The Republican presidential field looks unusually diverse this cycle — an African-American (Ben Carson), an Indian-American (Bobby Jindal), a woman (Carly Fiorina) and a Hispanic, or, if you prefer, a Cuban (Marco Rubio). One candidate is married to a Hispanic originally from Mexico (Jeb Bush). There is even a Canadian in the field. Oh, wait. […]
Battles for the Republican presidential nomination almost always come down to two alternatives — an establishment-backed candidate with pragmatic instincts and an insurgent (often significantly more conservative) who tries to appeal to constituencies that feel ignored. And except for 1964, when an insurgent Barry Goldwater defeated a slew of establishment opponents, and, possibly, 1980, the […]
Fox News and CNN, which will broadcast the first two GOP presidential debates, have decided on a system for excluding candidates that could result in Donald Trump participating in those debates but current or former senators and governors being excluded. Nice going, guys. I certainly agree having a debate with 16 candidates is simply unwatchable, […]
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is a bit of a conundrum. He is a conservative who graduated from Brown University, a bastion of political correctness and the political left. A Rhodes scholar who criticized those in his own party for expressing views he called “offensive and bizarre,” Jindal is spending plenty of time talking about his […]
“Perpetually in motion, Kasich is a whirlwind of restless energy and is sometimes criticized for being cocky,” reads the 1996 Politics in America profile of the then-Ohio congressman. The 1992 edition of The Almanac of American Politics described John R. Kasich as “peppery and brash, spewing forth ideas, a fair percentage of which are good […]
For all her recent efforts to prove her progressive credentials to Democratic primary voters and caucus participants, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has not made those on her party’s left entirely comfortable with her. And she never will. Because of that, a credible alternative would have the capacity to rally progressive Democrats behind […]
Reporters love to write about money in politics, so I shouldn’t have been at all surprised by an April 20 Washington Post article suggesting campaign finance is becoming an issue in the presidential contest. But a front-page story above the fold that relied on a couple of anecdotes and never came close to demonstrating that […]
The first time I met Ted Cruz, he argued with me. The second time I met Ted Cruz, he argued with me. It wasn’t personal, of course. Ted Cruz simply loves to argue. Those two incidents told me a lot about Cruz. The first time was at an event in Florida in February 2012, months […]
Millions of people have talked about the presidential contenders on Facebook as they officially launch campaigns. But despite some gaudy numbers, context and limits of the data cast doubt on the impact Facebook conversations will have on the race. In the 24 hours surrounding Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s Monday speech in Miami announcing his bid […]