Ken Rudin

The way we elect a president necessitates that the candidates have to campaign only in the so-called "battleground states." Here is the list of the 10 states that will determine the November winner, and how they voted in the past.

Just as the Wisconsin recall election was portrayed as having national implications for November, many are saying that the message coming out of Tuesday's special election to replace Gabby Giffords goes far beyond Arizona.

A big day of politics on Tuesday, led by the effort to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin. Only two governors have been recalled in U.S. history.

Ron Paul knows he's not going to be the Republican nominee for president this year. Mitt Romney has it all but locked up. But Paul's supporters are flooding state conventions, getting elected as convention delegates ... and preparing for life after 2012.

In 1974, Richard Lugar was known as "Richard Nixon's favorite mayor," which didn't help his bid for the Senate. Now, with the Tea Party calling him "Barack Obama's favorite senator," he is in real danger of losing the GOP primary on Tuesday.

It's been a busy week in politics including Mitt Romney's five primary wins — making him the de facto Republican presidential nominee. Newt Gingrich, however, has still not pulled out of the GOP presidential race.

Candidates have gone into New Hampshire in the past with high expectations, only to be shot down, even if they won. Mitt Romney knows the Granite State is set with traps for his nomination.

As Iowa Republicans head to the caucuses to have their say, we look at how the candidates stack up on the eve of the vote — and how previous winners (and losers) eventually fared.

This week's Political Junkie column: President Obama says Joe Biden is doing a great job as vice president. Biden says he will run again in 2012. Hillary Clinton says rumors of her replacing Biden on the ticket are nonsense. And they are. So why doesn't this story go away?

A Democrat in western New York won election to Congress this week in a district that had been held by the Republican Party for four decades. The deciding issue may have been the GOP's plan to revamp Medicare. In addition, more names are surfacing as potential Republican presidential candidates.