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His communications director insisted that her departure had nothing to do with the Newark, N.J., mayor's controversial comments in which he criticized the Obama campaign for targeting Mitt Romney's experience at Bain Capital. Still, her exit shows how managing the mayor's political message has become a challenge as his star has risen.

African-American opposition to gay marriage has declined significantly since President Obama's announcement, according to three polls.

Former journalists Alan Huffman and Michael Rejebian talk about opposition research—the little-understood industry of trying to bring candidates’ weaknesses to light—and how it has become an integral part of the campaign process. We’re with Nobody: Two Insiders Reveal the Dark Side of American Politics is an account of their work as opposition researchers—an adventure across the American political landscape and through the often seamy underbelly of U.S. politics.

Samuel Popkin, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego, examines the winners—and losers—of the last 60 years of presidential campaigns, explaining how challengers get to the White House, how incumbents stay, and how successors hold power for their party. His book The Candidate: What it Takes to Win—and Hold—the White House looks George H. W. Bush's campaign for reelection in 1992, Al Gore's campaign for the presidency in 2000, and Hillary Clinton's effort to win the nomination in 2008, and gives an account of what goes on inside a campaign and what makes one succeed while another fails.

An avid political junkie and a thoroughly scarred presidential campaign watcher, Jason Pargin set out to save his fellow man.  He wrote ‘5 Ways to Spot a B.S. Political Story in Under 10 Seconds’ and he explains to Bob how he came by his expertise the hard way. 

 

Errors - Tusk

On Thursday, some of Hollywood's top stars and deepest pockets will congregate at the Studio City, Calif., home of actor George Clooney to mingle with President Obama and raise money for his re-election campaign. At least one conservative group is deriding Obama as a "celebrity president."

France wasn't the only European country to hold elections yesterday, but the feeling across the continent was certainly one of change. From local elections in Italy to a tight presidential race in Serbia, competitions outside of France told equally interesting stories about changing attitudes toward life in the Euro-zone. Andrew Walker is a correspondent for our partner the BBC, and Ken Rogoff is former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

This week Iranians returned to the polls for the first time since 2009’s presidential election, and opposition groups and reformers have called for a boycott of the elections. The government wants high voter turnout to show that the regime is still strong, and so they've attempted to clamp down on the media in order to get their version of the story out. Bob talks to Muhammad Sahimi of Tehran Bureau about the regime's efforts at message control. 

Alan Huffman and Michael Rejebian have spent the past 18 years doing "oppo" work: the tedious and delicate task of going through public documents about political candidates. The two have co-authored a new book titled "We're with Nobody: Two Insiders Reveal the Dark Side of American Politics," which is peppered with anecdotes about wrangling these files from obstructionist clerks — but never reveals the names of any of their clients.

Former journalists Alan Huffman and Michael Rejebian talk about opposition research—the little-understood industry of trying to bring candidates’ weaknesses to light—and how it has become an integral part of the campaign process. We’re with Nobody: Two Insiders Reveal the Dark Side of American Politics is an account of their work as opposition researchers—an adventure across the American political landscape and through the often seamy underbelly of U.S. politics.

With South Carolina's GOP presidential primary a week from Saturday, TV viewers in the state are getting an eyeful of political ads. It seems almost everyone who is running has bought time. And so have the superPACs, which are forbidden to coordinate with the campaigns.

Now that Iowa’s critical caucus is over, attention turns to the nation’s first primary. A predominately Republican state, New Hampshire primary has held many surprises in the past, such as John McCain's overwhelming victory over George W. Bush in 2000. Former Utah Governor John Hunstman has almost solely focused on New Hampshire over the past months, and spent Tuesday evening campaigning in the New England state instead of Iowa.

Newt Gingrich's campaign likened his failure to make the Virginia ballot to Pearl Harbor and vowed to find "alternate methods" to compete for the state's 49 delegates.

You can be forgiven for watching the republican presidential debates this primary season and wondering what it is all for. Canned answers.  False camaraderie.  But debates are much, much more informative than television advertising, says professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Brooke speaks with Jamieson who says the debates have informed voters and allowed candidates with little money to rise in the polls. Jamieson is the director of Factcheck.org and the new Flackcheck.org.

In light of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s nuclear program, the United States and several international partners are preparing to implement sanctions against Iran if new questions about its nuclear ambitions go unanswered.

Mitt Romney lost the New Hampshire GOP primary to John McCain in 2008, but he's hoping 2012's primary will be different. Romney received a key endorsement from the granite state's former governor, John H. Sununu. New Hampshire will hold the first presidential primary in the nation in January after the Iowa caucuses. While Romney continues to be the front runner in the GOP race, support for the former Massachusetts governor remains tepid at best. With a history of modified positions and the albatross of "Romneycare," the Massachusetts health care reform legislation that served as a model for President Obama's health care reform, hanging around his neck, many in the GOP base question Romney's conservatism.

Many months after a man in Tunisia set himself on fire to protest his country's lack of a viable democratic government, some 90 percent of eligible voters in the country cast their votes on Sunday. Over 4.1 million people cast their ballots in the first democratic election from the nation that ignited the Arab Spring. Early signs show that the once banned Islamist Ennahda party is leading, possibly indicating a shift for the secular nation.

Tunisians headed to the polls on Sunday to elect members of an assembly that will appoint a new government and write a new constitution. The election is culmination of a popular uprising that ended decades of authoritarian rule in the country, and set off a wave of similar rebellions across the Middle East.

Even with the latest change to Cain's tax reform plan, the lowest-income Americans would see their tax bills rise because they'd face a trickle-down effect from business taxes and they would still face the 9 percent sales tax, analysts say.

What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas: PolitiFact offers a reality check on squads some of the candidates' statements from the GOP debate.