Elections Directory USA

The Upshot - It's not often that you see Democrats joining forces with the tea party insurgency on the right. But that's just one of the many ways in which Delaware is well out of the national mainstream. Delaware's new, and doubtless short-lived, political alliance is forged from the greatest binding agent in all politics: a shared enemy. [...]

AFP - US President Barack Obama will mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks at the Pentagon, and Vice President Joe Biden will be at the World Trade Center site in New York, the White House said Monday.

Reuters - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard secured a wafer thin parliamentary majority on Tuesday, ending a political impasse but hardly cheering investors worried about the fragility of her government and its plans to tax mining profits.

Reuters - Republicans in Congress showed little willingness to help President Barack Obama approve $350 billion worth of measures to boost the economy with midterm elections less than two months away.

AFP - More than a million French workers took to the streets on Tuesday to challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age to 62, the centrepiece of his reform agenda.

AFP - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has the backing of Washington and US arch-foe Iran to keep his job, six months after he narrowly lost an election to ex-premier Iyad Allawi, politicians said Tuesday.

Reuters - Nigeria will hold its presidential election on January 22, with parliamentary polls a week earlier and state governorship elections a week later, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Tuesday.

AP - The White House says President Barack Obama will mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at the Pentagon.

AP - Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank's retort was an Internet sensation. Questioned at a town hall last year about the "Nazi policy" of health care reform, Frank told the speaker who made the comment that talking to her was "like arguing with a dining room table." Fast forward to this year, the questioner, Rachel Brown, is challenging the 15-term Democrat's re-election bid.

The Upshot - Has President Obama been listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix lately?  With just under two months to go before Election Day, Obama kicked off the fall campaign season Monday with an aggressive speech targeting Republicans. But it was an off-script moment in the speech that's attracted the most attention, as Obama accused his GOP [...]

AP - Already in distinctive company as an American president, George W. Bush seeks to join an even more select group: president and top-selling author.

The Upshot - How's this sound for a slate of candidates? A homeless tarot card reader, "Grandpa" the pedicab driver and a 20-year-old street performer. Those are the Green Party political hopefuls whom Republican operative Steve May has recruited to run for office in Arizona, the New York Times reports. While the state's community of tarot enthusiasts is [...]

AP - Turns out politics, for all its focus on the gloomy economy, is a recession-proof industry.

Time.com - Nine weeks before the midterm elections, Barack Obama finds himself on the wrong side of the polls. Where did all that adoration go -- and is a Republican sweep next?

Politico - Conservative corners of the Internet are buzzing over a Los Angeles school named after former Vice President Al Gore that was built on toxic soil and, some say, poses a health risk to students. (See, Obama: "They Talk About Me Like a Dog")

The Upshot - Politicians are expected to give the official nod to their party nominees, but Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is doing no such thing in his home-state Senate race. The Republican governor said over the weekend that he will not be endorsing Republican Sen. David Vitter for reelection this year. "Voters can make up their own minds," [...]

AFP - US President Barack Obama has pledged 50 billion dollars to create jobs in a massive transportation infrastructure campaign, targeting huge unemployment and ripping resurgent Republicans.

AP - A determined Republican stall campaign in the Senate has sidetracked so many of the men and women nominated by President Barack Obama for judgeships that he has put fewer people on the bench than any president since Richard Nixon at a similar point in his first term 40 years ago.

AP - Never before have so many governorships been up for grabs — and with so much at stake.

Reuters - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard clung onto power on Tuesday, securing support from independent lawmakers to form a minority government after her Labor Party lost its majority at elections last month.