, 15 of whom served in the George W. Bush administration.

Former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff top the list, which includes author Robert Kagan and former Republican Sens. Jim Talent and Norm Coleman.

Mr. Romney also announced 13 working groups on key issues and regions that included another 19 names, many of them professors and think-tank researchers...

(CNSNews.com) - Only 20 percent of Democrats say that President Barack Obama has been a better president than Bill Clinton, according to Gallup, while 56 percent of Americans told Gallup they believe Obama has been the same or worse than George W. Bush.

Among Independents, 67 percent say Obama is the same or worse than Bush.

Bill Clinton was one of only two presidents in history impeached by the House of Representatives. Near the end of his term, in the week before the November 2008 election, George W. Bush had 25 percent approval in the Gallup poll.

From Sept. 15-18, Gallup asked 1,004 adults: “Overall, do you think Barack Obama has been a better president, about the same, or worse than George W. Bush?” Gallup also asked the same question comparing Obama to Clinton.

Overall, 22 percent said Obama was about the same as Bush and 34 percent said he was worse than Bush. Only 43 percent said they thought Obama was a better than Bush...

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Mitt Romney and Rick Perry wasted little time in going straight at each other Wednesday night, sparring over whether the former’s business experience or the latter’s decade as governor of Texas is better training for boosting jobs as the occupant of the White House.

“Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt,” said Mr. Perry, referring to the former liberal Democratic governor who lost the 1988 presidential election.

“George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, governor,” retorted Mr. Romney, a one-term Massachusetts governor who made his fortune leading a capital investment firm, as he pointed to the man whom Mr.

The two titans of the Republican presidential contest hammered each other over job creation and Social Security on Wednesday night, as Rick Perry got his first chance to articulate his campaign message on the national debate stage.

The Texas governor sparred early and often with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whom he has overtaken as front-runner since joining the race a month ago. With Perry trying to defend that position and Romney trying to reclaim it, the two came armed with zingers to take each other down a peg.

"Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt,” Perry quipped, in a stinging reference to the former Massachusetts governor who lost the presidential election to George H.W.

(CNSNews.com) - The percentage of American adults who lack health insurance coverage has not only increased during the presidency of Barack Obama, but it has continued to increase since Obama signed his signature piece of legislation last year mandating that by 2014 every American carry health insurance, according to a Gallup survey released today.

In 2008, when George W. Bush was president, according to Gallup, 14.9 percent of adult residents of the United States lacked health insurance coverage. That increased to 16.2 percent in 2009, the year that Obama was inaugurated, and to 16.4 percent in 2010, the year that Obama signed his law requiring that all Americans have health insurance.

In the first half of this year, according to data released by Gallup today, the percentage of adults in the United States lacking health insurance ticked up to 16.8 percent.

That conclusion is based on Gallup's interviews with 177,237 American adults from January through June of this year.