Barack Obama has won the presidential elections but an ongoing battle has been happening between Apple and Samsung. The iPad Mini has been launched by Apple and consumers are becoming more aware of Apple’s legal team, increasingly becoming notorious for their allegations. It wouldn’t be surprising if Apple even went after makers of iPad mini cases and other accessories for their popular iProducts for infringing some kind of legal issue….

Fortunately, similar to the elections, consumers still have a choice. Which do you prefer? The new iPad mini or the Samsung Galaxy Note?

President Obama and Mitt Romney have both hired influential lawyers to deal with any potential dispute following the Nov. 6 election.

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have both hired lawyers to defend their interests should a dispute arise or a recount be necessary following the Nov. 6 presidential contest.

Mr. Romney‘s top choice is Benjamin Ginsberg who served for eight years as counsel to the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee before joining law firm and lobbyist Patton Boggs.

Mr. Obama has hired Robert Bauer, a former partner at Perkins Coie. Bauer has advised President Obama since he came to Washington, D.C. in 2005 as a U.S. senator. He was also President Obama‘s personal attorney and the general counsel of the Obama for America presidential campaign before his appointment as White House Counsel in Nov. 2009. He also acted as general counsel to the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Ginsberg and Bauer were instrumental in setting up the framework of the three presidential and the vice-presidential debates in October. Both men are expected to play a major role in settling any dispute which may arise in the wake of a close election result. Most polls continue to show Messrs. Obama and Romney in a virtual tie.

Ginsberg and Bauer were both involved in the 2000 Florida presidential ballot fiasco which opposed Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and his Democratic opponent Al Gore. Mr. Bush eventually won the Sunshine State after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court which had proposed that a recount should take place.

“They are all bracing for Florida in 2000 – everyone wants to be in position so as not to be disadvantaged by a court decision in a tie. This [is] a preventive strategy. They are largely in search of problems that don’t yet exist. It’s like the Cold War and nuclear capability. You want to have what the other guy has,” John McCain‘s 2008 campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, explained.

Both teams are confident that they have adequate legal representation to deal with any conflict which may emerge should the outcome of the contest be very close.

“We have all the resources and infrastructure we need for any potential dispute or recount,” a Romney campaign representative said.

“We have the machinery in place to avoid problems. You hope for the best and prepare for the worst. We’re ready for anything,” Steve Rosenthal for the Obama campaign stated.

The U.S. Navy is currently the smallest it has been since the United States declared war on Germany in 1917.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney criticized President Barack Obama on Monday night for neglecting the U.S. Navy during his first term. Both men were taking part in the third and final presidential debate ahead of the Nov. 6 contest.

“[…] our Navy is smaller now than any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We’re now down to 285. We’re headed down to the low 200s if we go through with sequestration. That’s unacceptable to me. I want to make sure that we have the ships that are required by our Navy,” Mr. Romney told Mr. Obama.

The incumbent president immediately dismissed the former Massachusetts governor’s concerns and implied that his Republican opponent was out of touch with reality.

“[…] I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines,” President Obama replied sarcastically.

According to The New York Times, the Navy is currently the smallest it has been since the United States declared war on Germany in 1917. At the time, the Navy boasted 342 ships. As at Dec. 31, 2011, only 285 were in operation.

Mr. Romney also criticized Mr. Obama for allowing the U.S. Air Force to become smaller and older than at any time since it was established in 1947.

“[…] we’ve always had the strategy of saying we could fight in two conflicts at once. Now we’re changing to one conflict,” the former governor complained.

As president, Mr. Romney pledged to keep American citizens safe and to ensure that the Pentagon‘s budget would not be slashed, emphasizing that the Obama administration’s policies were making the nation’s future “less certain and less secure.”

Mr. Obama insisted that his policies did not prevent the country from meeting its crucial defense needs. He also reiterated that Mr. Romney’s proposed budget was totally inadequate.

Source: Public Policy Polling, Oct. 14, 2012.

According to the latest poll, Mr. Romney currently garners the support of 49 percent of the electorate, while Mr. Obama is the favorite of 47 percent of those questioned. In a separate poll released at the end of September, PPP found that both candidates were in a tie (48 vs. 48 percent) whereas, at the beginning of that same month, another PPP survey showed Mr. Obama with a one percentage point lead (49 vs. 48 percent).

“North Carolina continues to look like one of the closest states in the country. But things are trending a little bit in Mitt Romney‘s direction and Obama needs a strong performance Tuesday night to get things going back in the other direction,” PPP President Dean Debnam remarks.

Public Policy Polling also shows the reasons why the former Massachusetts governor has overtaken the incumbent president. Mr. Romney currently garners the support of 63 percent of white voters, 30 percentage points more than his Democratic opponent. He also leads Mr. Obama by a comfortable 14 points (54 vs. 40 percent) among Independent voters.

The majority (49 percent) of the participants now view the Republican nominee in a favorable way, although 46 percent continue to hold a negative opinion of him. Two weeks ago, 49 percent of the respondents had a negative opinion of him. With regard to Mr. Obama’s performance, 48 percent believe he has been doing a good job, while 50 percent think otherwise.

Although those questioned feel Vice President Joe Biden won last Tuesday’s presidential debate, the same proportion (47 percent) view him positively and negatively. In contrast, Mr. Romney’s running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, is considered favorably by 48 percent of those questioned.

Source: Public Policy Polling, Oct. 14, 2012.

Over three quarters (80 percent) of those polled said they were “very excited” (68 percent) or “somewhat excited” (21 percent) about the presidential contest. Only 12 percent stated that they were “not at all excited.”

Fifty-four percent (54%) of the respondents were female and 46 percent were male. Eighty-five percent of the participants were aged 30 or over.

Source: The MassINC Polling Group.

The survey found that, were the presidential election held today, Mr. Romney would garner the support of a mere 36 percent of the Bay State voters, while the incumbent president remains the favorite of 52 percent of the electorate. Nine percent (9%) of the participants told the pollsters that they had yet to choose who they would be voting for in early November.

The respondents were also asked their views about the Supreme Court. The majority (43 percent) indicated that they approved of the way it was handling its job, while 35 percent expressed disapproval. Twenty-two percent (22%) either had no opinion or refused to answer. In addition, around a quarter of those questioned told the pollsters that the court was either too conservative (24 percent) or too liberal (22 percent). The majority (42 percent) felt it was “about right.”

A second poll conducted by the Western New England University Polling Institute between Sept. 28 and Oct. 4 found that President Obama‘s lead over Mr. Romney was even more significant. Indeed, 63 percent of those interviewed by the institute expressed support for Mr. Obama, whereas Mr. Romney was the favorite of only 33 percent of the respondents.

The former Massachusetts governor has never been massively popular in the Bay State, where Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one. Around 50 percent of voters view him negatively, while 35 percent have a positive opinion of him.

Ben Bernanke denies that the Federal Reserve's monetary policies are devaluing the dollar.

Following Texas Congressman Ron Paul‘s recent criticism of the Federal Reserve‘s monetary policy, its chairman, Ben Bernanke, gave a speech to the Economic Club of Indiana on Monday to justify the U.S. central bank’s recent decision to launch a third round of quantitative easing, also known as QE3.

The Federal Reserve announced on Sept. 13 that it would purchase $40 billion worth of mortgage debt every month for the foreseeable future in order to help lower interest rates. In a piece published on his website a week ago, Dr. Paul strongly criticized the U.S. central bank for continuously attempting to tweak interest rates and for setting them at artificially low levels.

“The Fed has interfered with the proper function of interest rates for decades, but perhaps never as boldly as it has in the past few years through its policies of quantitative easing,” Dr. Paul pointed out.

Mr. Bernanke was also keen to point out that the Federal Reserve’s actions had not resulted in “increased inflation.” Although official figures suggest that this is the case, ordinary Americans are likely to disagree with the central bank’s chairman that prices have remained stable over the past few years. Dr. Paul certainly believes that U.S. households are paying the price of such policies through inflation and the devaluation of the U.S. dollar.

“Wall Street and the banking system gain the use of the new credit before prices rise. Main Street, however, sees the prices rise before they are able to take advantage of the newly-created credit. The purchasing power of the dollar is eroded and the standard of living of the American people drops,” Dr Paul wrote last week.

Mr. Bernanke also rejected criticism that the Fed’s policy encouraged “bad fiscal policy by keeping interest rates very low and thereby making it cheaper for the federal government to borrow,” and that, “Responsibility for fiscal policy lies squarely with the Administration and the Congress.”

Dr. Paul agrees in a way. He believes that unless Congress reins in the Federal Reserve, the economy will never truly recover.

One of the billboards which greeted President Obama when he visited Wisconsin on Saturday.

President Barack Obama told supporters in Wisconsin on Saturday that he needed another term in office in order to change the way Washington does business. Mr. Obama was introduced to the crowd by Hall of Fame baseball player Hank Aaron.

“From the day we began this campaign, but more importantly, from the day I ran for this office last year – or four years ago, it seems like just last year – I’ve always said that change is going to take more than one term and more than one president, and it takes more than one party,” the president told supporters in Milwaukee.

Mr. Obama also reiterated his claim that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would pursue top-down economic policies if he were to win the Nov. 6 contest. According to Mr. Obama and the Democrats, this would include cutting taxes on the wealthy and asking the less well-off to pay for these tax breaks.

In addition, Mr. Obama insists that the electorate, and the electorate alone, can put an end to the congressional deadlock that has plagued Washington for the past couple of years.

“So we’ve got what it takes to succeed. But what’s preventing us from realizing all that potential in part is the politics we’ve been seeing in Washington. And part of what this election is about is giving the American people a voice to break the deadlock and break the gridlock, and chart a course that may be harder but leads to a better place,” Mr. Obama told his audience.

Supporters of Mr. Romney believe the president’s trip to Wisconsin was driven by panic. Indeed, whereas Mr. Obama won the Badger State with a 14 percentage-point advantage in 2008, a recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP) found that the incumbent president’s lead over his GOP opponent had shrunk to a mere seven percent (7%). The Republicans believe Wisconsin voters have grown disillusioned with the president.

“President Obama‘s failure to turn around the economy and get America working again is the reason Wisconsin voters are looking for a different path,” Danny O’Driscoll, Romney’s campaign manager in the Badger State wrote in a memo.

“We’ve always thought Wisconsin would be harder for us this year than it was four years ago,” Mr. Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “We’re going to run here, like in any battleground states, like we’re five points behind until election day. Today is about energizing our supporters,” she explained.

Mr. Romney has held 15 events in the Badger State since the president’s last visit in February.

Susan Rice told ABC's Jake Tapper at the weekend that the U.S. were still highly considered in the Muslim world. Photo: ABC.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defended President Barack Obama‘s response to the anti-American unrest which has been spreading in North Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia following the recent release of the Arabic version of the film mocking Prophet Muhammad.

“What we’ve seen is that the president has been incredibly calm, incredibly steady, and incredibly measured in his approach to this set of developments,” she told ABC’s Jake Tapper at the weekend. The Republicans had criticized Mr. Obama for showing a weak leadership when responding to the anti-American protests.

Mrs. Rice pointed out that the various heads of states Mr. Obama had contacted since diplomatic compounds came under attack last Tuesday had all sternly denounced the violence targeting U.S. interests.

“His interventions, his leadership, has ensured that in Egypt, in Yemen, in Tunisia, in Libya, and many other parts of the world, that leaders have come out and made very plain that there’s no excuse for this violence,” she emphasized.

She also insisted that the protests only involved a tiny proportion of the local population and that the U.S. and the Obama administration were still highly considered in the Muslim world.

“President Obama picked up the phone and talked to President [Mohamed] Morsi in Egypt. And as soon as he did that, the security provided to our personnel in our embassies dramatically increased,” she stressed.

Mr. Obama also spoke to Libyan President Mohammed Maqrif and Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi earlier on this week.

Mr. Obama currently enjoys a slight advantage over his Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

A new Reuters / Ipsos poll released following the Democratic National Convention shows that President Barack Obama is benefiting from a small bounce less than two months ahead of the Nov. 6 presidential election.

According to the survey, Mr. Obama would garner the support of 47 percent of voters were the contest held today. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is currently the favorite of 43 percent of voters.

“The bump is actually happening. I know there was some debate whether it would happen… but it’s here,” Ipsos’ Julia Clark said.

Many political analysts were unsure whether the electorate would react positively to Mr. Obama‘s acceptance speech. In addition, the publication of disappointing job numbers on Friday confirmed that the economy was not growing as fast as necessary to absorb the number of Americans who are leaving the education system and entering the workforce. However, Ms. Clark points out, Mr. Obama may manage to retain his lead, although the state of the economy remains the number-one priority of most voters.

“We don’t have another convention now to turn our attention to, so [Mr. Obama's bounce] may maintain,” Clark said. “How big it’ll be and how long it will last remains to be seen,” she added. She also pointed out that the president’s current slight advantage is similar to the one Mr. Romney benefited from at the end of the Republican National Convention the previous week, although his lead evaporated rather quickly.

The survey also revealed that the majority (50 percent) of the participants viewed Mr. Obama as “eloquent,” while only 25 percent said so of Mr. Romney. Forty-six percent (46%) also said that Mr. Obama was “smart enough for the job,” whereas Mr. Romney only scored 37 percent in that area. The respondents also felt that the incumbent president represented America better than his Republican opponent.

In contrast, more participants (44 percent) were willing to describe Mr. Romney as a “man of faith,” whereas only 31 percent said so of Mr. Obama.

The poll also showed that the majority of Americans rated the two recent conventions as “average” – 41 percent of those questioned said so of the Democratic event while 38 percent said so of the Republican annual gathering. Just over a quarter of those interviewed described both events as “good.”