WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The pastor selected to deliver the benediction at President Barack Obama’s inauguration withdrew from the ceremony on Thursday after being attacked for making anti-gay comments.

Rev. Louie Giglio, an Atlanta minister, called homosexuality a sin in a mid-1990s sermon and warned against the gay rights movement, the liberal website ThinkProgress reported on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It is one of those occasions that is quintessential Washington: the inauguration of a president, a multi-day festival of patriotism, politics, optimism and self-congratulation.

All of that will be on display on January 21, when President Barack Obama is publicly sworn in for his second four-year term. But this inauguration will be far less grand than Obama’s first in 2009, when a record 1.8 million visitors flooded the city to see the nation’s first black president take office.

WASHINGTON, Dec 26 (Reuters) – It is one of those occasions
that is quintessential Washington: the inauguration of a
president, a multi-day festival of patriotism, politics,
optimism and self-congratulation.

All of that will be on display on Jan. 21, when President
Barack Obama is publicly sworn in for his second four-year term.
But this inauguration will be far less grand than Obama’s first
in 2009, when a record 1.8 million visitors flooded the city to
see the nation’s first black president take office.

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – For 37 years straight, Joseph P. Riley Jr. has sat behind the mayor’s desk here, shaping this city and its budget.

On a recent afternoon, Riley, 69, reached for a draft copy of next year’s spending plan and wondered aloud about what might get cut should politicians in Washington fail to find an agreement this month, unleashing $600 billion worth of spending reductions and tax hikes next year.

WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – As television networks began
declaring that President Barack Obama had won re-election, the
most captivating televised drama Tuesday evening played out on
Fox News, where Republican strategist Karl Rove refused to
believe the race between Obama and Mitt Romney was over.

“I think this is premature,” said Rove, a former senior
adviser to George W. Bush and architect of Bush’s two successful
runs for the White House.

WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – In the final week of the U.S.
presidential campaign, one advertisement was on heavy rotation
in the swing state of Wisconsin. It featured three women named
Connie, Kim, and Anita who told viewers the reasons they were
switching their support from President Barack Obama to Mitt
Romney.

The Republican campaign hoped that women throughout America
would follow the lead of that trio, but Obama was able to
preserve his coalition of female voters en route to winning a
second term on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – On his road to re-election, President Barack Obama had one group that proved most difficult to woo of all: white men. But in the end, the first African-American president was able to withstand a flight of white male voters from his campaign where it mattered most.

Obama saw his support among the country’s second-largest voting group – white women are the largest – decline from 41 percent in 2008 to 36 percent in 2012. His gap in support among white men ballooned from 16 percentage points when he defeated Republican John McCain in 2008, to 21 percentage points in Tuesday’s contest against Republican Mitt Romney, according to Reuters/Ipsos Election Day polling.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Paul Ryan may have taken a punch. But Tuesday night was far from a definitive blow for Mitt Romney’s hard-driving presidential running mate, a veteran of Congress who according to one admirer is “just getting started.”

History hasn’t been kind to losing vice presidential candidates. Only two have gone on to become presidents themselves. The last two failed running mates were Sarah Palin and John Edwards – one went on to a reality television show, the other’s personal life turned out to be fit for a soap opera.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Paul Ryan may have taken a punch. But Tuesday night was far from a definitive blow for Mitt Romney’s hard-driving presidential running mate, a veteran of Congress who according to one admirer is “just getting started.”

History hasn’t been kind to losing vice presidential candidates. Only two have gone on to become presidents themselves. The last two failed running mates were Sarah Palin and John Edwards – one went on to a reality television show, the other’s personal life turned out to be fit for a soap opera.

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Eighty-six days
after Paul Ryan was introduced as Mitt Romney’s running mate
aboard the U.S.S. Wisconsin in Norfolk, Virginia, the Republican
vice presidential candidate returned to his home state of
Wisconsin late Monday night, putting an end to a marathon
stretch of campaigning with one final rally.

“We were in Nevada. We were in Iowa. We were in Ohio. We
were in Colorado,” the Wisconsin congressman said, checking off
the day’s stops before his arrival in the state, “but it is
really great to be back here in Packer land, God’s country, back
here in Wisconsin,” Ryan said.