Spoiler alert: Trump will win Louisiana in November
Barring an event the magnitude of an asteroid colliding with Earth, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will carry Louisiana in November. And probably big. That was true before Trump banned...
View Article1792
(Credit: iStock) Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution, and in his farewell address to the nation in 1796, George Washington shows his contempt for them. He says, "However [political...
View ArticleI Was So Looking Forward to a Brokered GOP Convention
This article was first published in The Washington Spectator. When the end finally came, I felt like crying: first Ted Cruz, then John Kasich, pulling out of the presidential election, denying a...
View ArticleAmerica's Bizarre, Brawl-Filled History of Contested Conventions
Every presidential election cycle, political pundits bay for a contested convention. For younger electoral observers, it's partly the novelty of the idea; the last party conventions with any real drama...
View ArticlePhilly’s conventions: Civil rights, TV, heat dominate 1948 meetings (National...
(Source: National Constitution Center) The City of Brotherly Love hosted three presidential nominating conventions in 1948, as television first affected the national meetings, which were held in...
View ArticleHow All Those Other States Spoiled California's Primary Story
i In 1992, candidate Bill Clinton, seen here in Los Angeles a few days before California's primary, surprised some people by defeating former (and future) California Gov. Jerry Brown. Even if Brown had...
View ArticleDonald Trump Is No 'Good Soldier'
Many in the GOP High Command are distraught that their party's frontrunner for the 2016 Presidential nomination, real estate magnate Donald Trump, will not agree emphatically to support the party's...
View ArticleA Century of GOP Intra-Party Wars Sets Stage for Cleveland Convention
This year's campaign is headed toward an epic clash of Republicanism at the Cleveland convention this Summer. But it's not the first time party has been rocked by turbulence ahead of its convention....
View ArticleIntraparty civil wars are nothing new
The acrimony witnessed in the 2016 Republican Primary season is nothing new. Although the Trump campaign has delved into new levels of vulgarity, both Republican and Democratic Parties have experienced...
View ArticleWhy Republicans will lose the presidency in 2016
Every now and then in American politics, political parties enter their presidential nominating conventions deeply, deeply divided. And when they are deeply divided, they lose. Conventions, rather than...
View ArticleWhy the 2016 Election Will Be One of the Most Pivotal Moments of Our Time
More than 150 years ago, in 1858, as the national crisis over slavery heightened, Abraham Lincoln famously remarked that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," and that the "crisis" would be...
View ArticleOnly in America: The peculiar pitfalls of a US presidential election
(CNN)The road to the White House is filled with potholes, and navigating it is a delicate dance unlike any other in the world. Misjudge a moment or say the wrong thing and a US candidate can quickly...
View ArticleHow the GOP Went South
“In Birmingham they love the governor.” —Lynyrd Skynyrd By joining the Republican Party, once hated in Dixie for being the party of Lincoln and subsequent carpetbaggers, the South helped transform the...
View ArticleDonors to the 2015 Empty Stocking Fund campaign
Amount raised so far: $529,942.05 For Hariri Family $50 Lisa Goss $50 Jim & Patty Henderlite $100 Mildred Forbidussi $100 Michael Cooning $100 In memory of Billie & Freda $100 Colin Smith $50...
View ArticleThomas Suddes commentary: In Ohio, third parties pack quite a punch
As every armchair strategist knows, Ohio is a battleground state. That’s because it’s a closely divided state politically. That’s also why no one should downplay the potential effect, on the Hillary...
View ArticleHillary’s Risky ‘Deplorables’ Strategy
Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” moment blew up on the campaign trail last weekend like the major gaffe everyone had been waiting for. Donald Trump had new ammunition for the home stretch — a...
View ArticleAmerica's Forgotten Visionary Politician
Henry Wallace with Franklin D. Roosevelt Henry Wallace, who died 50 years ago this week (November 18, 1965), was one of the most fascinating and controversial political figures in American history. One...
View Article'All the Way' at the Cleveland Play House: Towering performance by Steve...
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Like the hint of a career-ending scandal, the question dogging Robert Schenkkan's political drama "All the Way" into regional houses is whether the play can hold a crowd without...
View ArticleBehind the biggest upset in presidential history: Truman beats Dewey...
(Source: National Constitution Center) In the legacy of presidential history, Harry Truman may be best remembered by one photograph. So how did the 33rd president wind up holding a newspaper that...
View Article‘Virtuecrats’ may bring on President Trump
Virtuecrat – (noun): A sanctimonious person, usu. of the political left. The Harvard Dictionary of Political Eccentricities. Welcome, friends, to the world of the virtuecrats. You may find their school...
View ArticleAir Force staff sergeant promotion list for August, 2015
The U.S. Air Force's list of airmen promoted to staff sergeant, as released on Aug. 20, 2015. Abadia Christopher Abarawa Emmanuel K Abbott Daniel Patr Abdullah Malizio J Abendroth Marie Ch Abesamis...
View ArticleA Trump-Clinton Matchup Would be a Trip Back to the Future in Foreign Affairs
Republican Presidential front-runner Donald Trump harbors an aversion to military interventions. This is out-of-step with contemporary mainstream thinking in the Republican Party. Yet...
View ArticleRepublicans call porn a 'public health crisis' that's 'destroying lives'
Republicans are taking a cue from Utah in drafting their official party platform. An amendment to the platform, which will come up for a vote Monday or Tuesday, cracks down on the porn industry. SEE...
View ArticleTrump Supporter's Lies About The KKK Reflect Standard GOP Talking Points
Let's talk about the past, and let's talk about the present. Let's talk about racist terrorism, the Ku Klux Klan, and segregation. Let's talk about progressives and right wingers, and the Democratic...
View ArticleAmerican crossroads: Reagan, Trump and the devil down south
How the Republican party’s dog-whistle appeal to racism, refined by Richard Nixon and perfected by Ronald Reagan, led inexorably to Donald Trump...
View ArticleThe Greatest Presidential Comebacks
Heading into election day in 1948, most everyone seemed certain that incumbent Democratic President Harry Truman was headed for electoral demise. “We wish Mr. Dewey well without too much enthusiasm,”...
View Article10 of the most bizarre elections in American history
(CNN)The 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush is perhaps the craziest, most controversial election in U.S. history. We say perhaps because we don't want to bog you down with superlatives...
View ArticleTrump Year in Perspective
This is the year of Trump, and a few people have asked me about historical precedents. Actually, to be blunt, they pleaded, "Has it ever been this bad?" Let's start with nasty presidential elections....
View ArticleThe Worst Convention in U.S. History?
Donald Trump is thrilled with how the 2016 Republican National Convention went this week. It was, he said at a campaign event in Cleveland on Friday, “one of the best conventions ever.” The four days...
View ArticleIs nomination for vice president automatically a big political lift? Franklin...
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Common theory is that a vice presidential nomination can be a boost to eventually becoming president. But in reality, it's winning that matters. The last 23 losing vice presidential...
View ArticleThink RNC 2016 was goofy? Check out these political convention blasts from...
PHILADELPHIA — Well the convention Republicans just had in Cleveland won't soon be forgotten. A controversial candidate. A fractured party. A media spotlight hotter than a day in the desert. And...
View ArticleTrump Staffer Says Kanye West Is Not “Traditionally American” Enough to...
Many cynics will tell you that the key to politics is learning how to spin a good euphemism—and though Donald Trump has yet to grasp that art, he has, indeed, filled his orbit with a small collection...
View ArticleSamantha Bee Thinks Kellyanne Conway Should Be President
Samantha Bee is nothing if not an equal opportunity feminist: she’s down to praise women on either side of the aisle for their achievements. She proved that on Wednesday night, when she (sort of)...
View ArticleStephen Colbert Blasts Donald Trump for Thinking Presidents Get Weekends Off
Inauguration Day is but a few breaths away. Soon, our weary nation will find out what our incoming president, Donald Trump, has in store—that is, after the weekend. Because presidents get Saturdays and...
View ArticleSeth Meyers Dissects the Absurdity Behind Donald Trump’s Attack on John Lewis
On Monday night, Seth Meyers dedicated the front half of his “Closer Look” segment to unpacking all of the incongruities that lie within President-Elect Donald Trump’s tweets insulting Georgia...
View ArticleWhy Seth Meyers Wants to Retire the Phrase ”Fake News”
As other late-night hosts were making pee jokes about Donald Trump Wednesday night—and who can blame them!—one of their peers had a real point to make. While discussing Trump’s press conference...
View ArticleHow Hard Will Trump Nemesis Seth Meyers Be on Kellyanne Conway Tonight?
Some samples: “Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke.” “Donald Trump often appears on Fox,...
View ArticleSeth Meyers Refuses to Be Distracted by Donald Trump’s Tweets
It can be easy to get caught up in the accessible drama of Donald Trump’s Twitter feuds, but it’s important to remember that there are other, far more pressing Trump-related stories unfolding this...
View ArticleDavid Axelrod: Obama's legacy can't be erased
(CNN)The walls, just days earlier bedecked with portraits of President Obama at work, were covered with empty frames, awaiting a new leading man. The hallways that had been buzzing with energy were...
View ArticleAfter Trump Dossier Leaks, Pee Jokes Are the No. 1 Story on Late Night
“I think this is just an unfortunate leak that’s making a huge mess,” Colbert said. “And I know I’m being a wet blanket, but reporting on this is the worst kind of yellow journalism. And even though...
View ArticleWho Stopped McCarthy?
So fixated are we now on the divisions between the two major parties that we forget how often internal divisions within one party or the other shape political outcomes. A rich history could be written...
View ArticleWhen JFK Won by Losing
Facebook Twitter Google + Email Comment Print Although he would not run for president until 1960, John F. Kennedy began speculating with family members and aides as early as 1954, when he was a...
View ArticleWhy Is the Media Rooting for GOP Chaos?
No event in politics is more covered or more newsless than a modern political convention—which is why, every four years, we yearn for an old-fashioned floor fight. Every four years, CSPAN plays an...
View ArticleThree options for Republicans plotting a Trump counterattack
(CNN)The political community's dominant reaction to high-level Republicans like Sen. Jeff Flake and former President George W. Bush denouncing President Donald Trump has been that the attacks only...
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