Other races

TOP STORY: Romney pivots, Republicans follow

Mitt Romney reframed his attacks on President Obama's foreign policy on Thursday, making a point to call the deaths of four diplomats in Libya a "tragedy" before pivoting to a critique of the defense spending cuts included in sequestration and on trade with China.

"Ever since FDR we've had the capacity to be engaged in two conflicts at once, and he's said no, we're going to cut that back to only one conflict," the GOP presidential nominee said of his rival.

Republicans followed Romney’s lead, pivoting to a broad critique of Obama’s leadership and foreign policy as violence in the Middle East threatens to escalate in the aftermath of the brutal killing of American personnel in Libya.

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TOP STORY: Foreign policy takes center stage

The situation in Libya dominated the presidential campaign on Wednesday.

Mitt Romney fired the first shots with a strong statement late Tuesday night criticizing the Obama administration's response to the violence in the Middle East.

President Obama, in return, offered a blistering critique of his GOP rival, questioning Romney's judgment.

Obama said Romney had “a tendency to shoot first and aim later,” and suggested it was unbecoming for someone seeking the nation’s highest office.

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TOP STORY: In remembrance

It was a quiet day on the campaign trail as most candidates spent Tuesday marking the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

President Obama joined a moment of silence on the White House lawn and then attended a Pentagon ceremony with first lady Michelle Obama.

“Eleven years ago, memorial services were held for Americans of different races and creeds, backgrounds and beliefs. And yet, instead of turning us against each other, tragedy has brought us together,” Obama said at the gathering. “I've always said that our fight is with al Qaeda and its affiliates, not with Islam or any other religion. This country was built as a beacon of freedom and tolerance. That’s what's made us strong, now and forever.”

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TOP STORY: General election mode

With the conventions over, the Romney campaign released a memo Monday warning supporters against reading too deeply into the latest polling numbers, which show President Obama pulling ahead of the GOP nominee. 

“Don't get too worked up about the latest polling,” Romney pollster Neil Newhouse wrote in the memo. “While some voters will feel a bit of a sugar high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly. The reality of the Obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the Obama presidency, and Mitt Romney will win this race.”

Team Romney is hoping its cash advantage and a laser-like focus on economic messaging will be the key to beating Obama.

And, while campaigning in Ohio, Romney blasted Obama for failing to mention either unemployment or food stamps during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last week.

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to expedite its handling of a legal challenge to Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The plaintiffs seeking to place an injunction on the law and prevent it from going into effect, including the American Civil Liberties Union, recently lost in Commonwealth Court, an appellate court in Pennsylvania that is unlike any other court in the nation in that it specifically handles “legal matters involving state and local government and regulatory agencies,” according to the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania’s website.

The plaintiffs had argued that the law was motivated by partisanship and would lead to disenfranchisement of the elderly and minorities because they often do not possess one of the acceptable forms of photo ID, and might often have difficulty obtaining one.

A Pennsylvania judge has upheld the state’s new voter ID law, dismaying the law’s opponents, who have vowed to appeal the decision, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. ruled in favor of the state’s Republican lawmakers, declaring in a 70-page opinion that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate that voter disenfranchisement was “immediate or inevitable.”

Groups fighting the law, including the American Civil Liberties Union and The Advancement Project, had hoped that Simpson would issue an injunction, preventing the law from going into effect.

The law has been mired in controversy since its inception.

TOP STORY: Rocky Mountain Romney

Mitt Romney met privately with one of the victims of the Aurora, Colo., shooting before a campaign stop in the state on Thursday.

McKayla Hicks, 17, was in the movie theater adjacent to the site of the massacre and was hit in the face by fragments of a bullet that came through the theater wall. Romney said that Hicks sustained injuries to her jaw and had teeth knocked out by the gunfire. The attack left 12 dead and 58 others wounded.

Hicks was a star Mormon high-school basketball player and had recently attended BYU for a basketball training camp, according to KLS-TV.

And, while campaigning in Colorado, Romney's campaign offered a "report card" for President Obama's first term.

It gave the president low marks as the GOP looked to battle back against accusations that their candidate's tax plan would hurt middle-class families.

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TOP STORY: All down to Massachusetts and Virginia

Both parties came to a rare agreement on Wednesday — the Virginia and Massachusetts Senate races will likely decide control of the upper chamber.

It was one of the few things Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Executive Director Guy Cecil and National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Rob Jesmer agreed on during a lunch hosted by Center Forward.

"Clearly Massachusetts is a critical race — that's why the NRSC has invested $1 million into the state party," Cecil said. "And I think Virginia will be a critical race. It's certainly a margin of error state. Our polls have [Democrat Tim] Kaine up one to two points."

"I agree with Guy — I think that those two races are very pivotal," Jesmer said after a dramatic pause that elicited laughs from the crowd.

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) is facing a tough challenge from Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren (D), while former Virginia Gov. Kaine (D) and former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) are locked in a tight race.

Both strategists also agreed that the Senate is up for grabs. Cecil called it a "coin flip," which Jesmer agreed with, though he said he'd rather "be us than them right now."

TOP STORY: Romney to become more press-friendly

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is promising to become more media-friendly after headlines during the Republican candidate's week-long foreign trip highlighted an increasingly fractious relationship with the press.

Fewer than 100 days out from the election, the campaign is expected to provide more press briefings and heightened access to the candidate in the coming days, and to make changes to the travel pool that will make it more media-friendly.

TOP STORY: A polish blessing

Polish human rights icon President Lech Walesa effectively endorsed Mitt Romney on Monday, giving a boost to the presumptive GOP nominee during a foreign trip that has been marred by stumbles.

Poland is the final stop on Romney’s six-day overseas trip, which was designed to give him international status and boost his foreign policy credentials, but was overshadowed by a series of missteps from the candidate.

But the blessing from Walesa, the highly respected Noble Peace Prize winner and former president of Poland, will end Romney’s trip on a high note and buoy him ahead of his major foreign-policy address on Tuesday.

“I wish you to be successful because this success is needed to the United States, of course, but to Europe and the rest of the world, too,” the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was heard telling Romney when the press was allowed in on the tail end of their meeting. “Gov. Romney, get your success – be successful!"

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