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(Continued from page 30)
On taxes, health care and government's role, Obama and Romney offer distinct choices to voters
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- For the better part of a year, Mitt Romney has tethered himself to an array of positions designed for the Republican presidential primaries, stances that put him to the right of where he's been through much of his career and raise questions about where he really wants to go. President Barack Obama's politicking has tacked to the left, thanks to all those speeches to Democratic fundraisers and other activist-heavy events that play up the liberal in him.
• Now, though, it's time for both politicians to start maximizing their appeal to the broad electorate, a task Obama had the luxury of starting early as the incumbent without an intra-party struggle to settle. And as they compete for that middle ground, the essential differences between them may become harder to see.
• Those differences surely exist. Obama and his Republican challenger are offering voters a distinct choice on taxes, a sharp disagreement over health care and a classic ideological divide on social issues that neither candidate seems eager to talk about. So, too, Obama has shown he believes in the power of the purse -- or the power of debt -- to right an economic downturn in ways that Republicans find hard to swallow.
• Take taxes. Romney and Obama are at odds over whether low taxes on the wealthy help fuel the engine of economic growth or are an unfair giveaway to people who don't need it.
• That's far more than a debating-society point. Despite the substantial tax cuts Obama has supported since becoming president, he wants to push even more than in 2008 to raise taxes on the rich and on companies that outsource jobs. Romney wants lower rates for all incomes and no special tax penalties on corporate behavior.
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No comment: After prostitution scandal Secret Service emphasizes 'secret' part of its mission
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- After two weeks of disturbing revelations about a tawdry prostitution scandal, the Secret Service and its supporters are circling the wagons to restore the "secret" part of its mission.
• Retired agents have been instructed to stop talking to reporters. Secret Service (Continued on page 32)
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