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October 25, 2012 | | Election Follies Ann Coulter calls Obama a ‘retard.’ Then there’s Gloria Allred, TMZ, and a divorce. They and others are turning the final two weeks of the presidential race into a circus. The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz on the nuttiness factor. EXIT INTERVIEW Hillary Clinton is certainly keeping them guessing. The Secretary of State told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Thursday that it’s “unlikely” that she’ll remain at the State Department after the election, but she admitted that “a lot of people have talked about me staying.” While Clinton laughs at the possibility of a 2016 run for president, she conceded that “I will always want to be in service to my country.” Clinton said this period, the days and weeks following the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three others, has been one of the “most challenging” of her tenure. Political Football Democrats and some Republicans are rushing to condemn the Senate candidate’s claim about rape-produced pregnancies, but abuse survivors and crisis workers charge that politicians are using a critical issue to posture, raise funds, and win elections. The Daily Beast’s Allison Yarrow reports. THE NUMBERS With two weeks to go until the big day, the presidential race is closer than ever. Gone are the days of Romney’s wide lead or Obama’s wide lead—a Washington Post/ABC News poll found the race almost tied at 49 percent for Romney and 48 percent for Obama (and within the poll’s margin of error). The key battlefield seems to be Ohio, where a Time magazine poll along with a CBS News/Quinnipiac poll showed Obama holding a 5-point lead. Another survey out today by Gallup gave Romney a lead of 3 points countrywide, just outside the 3-point margin of error. NO TRUCE Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fired rockets and shelled Damascus on Thursday, despite plans for a United Nations-brokered cease-fire for the Muslim holiday of Eid. Opposition activists said more than five people were killed. In the suburb of Harasta, fighting erupted after rebels overran two army roadblocks , with one Damascus resident said the area is being “pummeled” by tanks and rocket launches. A previous truce in April collapsed after days, and some residents said that “no one is taking the ceasefire seriously.” Opposition activists told Al Jazeera that at least 25 people, including women and children, were killed in Douma, a Damascus suburb. | | 
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