The Obama campaign and Washington Democrats appeared unwilling Wednesday to walk away from their failed effort to recall Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker, even after their candidate suggested everyone move forward.

“While the results of the governor's race were not what we had hoped for, we were still able to overcome great challenges to ensure the voices of middle-class families were heard,” said Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

“Over the past year, Wisconsin Democrats have taken on the immense challenge of … fighting against government overreach and ensuring voters have a say about the future of the state,” she said.

The failed recall effort was led by Democrats who though Walker and Republicans in the state legislature rolled back what they considered excesses in the collective bargaining agreements of public-employee unions -- an effort to cut Wisconsin’s estimated $3.6 billion budget shortfall...

The National Labor Relations Board has formally dropped its legal challenge against Boeing over a nonunion plant the aviation giant opened in South Carolina -- a move met with jeers by Republicans who long described the case as "frivolous" and anti-business.

The decision, announced Friday by the board's top attorney, comes after the Machinists union approved a 4-year contract extension with Boeing. As part of that deal, the union agreed to withdraw its charge that the company violated federal labor laws.

"This is the outcome we have always preferred," Lafe Solomon, the board's acting general counsel, said in a statement.

The NLRB counsel had originally challenged Boeing's decision to open the South Carolina plant, with the union claiming the company did so in retaliation for past strikes in Washington state. Under the recent deal, Boeing promised to build the new version of its 737 airplane in Washington state...

WASHINGTON – A contentious labor dispute between the government and Boeing Co. that spawned a national political fight likely will be settled after the company and the Machinists union announced Wednesday they'd reached a tentative deal on a new four-year collective bargaining agreement.

If the deal is finalized, it would appear to leave in place the work at a new $750 million Boeing plant in South Carolina, a right-to-work state where the company opened a new production line for its 787 airplane.

The National Labor Relations Board filed a lawsuit earlier this year alleging that Boeing violated labor laws by opening the South Carolina line.

Days after the Obama administration threatened to delay approval of a planned oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico -- angering unions while appeasing environmentalists -- the company seeking to build the pipeline says it's willing to reroute the project to get it back on track.

Speaking at a news conference at the Nebraska Capitol, company officials said TransCanada would move the planned pipeline out of the environmentally sensitive Sandhills area of Nebraska, a change the company previously claimed wasn't possible, as part of an effort to push through the proposed $7 billion project.

The 1,700-mile pipeline would extend from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. It would carry 700,000 barrels per day from the province of Alberta to refineries in Texas. To do so would require it crossing six states...

The potpourri of election results on Tuesday is a political scientist’s delight – there’s a data point to support any argument you like.

Calling for a Democratic avalanche next year? Look at how soundly unions won in their bid to roll back a Republican-supported law curtailing the collective bargaining power of Ohio state workers.

Predicting a continuation of the anti-Obama tide that started in the off-year elections of 2009? Ohioans also repudiated President Obama’s central accomplishment by ratifying a constitutional amendment blocking his prescription for mandatory health insurance.

Mississippians voted down what would have been the most stringent pro-life measure in the country. Hooray for Democrats! But wait, Mississippians also overwhelmingly voted in a severe limitation on eminent domain power and new requirements for voters to show photo IDs. Hooray for Republicans!

The truth is that referenda make poor predictors of future electoral behavior.

Votes on immigration, union rights and President Obama's health care law could hold hints of the American public's mindset, four years into an economic downturn and one year from the presidential election.

Tuesday's elections also include governors' races in Mississippi and Kentucky that will point to political prospects for 2012, when an additional 10 governorships will be contested. In both states, the governors' offices are expected to stay in the hands of incumbent parties, perhaps indicating that voters aren't ready to abandon their loyalties.

But regardless of the ballot questions and key political races, most experts agree the most important factor in 2012 remains the stubbornly weak economy.

"If the economy were to turn around in the next year, that's going to matter a lot more than what happens in ballot issues," said political analyst Justin Buchler...

A politically imperiled President Obama called on lawmakers Thursday night to approve another stimulus plan to create jobs, many for his union base, while adding about $450 billion to next year’s budget.

“I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away,” a defiant Mr. Obama told a joint session of the House and Senate. He urged lawmakers to “stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy.”

The president, whose job-approval ratings are his lowest ever, announced a package of proposals that is likely to be his last major effort to create jobs before the 2012 presidential campaign swings into high gear.

Among the proposals he outlined are extending unemployment benefits, worth about $50 billion; boosting spending on construction projects by about $100 billion; giving $35 billion to states to keep teachers on the job; and providing another round of payroll-tax cuts for workers and employers.

Shortly before President Barack Obama spoke to the labor unions in Detroit, Jimmy Hoffa Jr. warmed up the audience and harshly attacked the Tea Party movement saying: (emphasis is mine)

"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They've got a war, they got a war with us and there's only going to be one winner. It's going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We're going to win that war," Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said said

"President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong," Hoffa then added.

Condemnation for Mr. Hoffa's statements will not be coming anytime soon from the White House. In fact, President Obama immediately praised Mr.

In the past two election cycles, American labor unions have spent some $600 million helping elect and protect Democrats, most of it devoted to President Obama’s 2008 election.

But it may take an even larger commitment from labor groups to keep Obama in office. The latest Gallup poll shows Obama would be hard pressed to beat either of the GOP frontrunners, Mitt Romney or Rick Perry, or even those farther back in the pack, like Ron Paul. The cry from independents has become: Anybody but Obama.

The president is in the midst of a political crisis. While he has 15 months to stage a comeback, the weakening economy and Obama’s inability to connect with American voters on the issues that matter most have banished ideas about an easy re-election...

Democrats and Republicans are clashing in state capitals across the country as GOP-controlled legislatures push proposals to tighten voting requirements -- a move prominent critics have decried as a throwback to Jim Crow laws.

The proposals include measures in nearly three-dozen states to either require voters to show ID before casting their ballots or strengthen existing voter ID laws. Other states have moved to tighten the window for early voting and put new restrictions on whether and when convicted felons can vote.

The proposals are not attracting anywhere near as much attention as state efforts to strengthen immigration laws, cut back on union benefits and balance budgets, but Democrats in recent weeks have launched somewhat of a campaign against them at the national level. They claim Republicans are trying to skew the next election, while limiting the right to vote in the process...