Washington, Sept. 15 : Karl Rove, the man credited with getting President Bush elected twice, has warned both Democrats and Republicans that they are making a mistake by using advertising to attack their respective candidates.

Political strategist Karl Rove said Obama may not have consciously wanted to attribute Palin with porcine traits when he used the “lipstick on a pig” analogy to describe the McCain campaign’s policies, but it sure looked like “a deliberate slap” at the Alaska governor.

Washington, Sep 15 : American public sentiment is moving in Republicans’ direction despite Democrats having the money and reach to add substantially to their House majority in November, according to a poll that suggests the GOP could limit those gains.

An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted between September 5-10 found Republicans trailing Democrats by just five percentage points when likely voters were asked which party they want to control Congress next year.

That is a substantial improvement from the double-digit disadvantage Republicans were suffering in most public polls so far this year, although the boost could prove fleeting, FOX News reported.

New York, Sept. 15 : Barack Obama and John McCain are engaged in a rhetorical battle over who is further out of touch with ordinary Americans.

According to a FOX News report, each is attempting to cast his presidential ticket as the force for reform in Washington.

Though the candidates diverge sharply over taxes, Iraq, diplomacy, abortion and other issues, a week after the close of the GOP national convention both candidates are trying to run on an increasingly similar message, with McCain even borrowing some of Obama’s phrases to make his case.

Obama, speaking at a rally in Manchester, N. ew Hampshire on Saturday., accused McCain of being divorced from current economic troubles.

New York, Sept 14 : Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who is said to be instrumental in the reversal of positions of Barack Obama and John McCain in the presidential race, has reportedly fired a salvo at Barack Obama on not picking up Senator Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

New York, Sept. 14 : Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain has drawn an avalanche of criticism for regularly stretching the truth in attacking Senator Barack Obama’s record and positions.

According to the New York Times, McCain has found himself under particularly heavy fire for a pair of headline-grabbing attacks.

First, his campaign twisted Obama’s words to suggest that he had compared Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, to a pig with “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig.”

New York, Sept. 14 : In what can be described as its most hardest hitting criticism of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, the New York Times has said in an editorial that his decision to select Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, is “shockingly irresponsible”.