Week In The News: Campaign Intensifies, Goldman Man To Jail, Rape Comments

The campaign down to its last dozen days.  God, rape, and Indiana.  An ex-Goldman board member sentenced to jail. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

All the stops pulled out this week on the presidential campaign trail.  Mitt Romney talking big change and claiming big momentum.  Barack Obama saying we can’t let that happen, and getting out the vote.

Out of nowhere, rape is back.  And God’s intention for women to carry those pregnancies, says a Romney-backed Republican.  The campaign cost tops two billion.  Polls, neck and neck.  Foreign policy comes and goes.  Trump weighs in.

This hour, On Point:  a week in the news.  Our news roundtable goes behind the headlines.
-Tom Ashbrook

Molly Ball, staff writer covering national politics at The Atlantic.

Christina Bellantoni, politics editor at PBS NewsHour.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

New York Times "Behold the coveted female swing voter of 2012. She has slipped a rung or two down the economic ladder from the soccer moms of the more prosperous 1990s, as indicated by her new nickname — waitress mom. Rather than ferrying children around the suburbs in minivans, she is spinning in the hamster wheel of a tight economy and not getting ahead."

Wall Street Journal "The declaration differs sharply from those of several other business groups, which urge Washington to deal with the deficit and avoid across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases set for year-end—but avoid any stance on the politically charged issue of raising taxes."

The Atlantic "A giant chalkboard takes up a wall in this unassuming office suite hung with Obama signs, one of more than 60 campaign offices for the president in this battleground state. On it is drawn a calendar of the final weeks before the election. Phone banks, canvasses, and campaign events are marked in color-coded chalk. And every Saturday through Nov. 6, in capital letters, is marked "DRY RUN" — a precision-timed Election Day simulation drill, where everything from data reporting to snacks is rehearsed down to the minute."