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Mike Duncan, chairman of the powerful super PAC American Crossroads, tells Newsmax.TV that undecided voters will make up their minds late in the campaign and elect Mitt Romney as the next president. He also says he is confident that Republicans will retain control of the House and are within “striking distance” of winning the Senate. (VIDEO AT LINK) Duncan served as the chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2007 to 2009, and on the campaigns of five presidents. He is also the president and CEO of American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. His political action committee American Crossroads, backed...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I got this last night. Wall Street Journal, NBC poll. And it was depressing, folks. You know what it was? I don't have it right in front of me, but I remember it. In essence, it said it's over in Virginia, Florida, and Ohio for Romney. The latest NBC News/Washington Post poll has shown that President Obama has pulled ahead in these three swing states to the point that if Romney's to have any chance whatsoever he's going to have to convince Obama voters to vote for him because the undecideds have already made up their minds....

Transcript GUY RAZ, HOST: In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama won nearly all the African-American vote. And this year, a recent poll found that less than 1 percent of black voters will back Mitt Romney. But in Ohio, as NPR's Allison Keyes found out, some black voters are agonizing over whether to vote in November at all. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) ALLISON KEYES, BYLINE: The choir rehearses on Saturdays at Friendship Baptist Church in Girard, Ohio. It's a town of 10,000, and Friendship Baptist is a small, friendly-looking building that was once a private home. Girard was good to candidate Obama in...

Less than an hour after President Barack Obama had stepped off of the Democratic National Convention stage, Republican challenger Mitt Romney's campaign announced 15 new, state-specific television advertisements which the campaign says will run in 8 battlegrounds. A week ago, Romney was officially made the Republican Party's presidential nominee, granting him access to a substantial war chest set aside for the general election. His campaign largely stayed off of television during the Democratic National Convention, which concluded after Obama's speech on Thursday. --snip-- Now that Romney has officially been named the GOP nominee his campaign will get its hands on...

CINCINNATI, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, campaigning in Florida Saturday after a stop in Ohio, said America deserves "a brighter, prosperous future." "We're going to encourage individuals to know that they can build it here in America, that there's a brighter, prosperous future here," Romney told his supporters in Jacksonville, Fla. "You deserve that. You deserve that after these four years of trouble that you've had." GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan joined Romney in Jacksonville and urged Floridians to back Romney at the polls, Politico reported. "Florida's going to elect Mitt Romney for the...

Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund plans to spend more than $3 million in Ohio and Virginia against Mitt Romney in the wake of his pledge to “get rid” of the women’s health advocacy group. The group is one of several liberal-leaning women’s organizations planning to spend millions of dollars in crucial election states to swing undecided female voters toward President Obama. Joining them are NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY’s List, two abortion-rights groups who are also planning aggressive campaigns. Their message is in line with Obama’s increased courtship of female voters. Several women will address the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte....

Ohio Veterans United today announced the endorsement of Mitt Romney for President of the United States. The announcement was made by Harry Prestanski, executive director and founding member of Ohio Veterans United. “Following a thorough review of the candidates’ backgrounds, experiences, and positions on issues, especially concerning Veteran’s issues, we believe that Governor Romney shares our core values, including being a staunch and effective supporter of veterans,” says Prestanski. The announcement was made at a press conference held at VFW Post 8312 in Beavercreek, Ohio. “Mitt Romney has shown his support for a strong national defense, as well as support...

Although the most recent Gallup poll didn't find any "immediate bump" nationally from the addition of Paul Ryan to Mitt Romney's presidential ticket, a new Purple Strategies survey finds that Ryan helped contribute to a decent upward swing in two crucial battleground states over the past month. The Romney-Ryan ticket now leads President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the key swing states of Virginia and Ohio, which each saw 5-point swings in the last month. Romney-Ryan lead 46 to 44 percent in Ohio and 48 to 45 percent in Virginia. Combined, the two states account for 31...

Our presidential elections, pundits sometimes remind us, are not national contests, but rather contests in 50 states and the District of Columbia. And since most states lean heavily to one party or the other these days, the only real contests are in a dozen or so target states. Once upon a time, most states were in play. In the 1976 contest between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, 30 states with 396 electoral votes were carried by less than 10 percent of the votes. Three-quarters of voters lived in those states. In 2008, the field of play was much smaller. The...

It is no secret that Barack Obama never served in the military. In fact, he doesn’t seem to be that big a fan of our men and women in uniform (at least the ones who aren’t gay). And unless pictures lie, the feeling is mutual. One retired Army officer so dislikes Obama’s policies toward the military that he has publicly stated his view that the president is “undeserving of the title Commander-in-Chief.” That would be Congressman Allen West, who wrote on his Facebook page: I am appalled at the Obama administration’s actions to bring a lawsuit against the State of...

President Obama’s campaign is suing Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to try to re-instate the three days of early, in person voting before Election day in November. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports. (AUDIO AT LINK) Back in 2004, Ohio’s voting process was under national scrutiny after there were long lines at polling places, causing voters to wait for up to eight hours to cast their ballots at some precincts. After that, Ohio lawmakers passed a law that, among other things, allowed Ohioans to vote in person on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before the election. Those rules were...

President Barack Obama's campaign has spent nearly $100 million on television commercials in selected battleground states so far, unleashing a sustained early barrage designed to create lasting, negative impressions of Republican Mitt Romney before he and his allies ramp up for the fall. In a reflection of campaign strategy, more than one-fifth of the president's ad spending has been in Ohio, a state that looms as a must-win for Romney more so than for Obama. Florida ranks second and Virginia third, according to organizations that track media spending and other sources....

(VIDEO AT LINK) Mitt Romney's Presidential campaign launched a stealth ad in Ohio, POLITICO first reported this morning. The ad is also running in Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, New Hampshire, and Nevada, according to the tracking service TVEyes. It began airing on morning television programs today. The ad features Hillary Clinton attacking Obama during the contentious 2008 Democratic primary, for spending "millions of dollars perpetuating falsehoods." She adds, "So shame on you, Barack Obama." Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith sends this response to the ad: “Mitt Romney might not like the facts of his private sector record: that he...

President Barack Obama is ramping up a fresh phase of his re-election bid with a bus tour next week, focusing more on direct engagement with voters and less on ritzy fundraisers. Obama's two-day road trip through Pennsylvania and Ohio, two key battleground states in the November election, kicks off July 5, a campaign official said. It will be the president's first bus tour of the 2012 campaign. The bus trip also will coincide with the release of the monthly nationwide jobs report, a key economic indicator that could directly affect the president's re-election prospects...

If Romney selects Portman for VEEP (a fellow technocrat and middle of the roader) who do you Ohioans think would governor Kasich choose to replace him in the Senate?

Not too long ago pundits were arguing that Mitt Romney’s path to 270 electoral votes was “narrow.” We didn’t buy it. Lo and behold, conventional wisdom has now changed. The Associated Press writes: “Warning signs for Obama on tight path to 270.” The AP explains: Obama’s new worries about North Carolina and Wisconsin offer opportunities for Republican Mitt Romney, who must peel off states Obama won in 2008 if he’s to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to oust the incumbent in November. Iowa, which kicked off the campaign in January, is now expected to be tight to the...

Liberal activists organized by CREDO SuperPAC are planning to protest outside a fundraiser that House Speaker John Boehner is holding Wednesday on Portola Road in Woodside with Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River. The event with Boehner, R-Ohio, costs up to $35,000 a plate or $5,000 for a photo opportunity, and is occurring just six miles from the Atherton home in which President Obama is scheduled to hold a $35,800-a-plate fundraiser at about the same time.CREDO SuperPAC says it has launched a campaign against Lungren with four full-time organizers and a Carmichael field office to mobilize local voters to defeat a...

Landline telephones could soon be a thing of the past in parts of Ohio if a senate bill passes. “I would not like it too much. I think landlines are important and I have to make a lot of long distance calls,” said Jerry Viola. Snip...

WASHINGTON — As the Ohio Republican presidential primary enters its final days, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich can make a legitimate claim that he’s already providing a boost to the state’s wobbly economy. Gingrich spent more than $5 million using Ohio vendors for his presidential campaign in the past four months alone — far more than any of the other three GOP contenders. He spent the bulk of that money with two companies — Akron-based InfoCision and Delaware-based Strategic Media Placement Inc. — an affiliate of the Strategy Group for Media. In all, he spent $2.9 million with the former...

I’ve been struck, in the aftermath of Michigan and Arizona, by how many political journalists have made arguments like the following from New York’s John Heilemann, which emphasizes Mitt Romney’s continued weakness and vulnerability: … the shirts versus skins schism that has emerged as a defining feature of the Republican electorate will be sharper in many of the ten states that vote [on Super Tuesday]. In Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Alaska, more than half the voters going to the polls are likely to be Evangelicals (whereas in Michigan the percentage was just 39 percent). In all those states, Romney...