By Andrew P. Napolitano
The president's men trash the Constitution to pursue antagonists
The Republican National Committee's postelection "autopsy" report issued Monday suggests that comprehensive immigration reform could improve the party's sagging fortunes with Hispanic voters.
House Speaker John A. Boehner's new "Senate first" strategy could put red state Democrats — especially those facing potentially tough re-election battles in 2014 — in a tough spot: Reject the White House's liberal second-term agenda and run afoul of party leaders, or back the president and alienate voters back home.
For those who can't wait until the 2012 presidential election is finally over on Wednesday: not so fast.
Far from losing control of the Senate, the latest polling suggests Democrats could actually expand their majority on Tuesday — a stunning turnaround for a party that entered this cycle playing defense across the board.
Mitt Romney crossed a major threshold this week, moving above 50 percent in his favorability rating, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls — and for the first time in the campaign he leads President Obama on that measure.
When Mitt Romney taps Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate on Saturday, he is picking someone who has already tangled toe-to-toe with President Obama on several occasions, and is prepared for the bruising battle ahead.
One Republican campaign ad describes the "buyer's remorse" some voters feel about President Barack Obama. Another ad features a woman saying she had supported Obama because "he spoke so beautifully," but he's failed to deliver on his promises. Still another ad woos Obama supporters with a direct but gentle prod: "It's OK to make a change."
George W. Bush left office less than three years ago, but for the Republicans seeking to fill his shoes as the next president, the mere mention of his name has been all but absent.
Outspoken congresswoman and tea party favorite Michele Bachmann cast herself as the "bold choice" for the Republican presidential nomination as she formally kicked off her campaign Monday in her Iowa home town.
For Republican presidential contenders who once supported combating global warming, the race is heating up. Faced with an activist right wing that questions the science linking pollution to changes in the Earth's climate and also disdains big government, most of the GOP contenders have stepped back from their previous positions on global warming. Some have apologized outright for past support of proposals to reduce heat-trapping pollution. And those who haven't fully recanted are under pressure to do so.
The White House has seen a stunning pre-election exodus of high-level staffers, culminating in the departure over the last two weeks of President Obama's chief of staff and national security adviser.
After months of fretting over "tea party"-powered Republican enthusiasm, Democrats say they are seeing signs that their supporters are getting revved up in time to close the so-called "enthusiasm gap" by the Nov. 2 midterm elections.
"If you're under the age of 40, you've never seen what conservatives fighting back looks like, and now you have," said Republican consultant Mike McKenna. "Now they finally have senators who are every bit as excited to mix it up as they are."
Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz threaten hold on gun restrictions →
"You can support immigration reform for moral reasons, for philosophical reasons or for economic reasons," says Republican strategist Mike McKenna. "But if you are a Republican and support it for political reasons, you are an idiot who cannot read or understand survey data."
