Overview for 2012-election

Ryan is Missing His Big Chance

Noah Kristula-Green pokes fun at the Weekly Standard and its editor, Bill Kristol, for their unabashed promotion of a Paul Ryan presidential run. Fair enough. However, it also should be noted that Kristol and the Standard are not alone. Politico reports that the conservative policy elite …

Written by John Guardiano on Wednesday August 24, 2011

Can Romney Believe What He Says?

What's Romney thinking? Mitt Romney is hitting President Obama hard on America's weak job performance over the past two and a half years. Yet Romney himself has pledged himself to policies that will squeeze jobs in the near term, at least according to conventional economic theory. He has …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday August 23, 2011

Preventing Another Palin Disaster

In my column for The Week I discuss the lessons that Republicans must learn for 2012 and beyond, so they don't repeat the same mistakes they made with Sarah Palin: The people who promoted and celebrated the Palin pick have disavowed — or at least abandoned — their former enthusiasm. They no …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday August 17, 2011

Rick Perry's Shrewd Move

Texas Governor Rick Perry may have just made a very shrewd move. No, I'm not talking about declaring himself to be a candidate for president on the same day of the Iowa Straw Poll. I'm talking about this : John Sharp, the former Texas comptroller who was student body president at Texas …

Written by Mark R. Yzaguirre on Tuesday August 16, 2011

Why I'm Done With Sarah Palin

I used to be a fan of Sarah Palin, but even I can see that the best thing for her to do now is to step aside. When Sarah Palin first exploded on the scene at the 2008 Republican convention as John McCain’s running-mate, I was enthralled. Yes, I admit, I thought she was terrific. Here was this …

Written by Brad Schaeffer on Tuesday August 16, 2011

More Jobs, Better Pay: What the GOP Can Do

In my column for CNN, I explain why Rick Perry's record on job is both his greatest strength and weakness: Gov. Rick Perry enters the presidential race with one big advantage and one big impediment. The advantage: his record of job creation in Texas. His impediment? His record of job creation …

Written by David Frum on Monday August 15, 2011

Who Do I Support with Pawlenty Gone?

I have been supporting Tim Pawlenty for president this go round. Now it appears I have to find a new candidate . My reasons for supporting him were that he was from a Democrat leading Midwestern state and had run a generally conservative administration. He seemed like a serious man with a nice …

Written by John Vecchione on Monday August 15, 2011

Romney Gets His Challenger

For two years, disaffected conservative Republicans have shopped for an alternative to Mitt Romney. They have worked their way through Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, and Donald Trump among others. The Ames straw poll turned a spotlight on Michele Bachmann. Until now, anti-Romney Republicans have …

Written by David Frum on Saturday August 13, 2011

Mitt Romney: Goldbug?

Romney's campaign filed FEC reports indicating the candidate's personal wealth to be between $190 million and $250 million. The most important sentence is buried in this Los Angeles Times article: "The couple owns between $250,001 and $500,000 in gold."

Written by Tim Mak on Saturday August 13, 2011

Romney Replies

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Written by David Frum on Thursday August 11, 2011

The Jewish Vote Can be Decisive in Close Races

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Written by Stephen Richer on Thursday August 11, 2011

Obama's Ugly Campaign Plan

In my column for The Week , I discuss a possible reason why Obama's campaign staffers leaked their strategy against Mitt Romney to Politico : Pessimism about the economy is rife, and Obama's job approval is sagging. He could well lose the next presidential election to a candidate who can …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday August 10, 2011

Perry's Highway to Nowhere

On Saturday, Texas Governor Rick Perry will announce that he intends to run for president. Perry will bring a lot of conservative rhetoric to the GOP field, but what about his actual record? The truth is, not all of Perry's policies have been successful and some of them may not fit the Tea …

Written by Tim Mak on Tuesday August 9, 2011

Obama's Surprisingly Big Base

The downgrade of the national debt, sagging approval ratings and better poll numbers for Mitt Romney are giving many Republicans hope for a victory in the 2012 elections. Given the inherent differences between elections, I wouldn’t count on current polls or anything else (including what I’m about …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Monday August 8, 2011

Inside Bachmann's Brain

Where is Michele Bachman coming from? What does the latest Tea Party champion really stand for? Ryan Lizza attempts an answer in a em> New Yorker profile.

Written by David Frum on Monday August 8, 2011

Bachmann's Shameless Response to the Downgrade

Michele Bachmann seems to be competing for the heavily contested title of Most Shameless Politician. As the leader of the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives, she may bear more responsibility for the unprecedented downgrade of the US credit rating than any other individual. So what …

Written by Andrew Pavelyev on Saturday August 6, 2011

Bogus Election Predictions

Like most other systems for predicting the winner of the presidential election using income growth to guess who will win (as Noah Kristula-Green does here ) probably isn’t all that valuable. In fact, no far-in-advance predictor of reelection—not the 13 Keys to the Presidency (which is pretty …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Friday August 5, 2011

Why 2012 is the Republicans' to Lose

As we get closer to 2012, there is one chart that pundits and columnists need to constantly refer back to in their writing - a scatterplot that shows how changes in real disposable income correlate with the success of the incumbent party in presidential elections: ( Courtesy of Seth …

Written by Noah Kristula-Green on Thursday August 4, 2011

Obama: Already a Lame Duck?

Politico has a piece discussing the "big drags" on the Obama re-elect effort. Nothing too surprising: there is the lack of economic growth and the bad political map. The usual suspects. What caught my eye was this: A top Democratic strategist who is close to the White House said that Obama’s …

Written by Zac Morgan on Thursday August 4, 2011

Obama's New Talking Point

The debt deal raises additional hurdles for Republican presidential candidates, argues Ed Kilgore in The New Republic . The big debt limit vote in Congress, it is increasingly obvious, is just an appetizer for the divisive, voter-alienating struggles it has built into the schedule at key …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday August 3, 2011