Charles Babington

WASHINGTON — Key proposals from the Republican presidential candidates might make for good campaign fodder. But independent analyses raise serious questions about those plans and their ability to cure the nation’s ills in two vital areas, the economy and housing.

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Saturday denounced “poisonous language” against faiths as he grappled with a flare-up over religion sparked by a prominent supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, his rival. Perry steered well clear of that simmering issue and pushed another hot button instead: Social Security.

With many Republican voters pushing for ever-purer conservatism, the two requirements sometimes stand in conflict. The candidate who best figures out how to appeal to that audience without abandoning his own record is likely to win the nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

EXETER, N.H. -- Despite a new rival's surge, Mitt Romney is campaigning as though he's still the GOP presidential front-runner, focusing his criticisms on President Barack Obama, taking few risks and keeping most proposals vague enough to leave ample maneuvering room.

That may change soon, however, as events shift the contest to a higher gear. September will bring several GOP debates that will include Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the first time, as well as renewed attention to the question of how to create desperately needed jobs.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans control neither the House nor the Senate -- and certainly not the White House. But they largely dictated the terms of President Barack Obama's proposed tax-cut compromise, which disgruntled congressional Democrats want to discuss in closed meetings that are likely to be rowdy.

Republicans prevailed on their biggest demand: continuing Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, despite Obama's 2008 campaign promise to let them expire for households earning more than $250,000 a year. Obama, while acknowledging Democratic unrest, agreed to extend the tax breaks for two years, whereas Republicans wanted a permanent extension.

WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton, out of the Oval Office for nearly a decade and once considered a political liability, is campaigning for Democratic candidates at a pace no one can match, drawing big crowds and going to states that President Barack Obama avoids.