Recent News

Businessman Donald Trump leads retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, 22 percent to 18 percent, according to WBUR’s first poll of the race.

At 27 percent nationally, Donald Trump maintains his frontrunner status among Republican primary voters, but Ben Carson is now close behind him, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.

Poll: Hillary Clinton’s support falls by 21 points as Donald Trump gains

Hillary Clinton’s support has fallen by 21 percentage points since July, according to the latest national ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday.

Meanwhile, support for Donald Trump has surged to 33 percent, a 9-point jump during the same period and a further sign that the billionaire business mogul is in a commanding position in the Republican primary ahead of this week’s GOP debate.

A lot of the support for Donald Trump is fueled by outrage against the Republican establishment. But those who ask us to understand this anger—as if it were a totally new phenomenon that none of us had ever noticed before—are ignoring the fact that Trump divides the right just as much as the establishment does.

Candidates for their party’s nomination in 2016 began the process with certain assumptions and strategies, all hoping their plans would work well enough to eventually put them in the White House. As the summer campaign season draws to a close, however, it’s become clear for some that earlier assumptions were wrong, strategic decisions didn’t pan out the way it was hoped, and some serious changes may be in order.

Several stories this morning highlight some of these strategic errors and shifts, ... Read More >>

Rand Paul plans to run TV ad during next GOP debate

Rand Paul plans to air a television ad in Iowa and New Hampshire during next week’s Republican presidential debate — a modest bet that intense interest in the televised debates can revive his lagging poll numbers.

As current New Jersey Republican Chris Christie struggles to qualify for next week’s prime-time debate on CNN, other candidates are just hoping to achieve relevance and rise past (or even get to) the 1 percent level in polls. Several “super PACs” plan to ride to the rescue to boost these faltering candidates’ chances (super PACs can raise unlimited contributions but cannot legally coordinate their efforts with campaigns, although the definition of “coordinate” is a bit tricky). Here’s a sample of ... Read More >>