Obama campaign struggles to explain ‘revenge’ remark  —  CINCINNATI — A seemingly offhand utterance from President Obama has turned into a major point of contention between the two campaigns, as Team Obama tries to explain what the president meant when he told a crowd of supporters that “Voting is the best revenge.”

AFF poll: Minnesota a toss-up  —  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are separated by just 1 point in Minnesota, effectively making the race there a toss-up, according to polling taken for the conservative American Future Fund.  —  Romney takes 46 percent of the vote to Obama's 45 percent in the poll …

MOTHER OF SEAL: ‘I BELIEVE THAT OBAMA MURDERED MY SON’  —  A father and a mother used the word “murder.”  A brother said he won't second-guess decisions made in the heat of battle.  —  The families of three Americans killed in the Sept. 11 U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya …

Sandy death toll in US rises to 109; ‘there could be more,’ Bloomberg warns  —  The National Guard, FEMA and the Red Cross, among other agencies, set up camp to help the hard-hit working class community of Staten Island.  NBC's Andrea Canning reports.  —  By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

Last-Minute Ohio Directive Could Trash Legal Votes And Swing The Election  —  A last-minute directive issued by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) could invalidate legal provisional ballots.  Ohio is widely viewed as the most critical state for both presidential campaigns and …

Nov. 2: For Romney to Win, State Polls Must Be Statistically Biased  —  President Obama is now better than a 4-in-5 favorite to win the Electoral College, according to the FiveThirtyEight forecast.  His chances of winning it increased to 83.7 percent on Friday, his highest figure since …

Obama leads in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin  —  PPP's final polls of the 2012 election cycle in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find Barack Obama favored to win both states, although by margins a good deal closer than he won them by in 2008.  In Pennsylvania Obama leads 52-46, while in Wisconsin his advantage is 51-48.

Romney closes big: ‘Love of country’ vs. ‘Revenge’  —  About midway through Mitt Romney's speech to a crowd of as many as 30,000 who had gathered for a chilly, outdoor, red-white-and-blue Friday night rally in this suburb of Cincinnati, close Romney aide Stuart Stevens wandered through the throng by himself …

Paul Ryan goes dark on local reporters  —  RENO — In his first eight weeks on the GOP ticket, Paul Ryan blazed his own campaign trail through the living rooms of swing-state voters, sitting for nearly 125 interviews with local television affiliates.  —  But since the week …

Iowa Poll: Final stretch in Iowa gives edge to Obama  —  Iowans are feeling more optimistic about where the nation is headed, and they're giving President Barack Obama the credit.  —  Obama is up 5 percentage points in Iowa, leading Republican Mitt Romney 47 percent to 42 percent …

Akin was Arrested at Least Eight Times in 1980's  —  Missouri Republican Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin was arrested at least eight times in the 1980s at anti-abortion protests, according to newly obtained records.  —  That is four arrests in addition to four the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported …

BREAKING: NAACP Takes Over Houston Polling Station, Advocates for President Obama  —  HOUSTON, TX - Friday afternoon at an early polling place located at 6719 W. Montgomery Road in Houston, NAACP members were seen advocating for President Barack Obama according to volunteer poll watchers on location at the time.

Exclusive: Christie was Mitt's first choice for VP  —  One of the most tantalizing subplots of the 2012 campaign has been the curious and sometimes controversial performances of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.  Now, campaign insiders tell POLITICO that Christie was Mitt Romney's first choice …