WASHINGTON The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.

Nothing inspires Democrats like the Barack Obama swagger — the supreme self-confidence on stage, the self-certainty in private. So nothing inspires more angst than when that same Obama stumbles, as he has leaving the gate in 2012.

RICHMOND Richmond police are investigating allegations that two officers made "inappropriate comments" during President Obama's recent visit.

The presidential race remains a dead heat in North Carolina, according to a poll released today. Republican Mitt Romney took 45 percent of the vote and 44 percent went to President Barack Obama in the SurveyUSA poll. The rest of those polled were undecided or supported another candidate. Independents broke 45-32 for Romney.

By Ken Thomas WASHINGTON President Barack Obama holds a cash advantage of more than 2-to-1 over Republican challenger Mitt Romney but the president's money advantage is beginning to dwindle. Obama's campaign reported $115.1 million in the bank through April and the Democratic National Committee had about $24.2 million in its account at the end of last month.

NORFOLK President Barack Obama's re-election campaign launched a national "Veterans and Military Families for Obama" effort on the city's waterfront Thursday night, and Republicans countered with news conferences criticizing the president's record on veterans affairs.

President Barack Obama's lead over Republican Mitt Romney in North Carolina has shrunk to a statistical dead heat, according to a poll on the race for the White House released today.

By Philip Elliott  CHARLOTTE, N.C.  George W. Bush finally weighed on the presidential race — with four short words. "I'm for Mitt Romney," the former president said Tuesday in Washington as the doors of his elevator shut, perhaps his only statement of public opinion on the race before the Nov. 6 election.

By Philip Elliott  WASHINGTON  An independent group favoring Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney is launching a $25 million, monthlong advertising campaign in 10 states against President Barack Obama, further escalating an expensive TV ad war in presidential battlegrounds six months before Election Day.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama delighted his liberal base by coming down on the side of gay marriage, but he cheered the opposition, too. Republican activists now want to use Obama's stance on the issue — public opinion is about evenly split — to paint the president as a flip-flopper and to boost Mitt Romney's image in the eyes of conservatives who are still warming to him.