Republicans

Clown Cars In Ohio

Featured image This year’s Senate race in Ohio could be pivotal to who controls that body in 2025. Incumbent Sherrod Brown, while not unpopular, should be beatable by a strong candidate in increasingly-red Ohio. But here, as so often happens, the question is whether the GOP can come up with a good nominee. The principal candidates in the Republican primary, which is tomorrow, are Trump-endorsed Bernie Moreno and state senator Matt Dolan. »

Good News From Voter Registration Data

Featured image It is always fun to get good news from the New York Times, which always try to spin the data so it doesn’t look too bad for Democrats. A case in point: “Share of Democratic Registrations Is Declining, but What Does It Mean? Virtually every group of voters under 70 has become less likely to register as Democrats compared with Republicans since 2019.” The heading and subhed pretty much tell »

America’s Most Important Political Trend

Featured image This is a good complement to Steve’s post immediately below. Why did Democrats decide, seemingly in unison, that it would be a good idea to enable millions of illegal immigrants? Because they (or, in any event, their children) will be voters, and the Democrats assumed they could count on minority votes for many years to come. But that may have been a miscalculation: NEW 🧵: American politics is in the »

The Republican Rejoinder

Featured image Senator Katie Britt of Alabama delivered the Republican response to Joe Biden’s SOTU speech. Not many people watch these rejoinders–for that matter, not too many watch the SOTU–but Britt’s response is getting a fair amount of buzz. She likely was chosen to contrast with Biden’s angry, more or less demented persona; if so, she played that contrast to the hilt. Her speech was really a thespian performance, and not my »

After last night

Featured image Digging deep into the Super Tuesday primary results, I foresee President Biden facing off for a rematch against President Trump. Can you feel the excitement? The two candidates represent juggernauts within their respective parties. Let’s take the Democrats first, courtesy of RealClearPolitics. What we have here is one full boatload of results. They raise the question: who is Marianne Williamson and what is she doing here? She is the best-selling »

Mitch, We Knew Ye Really, Really Well

Featured image Mitch McConnell announced today that he will resign his Senate leadership position in November, while remaining in office through his current term. I have generally thought well of McConnell and believe that on the whole, he has done a good job of leading his caucus. But it is notable that, as far as I know, not a single Republican has expressed regret at his decision. It was time to go, »

Red States Getting Redder

Featured image The Great Sort is under way, as normal people move to red states and liberals move to blue states. (That last is hypothetical and hasn’t actually been observed.) When massive numbers began leaving blue states like California and New York for red states like Texas and Florida, many conservatives worried that those blue staters might bring their bad voting habits with them. Happily, that doesn’t seem to have happened. This »

Border bill on life support

Featured image Punchbowl News reports on the unraveling of Republican support for the border bill component of the “emergency” national security supplemental appropriation act last night. “Supplemental national security appropriations act” should probably be in quotes too. This is a characteristic Washington farce. Senator Schumer planned to put up the bill for an initial procedural vote tomorrow. The more time his Republican colleagues had to look at the bill, my theory went, »

It’s Trump

Featured image Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump. It is, I think, a bitter day for the Republican Party and for America. This election season started with high hopes. DeSantis was, I thought, an excellent candidate with an unparalleled record of success. He would have made a fine president and may still, one day. But for now, we are stuck with Trump. I have voted »

After last night

Featured image The Trump train is rumbling down the tracks to its rendezvous with the Republican presidential nomination. Some 110,000 Iowa Republicans braved the cold last night to attend caucuses and state their preferences among the candidates. While they were assembling, the Associated Press, Fox News, and others called the contest for President Trump. In the event, Trump romped. As Politico put it: “Trump scores an early knockout.” I have borrowed the »

Looking ahead

Featured image Here’s a political prediction I think you can take to the bank: the candidate who prevails among independent voters in November 2024 will win the presidential election. In the latest (2023) Gallup telephone survey data of partisan identification, the percentage of adult respondents identifying as Democrats has fallen to a new low of 27 percent — tied with the percentage of adults identifying as Republican. Independents rule (“independents continue to »

Morality: Now a Partisan Issue

Featured image This Wall Street Journal poll confirms what we have all been seeing. The most basic moral principles–opposition to mass murder, gang rape and attempted genocide–are now part of our partisan political divide. Here are the numbers: Republicans are overwhelmingly pro-Israel, by 69% to 2%, while Democrats are more likely to be pro-Palestinian, by 24% to 17%. Young Democrats skew the balance, being overwhelmingly pro-terrorist: Democrats under the age of 50 »

After Last Night: Another Take

Featured image Scott and I have been writing together for many years, and a consistent theme of our partnership has been that I am an optimist, while Scott–it is fair to say–is not. So not surprisingly, my view of last night’s GOP debate is a little more optimistic than Scott’s. I admit I might be whistling past the graveyard at this point, but I hold out hope that come 2025, we might »

After last night

Featured image I attended the Trumpless GOP presidential candidates debate in Tuscaloosa last night at the Moody Music Building Concert Hall of the University of Alabama. University of Alabama President Stuart Bell welcomed the crowd with introductory remarks and then took a seat in the second row to watch the debate. I know nothing about him, but he struck me as a stand-up guy. I introduced myself after the debate and told »

RNC Upgrades Debate Moderators

Featured image Rank and file Republicans have long groused about the fact that the RNC hires liberals to moderate Republican presidential primary debates. Why? The Democrats would never do this. But maybe the RNC has finally heard the complaints, because they (or someone) hit a grand slam with the moderators for next month’s fourth presidential debate: Nexstar’s cable channel NewsNation will get its first exclusive presidential primary debate and has tapped former »

Last Night’s GOP Debate

Featured image I watched last night’s GOP presidential debate in its entirety, mostly because I commented on it on television as soon as it was over. I have no idea what the ratings were, or whether the event will move the political needle at all, but here are my observations: * It was a good night for the GOP. The debate format works much better now that we are down to five »

Who’s He?

Featured image The embarrassing impasse in the House of Representatives has finally ended, as Louisiana’s Mike Johnson has been elected Speaker. So, who is Mike Johnson, and why was he finally able to succeed where several more notable House members failed? I suspect that the answer has more to do with desperation than anything else. The Republican Party was made to look ridiculous, not so much by the party’s divisions as by »