By Andrew P. Napolitano
The president's men trash the Constitution to pursue antagonists
Republicans on Tuesday recaptured some of the Electoral College battlegrounds they had ceded to President Obama in 2008, narrowing the playing field between the two parties once again.
Monday night's third and final presidential debate will be the latest opportunity for Mitt Romney to again use the Etch A Sketch that his campaign hinted at months ago.
As Mitt Romney sank in the polls in September, so did the fortunes of many Republican Senate candidates, seemingly putting control of the upper chamber out of the party's reach.
Call it the built-in gravitas gap: President Obama flies the country in a grand 747, cruises in plush limousines adorned with American flags, and speaks from the White House Rose Garden, while his campaign opponent, Mitt Romney, flies in a smaller MD-83 passenger jet, rides in nondescript SUVs and makes speeches at factories and strip malls.
Casting herself as a constitutional conservative, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minnesota Republican, kicked off her presidential campaign Monday, vowing to be a voice for "reasonable, fair-minded" Americans and to leave a better future for generations by reducing the size of the federal government.
Elected last fall as part of a nationwide Republican sweep, Govs. John Kasich of Ohio and Rick Scott of Florida have seen their approval ratings tumble into the abysmal range — and Democrats are salivating over the prospect that they will be a drag on the GOP's presidential and congressional candidates in both crucial battleground states in 2012.
Heading into Memorial Day, Democrats were banking on "Recovery Summer" and a public rebranding of their health care overhaul to set right their political fortunes. But coming out of Labor Day and into the home stretch before November's congressional elections, that bet hasn't panned out.
The Ivory Tower has weighed in on the chances that Republicans win back the House in November's elections, and the outlook is decidedly rosy for the GOP.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said Mr. Rubio and Mr. Paul are "smart to head to Israel early in this presidential cycle."
Israel stop a boost to Marco Rubio’s foreign policy profile →
"The West Virginia seat is a super-prime opportunity for Republicans in 2014," said Larry J. Sabato, the head of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "The state has essentially turned red, and the GOP has a superb candidate in Shelley Moore Capito, who has her father's political genes."
