Articles

March 18, 2016

The “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC did their part on Thursday night to continue the standard set earlier in the day that President Barack Obama’s latest Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland is nothing but a “moderate” and personally pleaded with Republicans to consider placing him on the Court. While two networks mentioned comments made by current Vice…

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March 18, 2016

Donald Trump’s loss in winner-take-all Ohio keeps alive the possibility of a contested GOP convention that denies Trump the nomination. Last August, I pointed out that Trump could still run for president as an independent even if he lost the Republican nomination because the filing deadline for independents in every state is much later than for those who run in the…

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March 18, 2016

A bigger tent, Donald Trump as ringmaster—and an animal unlike the old elephant. Super Tuesday II didn’t so much yield results as reveal continuing trends. Donald Trump up, Hillary Clinton up. This is what I hear from Washington’s Republican political leaders and operatives: Wait and see. There’s still time for Mr. Trump to self-destruct, for voters to start to see…

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March 16, 2016

Quite a few Donald Trump fans are convinced that their man would beat Hillary Clinton resoundingly in a general election, carrying a slew of blue states where Republicans aren’t generally competitive in general elections. Wayne Allyn Root’s assessment is typical. “New York is only the start,” he wrote. Trump can win Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio, too, Root contends, because there…

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March 16, 2016

Students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., sing before Donald J. Trump delivers a speech on Jan. 18, 2016. Donald Trump’s candidacy has sparked a civil war inside American Christianity. Trump’s popularity among self-identified evangelical Christians has led national figures in American Christianity to question whether large swaths of the church even know what their faith teaches, and how it…

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March 16, 2016

Ted Cruz is now the flavor of the week. He has risen dramatically in polls, both nationally and in key states like Iowa, and now many pundits are saying he’s the man to watch. Maybe so, but that vastly underestimates the challenge the very conservative senator from Texas still faces. Cruz’s rise is almost entirely due to his finally getting…

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March 14, 2016

The Washington political establishment has hit the panic button. Not because they are afraid of any one individual or candidate, but because they are afraid of losing their own political power. This town is filled with well-intentioned people who believe they are doing the right thing, but far too many have lost their way after years in Washington. Politicians pay…

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March 11, 2016

Of all the bizarre aspects of the 2016 presidential campaign, none has been more puzzling to many observers than the embrace of Donald Trump by evangelical Christians. After losing the evangelical vote (and first-in-the-nation caucuses) to Ted Cruz in Iowa, Mr. Trump won a plurality of evangelical votes in a string of primaries. He did so again in Michigan and…

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March 11, 2016

The door has closed forever, said a friend, on a particular part of the past. Or to be more precise, first-person access to the Reagan era through one of its two most important figures has now, with the death of Nancy Reagan, ended. The era itself will never end—it is part of the history of our nation and yielded up…

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March 11, 2016

In hindsight, it is remarkable the extent to which Republican officeholders, donors, voters, and candidates have simply refused to face facts. This was excusable for a time. Donald Trump’s rise was so unexpected, so startling, and so counter to the normal rules of politics that one can be forgiven for expecting that he would fade — at least initially. Last…

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March 11, 2016

MIAMI — Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson threw his support behind Donald Trump on Friday, saying the billionaire front-runner has two sides: the combative campaign persona and a “very cerebral” approach in private. The endorsement by Carson, who last week suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, is perhaps the most high-profile nod for Trump since New Jersey Gov. Chris…

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