WASHINGTON Mitt Romney and his under-funded opponents are taking advantage of a weeklong lull in the Republican presidential nomination fight - no debate or primary is slated - to raise the money needed to carry out Super Tuesday strategies and compete in states beyond.

WASHINGTON Despite criticism of Fannie Mae by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his campaign accepted nearly $280,000 in donations raised by a registered lobbyist who once represented the government mortgage giant and whose clients now include a private equity firm and the drug company Pfizer.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama's new budget lays down the political themes he will pound as he campaigns for re-election - more spending on jobs and higher taxes for the wealthy. It sets him apart from the Republican contenders and gives Democrats a platform to run on.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama for the first time has opened a sizable lead over his most likely Republican opponents, thanks to growing support among independent voters, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.

WASHINGTON Movie super spies James Bond and Jason Bourne use them. So do real-life presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who says he pays his taxes, and untold numbers of Americans who don't. Swiss banks and their secretive counterparts around the globe may sound like the exclusive province of the wealthy, the mysterious or the shady, but anybody can legally open an offshore account.

PORTLAND, Maine A day after Mitt Romney regained some momentum in the Republican presidential contest, his rival Rick Santorum went on the attack, calling the front-runner "desperate" while promising to compete aggressively to win the state where Romney grew up.

WASHINGTON Mitt Romney takes a hard line against congressional earmarks, but the GOP presidential front-runner had a more favorable view of federal pork-barrel spending when he was governor of Massachusetts.

DES MOINES, Iowa From the start, it's been a roller-coaster race for the Republican presidential nomination.

WASHINGTON The dustup over contraception underscored President Barack Obama's political edge in working to attract independent voters without alienating his Democratic base. His Republican rivals are forced to keep emphasizing their conservative credentials to attract the right-leaning activists who dominate the nominating contests.

PORTLAND, Maine Mitt Romney narrowly won Maine's Republican caucuses, state party officials announced Saturday, providing his campaign with a much-needed boost after three straight losses earlier this week. But the former Massachusetts governor won just a plurality of the Maine vote, suggesting he still has work to do to unite GOP voters behind his candidacy.

In a reprieve after his embarrassing losses last week in three states, Mitt Romney eked out a win Saturday in the symbolic straw poll tied to Maine's multiday caucuses, narrowly defeating Ron Paul, the only other candidate to actively campaign there.

WASHINGTON At last year's Conservative Political Action Conference, activists were chasing the idea that some dreamboat Republican they could fall for - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, perhaps, or maybe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or that dashing young Rep. Paul Ryan - would make quick work of President Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON Sarah Palin argued Saturday that the Republican presidential nominee would only be strengthened by an extended primary battle, and she urged conservatives to unite behind whoever becomes the party's choice.

WASHINGTON Mitt Romney added to his lead in the race for delegates Saturday with a narrow victory in the Maine Republican presidential caucuses.

WASHINGTON Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got a much-needed boost Saturday, winning a key symbolic vote over former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania among some of the nation's most active Republican voters and besting the field in the Maine caucuses.

WASHINGTON Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got a much-needed boost Saturday, winning a key symbolic vote over former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania among some of the nation's most active Republican voters and besting the field in the Maine caucuses.

PORTLAND, Maine Reversing his embarrassing string of setbacks earlier this week when he lost Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri to Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney eked out a narrow win in the straw poll tied to Maine's multiday caucuses Saturday, defeating Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who was the only other candidate to actively campaign in Maine.

PORTLAND, Maine Mitt Romney is thanking Maine voters after the state party chairman declared him the winner of that state.

PORTLAND, Maine Republican presidential contender Ron Paul says he wishes all the Maine caucuses would have met on Saturday.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama's political shifting over contraception coverage has united conservative Republicans in protest even as they split over which GOP presidential hopeful should face him in the general election.

A profile of Maine, site of the Republican caucus on Feb. 11:

WASHINGTON Mitt Romney has won The Washington Times/CPAC Presidential Straw Poll of conservative activists.

J.R. Childress is up before the sun, bustling about in the French colonial brick house he built. He helps pack his wife's lunch, downs some eggs or cereal for breakfast, pores over online and newspaper job listings and hopes - even prays - this will be the day when his fortunes turn around.

DALLAS In just the past few days, she's danced with cheering school kids, chatted with troops, swapped ideas with busy parents and engaged in a friendly cooking competition with stars from "Top Chef."

WASHINGTON Staggered by Rick Santorum's surge, Mitt Romney is trying to reset his presidential campaign by defining himself as a strict conservative.

BOSTON Mitt Romney faulted President Barack Obama's original push to require church-affiliated employers to pay for birth control as an "assault on religion," but as Massachusetts governor, Romney was largely silent about a state law that required virtually the same contraceptive coverage.

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Thursday, Feb. 9:

WASHINGTON A political tip sheet for the rest of us outside the Washington Beltway, Friday, Feb. 10, 2012:

SAN DIEGO House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi predicts that five large states will put Democrats in striking distance of gaining control of the House after the November elections.

WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says he thinks it would be wrong to allow women to serve in combat.

PORTLAND, Maine Mitt Romney and Ron Paul rarely even acknowledge each other in the Republican presidential race, focusing their attention and attacks on rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum instead. That curious detente is being tested in Maine's caucuses this week, where Romney's reputation as a political shape shifter is going head-to-head with Paul's consistent libertarian views.

WASHINGTON Under fierce election-year fire, President Barack Obama on Friday abruptly abandoned his stand that religious organizations must pay for free birth control for workers, scrambling to end a furor raging from the Catholic Church to Congress to his re-election foes. He demanded that insurance companies step in to provide the coverage instead.

WASHINGTON GOP presidential rivals made contrasting appeals to conservatives Friday, with Mitt Romney saying he proved his mettle as Massachusetts governor and Rick Santorum saying Romney is so moderate that electing him would be a "hollow victory."

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama is raising money for his re-election campaign from a small group of wealthy donors who each paid $35,800 to meet with him at a hotel near the White House.

WASHINGTON Mitt Romney says he has a "severely conservative" record as he looks to win over voters who favored his rivals in recent contests.

WASHINGTON All of a sudden, abortion, contraception and gay marriage are at the center of American political discourse, with the struggling - though improving - economy pushed to the background.

TULSA, Okla. Rick Santorum stirs his ever-growing crowds when he promises to right a country awash in "immoral debt" and to replace an administration he argues has "callousness toward life and family and faith."

WASHINGTON Senior campaign aides to Republican Mitt Romney will begin appearing at fundraising events for an independent political group supporting his White House run, officials said Friday. The decision comes days after President Barack Obama gave his campaign the OK to do the same.

WASHINGTON Rick Santorum is telling conservatives he's the only Republican presidential candidate who shares their values and implicitly attacking rival Mitt Romney as a moderate.

WASHINGTON Rick Santorum is telling conservatives he's the only Republican presidential candidate who shares their values and implicitly attacking rival Mitt Romney as a moderate.

WASHINGTON Money pouring into the presidential election from super political action committees and nonprofit campaign groups appears so far to be strictly American in origin, donated by U.S. companies, unions and millionaires. But it's easier than ever to conceal the source of money and the identities of contributors, making conditions ripe for illegal donations from foreigners, overseas companies or governments attempting to help a favored candidate for the White House.

WASHINGTON Money pouring into the presidential election from super political action committees appears so far to be strictly American, donated by U.S. companies, unions and millionaires. But U.S. officials and tax law experts warn the growth of super PACs has made conditions ripe for illegal foreign donations.

WASHINGTON A political tip sheet for the rest of us outside the Washington Beltway, Thursday, Feb. 9:

DENVER The college student accused of "glitter bombing" Mitt Romney after the Colorado caucuses has been fired from his unpaid internship with state Senate Democrats.

SAN ANTONIO A federal judge who was vilified by Republican presidential hopefuls for banning prayer at a Texas high school graduation delivered a scathing and unusually personal response Thursday, saying those who used the case to further political goals "should be ashamed."

NEW YORK Mitt Romney is in danger of losing his fourth straight state in Saturday's caucuses in Maine, where he and his allies have been all but absent from TV.

CLEVELAND Newt Gingrich, suddenly in danger of losing his perch as Mitt Romney's strongest GOP challenger, is fine-tuning his presidential campaign to place more emphasis on raising money, guarding his home turf and trying to avoid nasty quarrels with the front-runner.

ATLANTA The Georgia presidential primary may not be a slam dunk for Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich, a congressman from the state for two decades. Rival Mitt Romney is signaling that the biggest prize on Super Tuesday could be up for grabs.

AUGUSTA, Maine Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are the undisputed favorites in Maine, the next state weighing in on the Republican presidential race. They're the only candidates who have made much of an effort here.

ALLEN, Texas One day after Rick Santorum's startling breakthrough in the presidential race, his few aides decamped to distant states to start building campaign organizations from scratch. It was evidence of his challenge in converting sudden momentum into victories in the rush of contests ahead.