U.S. presidential elections come in two parts, the preliminary or nominating phase in the form of state caucuses and primaries, followed by the general election. The latter is considered the main event. This year, though, it’s the preliminaries that may prove to be decisive. In them, the GOP candidates are staking out such uniformly far-right [...]

My local paper informed me Feb. 8 that Rick Santorum was the top vote-getter in Minnesota, capturing 45 per cent of the votes cast in the state’s Republican presidential caucuses. But 45 percent of what? Finding out basic information about the contest was a day-long task. A Google search yielded nothing about the number of [...]

“Awww, shucky ducky!” as Herman Cain would say. I was so hoping that Donald Trump would have used his Las Vegas platform to endorse Newt Gingrich. He had hinted at it, but no. The “Celebrity Apprentice” maestro (and don’t you know it will be premiering soon) endorsed Mitt Romney instead. With Romney’s easy Nevada victory, [...]

How much longer will Republican presidential candidates pretend that George W. Bush doesn’t exist? Mitt Romney’s victory speech in Florida is a case in point. Romney tore Barack Obama limb from limb on joblessness and other issues, but never once acknowledged that what preceded Obama’s election might have had a bearing on his record. Leaving [...]

By all accounts Newt Gingrich’s debating performance had a lot to do with his big win in South Carolina‘s presidential primary. That’s unfortunate because debating has nothing to do with governing. When was the last time an incumbent president engaged in an actual non-electoral debate with anyone? But now that debates have taken on added [...]

I got an email from my nephew Daniel Sussman the screenwriter. He has been living in Greece for a while and thus has a calm, detached perspective on what’s going on in American politics. He wrote: Okay, maybe this is naive, but… Just about every sane person is (or a significant number of people are) [...]

DES MOINES – A friend in California asked about the ballyhooed Iowa Republican caucuses: “What do Democrats do on Tuesday?” A reasonable question. My answer: At my precinct more than 300 Democrats showed up for voting in the 2008 caucuses. In 2010 as I remember it, about a dozen were there, including several kids getting [...]

Mark Shields and David Brooks agreed the other evening on the PBS Newshour that the country was indebted to well-educated Iowans for their splendid show of citizenship in conscientiously attending campaign events and subjecting candidates to informed questioning. Shields and Brooks didn’t happen to wonder where these wonderful, public spirited, Iowans are when the caucuses [...]

“The House Republican leader on Sunday flatly rejected a short-term, bipartisan Senate measure to extend a payroll tax break and unemployment insurance, setting the stage for a bitter year-end collision and the potential loss of benefits for millions of Americans. “In an interview on ’Meet the Press on NBC, John A. Boehner, the House speaker…..” [...]

Another debate, another round of Obama bashing. The audience barely had settled in their seats Dec. 10 when Newt Gingrich excoriated Obama for a jobs plan consisting of “higher taxes, more regulation, no American energy, and attack(ing) people who create jobs with class warfare.” I counted at least 25 separate assaults on Obama or his [...]