Politics News
AP - A political adviser to President Barack Obama said Tuesday the administration didn't intend to "abridge anyone's religious freedom" with its regulation requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control for their workers.
AP - Newt Gingrich thrust the reproductive rights issue into the GOP campaign spotlight on Tuesday, criticizing both Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama's records on requiring Catholic organizations to provide contraceptive aids in some circumstances. Rick Santorum vowed to make the issue a central part of his struggling campaign.
AP - President Barack Obama's re-election campaign urged top fundraisers to support a Democratic-leaning outside group that is backing his bid for a second term, reversing Obama's opposition to "super" political action committees that can spend unlimited amounts of cash to influence elections.
AP - Former Sen. Bob Kerrey said Tuesday he will not run for the Nebraska Senate seat he gave up more than a decade ago, shutting down hopes for a bid both parties called Democrats' best chance to hold the seat.
AP - After back-to-back fiascos in Nevada and Iowa, the term "caucus" may be on its way to becoming a bad word in the GOP lexicon.
AP - Colorado's caucuses offer the Republican candidates for president a glimpse of their support in the Mountain West.
AP - In presidential politics, Minnesota is as close to a Democratic fortress as states come.
AP - Long skeptical of Mitt Romney, tea party activists are either warming up to the GOP presidential front-runner or reluctantly backing him after abandoning hope of finding a nominee they like better.
Politico - He's seeking the Democratic nomination in his home district north of the city.
Politico - Her resignation signals that the fallout from the defunding controversy is far from over.
AP - Presidential contender Mitt Romney is fighting to win over social conservatives in Tuesday's Republican caucuses.
AP - Looking for a campaign-boosting win Tuesday, Republican Rick Santorum urged supporters to reset the Republican presidential race and deny the aura of inevitability to front-runner Mitt Romney. Santorum also said they must reject President Barack Obama's secular policies.
AP - The Obama administration has closed the U.S. Embassy in Damascus and pulled all American diplomats out of Syria.
ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | The European Union and Congress are investigating the new Google privacy settings, which are set to roll out March 1, according to Fox News. The new settings would give Google more options and abilities to track the online movements of customers. As someone who studies our government, I see much more at stake here than our protection.
ContributorNetwork - Late last year the Missouri Republican Party voted to abandon the Feb. 7 primary. The Missouri Republican Party chose to implement a county caucus for selecting a nominee. The party decided to turn their regular primary into a non-binding primary. The voters would still be allowed to vote on Feb. 7. The vote would be a non-binding caucus of voters. This caucus would effectively reduce the amount of voters voting. The caucus would also reduce Missouri's power to attract GOP candidates to the state. Missouri had been considered a bellwether state for the last 100 years, In the 2008 election Missouri gave McCain all of its electoral college votes instead of Obama. This was the first time in 13 election cycles that this has happened.
ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | As reported in an article by the Sun Sentinel, two lawmakers in Florida, Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood and Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, are attempting to pass legislation that would ban the use of food stamps to purchase soda, sweets, and junk food. While they feel that taxpayers shouldn't have to "foot the bill for Mountain Dew," a sentiment shared by many Americans, some people, including Plakor and Storms' fellow GOP colleagues, feel it's not up to the government to decide what people can and cannot eat.
Daily Caller - Mitt Romney won the Florida primary Tuesday by a commanding 14-point margin, thanks in no small part to the Hispanic community.
Daily Caller - Democrats dumped on Gov. Mitt Romney Tuesday night, saying he won the Florida GOP primary only because of expensive negative ads, that the GOP turnout was low, and that Romney is both “extreme” and “out of touch.”
ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | After tweeting angrily about how Newsweek had run an article about "dumb" critics of Barack Obama by Andrew Sullivan, a "Trig Truther," Sarah Palin has published her own piece in the same magazine about her special-needs son.
AP - Preliminary results of an entrance poll shows Nevadans participating in today's caucuses were focused on the economy and which candidate could best defeat Obama. The deeply conservative electorate included the largest share of tea party backers and the highest number of Mormons of any state to cast ballots thus far in the nomination contest.