Hurricane Sandy: 5 political questions  —  The presidential campaigns are publicly hitting pause on East Coast electioneering as Hurricane Sandy spirals toward Atlantic beaches, but privately political professionals are starting to assess important questions about how it might affect next week's elections up and down the ballot.

Battleground Tracking Poll: Obama retakes lead  —  MARION, Ohio — With eight days to go until the election, President Barack Obama has recaptured a narrow national lead over Mitt Romney, riding increased support from women and an edge in early voting.  —  A new POLITICO/George Washington …

Mitt Romney In GOP Debate: Shut Down Federal Disaster Agency, Send Responsibility To The States … REACT:  —  FOLLOW:  —  Elections 2012, Mitt Romney, Elections 2012, Video, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Politics News, Fema, Frankenstorm 2012, Hurricane Sandy 2012, Hurricane Sandy Fema …

Obama's independent problem  —  President Obama has a problem with independents.  And it's not a small problem.  —  In the last three releases of the tracking poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News, Obama has trailed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney among independent voters by between 16 and 20 percentage points.

Early briefings on Libya strike focused on Al Qaeda, before story changed  —  Two days after the Libya terror attack, representatives of the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center gave Capitol Hill briefings in which they said the evidence supported an Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda-affiliated attack, Fox News has learned.

Column: Romney wrong to use “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts”  —  Romney may have co-opted the show's motto, but the women of “Friday Night Lights” know we need Obama.  —  STORY HIGHLIGHTS  —  2:09PM EDT October 28.  2012 - “Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose,” was the battle cry …

The Obama Curse strikes again: Detroit Tigers lose the world series  —  Not only did the Detroit Tigers lose the world series, they lost spectacularly, with the Giants winning in a solid four game streak.  I predicted this outcome a few days ago, not because I know anything about baseball …

Europe's Crisis Spawns Calls for a Breakup—of Spain  —  Many people in Catalonia, a province known as “the factory of Spain,” feel that the rest of the country has become an economic millstone.  They're pushing for an independent Catalonia.  WSJ's Matt Moffett reports from Barcelona.

A Desperate, Deceptive Gambit for Romney in Ohio  —  How desperate is Mitt Romney to win Ohio?  Before you answer, pay attention to what he and his campaign have been saying about the auto industry in the last few days.  —  As you may have heard, Romney on Thursday scared the bejeezus …

U.S. Stock Trading Canceled as New York Girds for Storm  —  The U.S. securities industry canceled equity trading on all markets today, moving to protect workers as Hurricane Sandy barreled toward New York City with 70-mile-per-hour winds and the threat of an 11-foot sea surge.

Medicaid on the Ballot  —  There's a lot we don't know about what Mitt Romney would do if he won.  He refuses to say which tax loopholes he would close to make up for $5 trillion in tax cuts; his economic “plan” is an empty shell.  —  But one thing is clear: If he wins, Medicaid …

Romney Avoids Taxes via Loophole Cutting Mormon Donations  —  In 1997, Congress cracked down on a popular tax shelter that allowed rich people to take advantage of the exempt status of charities without actually giving away much money.  —  Individuals who had already set up these vehicles were allowed to keep them.

Twitter Users Who Threatened Romney's Life Remain Active  —  More than a dozen Twitter accounts that were used as a medium to publically threaten Republican candidate Mitt Romney's life after the second presidential debate remain active, nearly two weeks later.

Broken promises  —  O has dashed lefties' hopes  —  As the 2012 presidential campaign winds to a close — it's mostly about Big Bird and binders, apparently — it's hard to recall the heady days of 2008.  But thinking back, things have really gone downhill.

Al Qaqaa and Benghazi: That Was Then, and This Is Now  —  I wrote yesterday about the media effort to help the Obama administration cover up the Benghazi scandal.  That scandal includes at least three elements: 1) the administration's failure to provide adequate security for our personnel there …

Hurricane Sandy: 5 political questions  —  “The president will be in the thick of it — which is when he's at his best,” the Democratic source said.  “There is no way for Romney to replicate that.”  —  Romney's answer: His campaign bus in Virginia was loaded up with relief supplies on Sunday …

Andrew Sullivan: Mitt Romney ‘Like an Alien That Ripped Off His Mask’ at Debates  —  The Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan blasted Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as a “brand new candidate” following this month's presidential debates, saying on the “This Week” roundtable that Romney …

Romney Campaign Brushes Off “538” Projections  —  Nate Silver's newest reader: Stu Stevens.  —  Source: charlierose.com  —  CELINA, Ohio — As Mitt Romney's campaign works to exude confidence in the home stretch, one wonky, liberal, self-made New York Times election forecaster has emerged as a particularly tricky obstacle.

Who is the real extremist on abortion? … The presidential election pits an extremist on abortion against a moderate.  President Obama, by any honest accounting, is the extremist.  —  Obama and his party this fall are waging a political culture war, tagging Mitt Romney and his party as scary radicals on abortion and women's issues.