Recent News

Mike Huckabee, looking for a niche, woos blacks in GOP primaries

Mike Huckabee journeyed to this rural hamlet recently to preach. Huckabee is white, a former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister, yet here he was standing at the pulpit of a predominantly black church delivering a sermon about the nation’s race problem.

Trump’s rise hurts Rubio, Carson; helps Jeb Bush

Donald Trump’s explosive rise in the polls has come at the expense of every other GOP presidential candidate except for Jeb Bush and Scott Walker — who arguably have been helped by the businessman’s rise.

2016 Endorsements: How and Why They Matter

William “Boss” Tweed captured the importance of the nominating process when he said that he didn’t care who did the electing, as long as he got to do the nominating. The choice of nominee can determine the future course and fortune of a party — such as whether it tilts right or left — and the likelihood of victory. No wonder the political scientist Nelson Polsby described nominating candidates as the central purpose of a political party.

Crowded Field of Dreams

Some 20 minutes after an appearance at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, that would dominate the news in the coming days, Donald Trump walked into the industrial-looking basement area designated for press conferences, surrounded by tough-looking men in slick business suits, ostensibly there to provide security but whose real role, one suspects, was to make the man they were following feel important. A wooden podium faced nearly a dozen television cameras and twice as many journalists, all arrayed in a semicircle about 10 feet away.

Candidates Scramble to Make Republican Debates

The first Republican debate will be held on Aug. 6 in Cleveland. Because only the top 10 candidates according to national polls will be on stage, six candidates and possibly seven (if Jim Gilmore enters the race by that date) will likely miss the cutoff. (“Likely” because in the event of a tie for 10th place, the tied candidates will be allowed on stage.)

Politico has an interesting article on several of the candidates who could be excluded from the first ... Read More >>

Donald Trump surging in New Hampshire, Iowa

Donald Trump has surged to the lead in the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary and virtually erased Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s advantage in the Iowa caucuses, according to new NBC News/Marist polls released Sunday.

Trump dominates GOP field in name ID

Donald Trump is the best-known Republican candidate in the last two weeks, while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is second, according to the results of a Gallup tracking poll of Republicans and Republican-leaners out Friday.