The Des Moines Register released its final poll on Saturday. For Republicans, Donald Trump still leads (28%) the horserace, with Ted Cruz close behind (23%). Marco Rubio has moved up to third (15%). The pollster, J. Ann Selzer has some caveats. She argues that while Trump leads, Cruz seems more consistently aligned with the electorate. […]
Archives
-
Expect a Raucous Caucus in Iowa
01 Feb 2016
-
Tweets About GOP Debate
29 Jan 2016
#GOPDebate And away we go. Good for Fox not to buckle into Trump's silly demands. Sad a presidential candidate ducks a journalist. — Mark Caleb Smith (@markcalebsmith) January 29, 2016 Yes. The ding ding is back and intent. Ding Ding for Republican nomination. #GOPDebate — Mark Caleb Smith (@markcalebsmith) January 29, 2016 Clever use of […]
-
Republicans on the Brink
22 Jan 2016
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” H.L. Mencken Perhaps the moment will melt in the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire, dissolved for all but those obsessed with electoral trivia. Paul Tsongas, Phil Gramm, and Pat Robertson were major players for […]
-
The Syrian refugee crisis, coupled with the ISIS attacks in Paris, have created a conundrum for political leaders across the Western hemisphere. While some evidence suggests at least one ISIS thug posed as a refugee to get to Greece, and from there traveled to Paris, the links between the refugees who need assistance, and the […]
-
Boehner Resigns: Expect Nothing to Change
25 Sep 2015
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) will resign from both his Speakership and the U.S. House effective at the end of October. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) announced the resignation at the Values Voter Summit in D.C. and was greeted with a standing ovation as he did so. Expect similar reactions along the right side […]
-
Seventeen Republicans have thrown their tam o’ shanters into the presidential ring and as we just passed Labor Day, the race is still in flux. Expect it to stay that way at least until January, and even then, there will be movement and surprises. The figure above is a rough sketch of average polling […]
-
Donald Trump sits now where he is most comfortable–at the center of reality. Like sunflowers craning toward the daylight, it seems our body politic is bent toward the billionaire carnival-barker turned politician. This “Trumpotropism” is unsettling to our political class, especially of the genus Republican. The disquiet is deafening. There is good reason for concern. Trump […]
-
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:14 Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) made it official. He is running for the Republican presidential nomination. Throwing his hat into an ever-expanding ring on Tuesday, Kasich, like everyone else, is a jumble of strengths and weaknesses, though for […]
-
Republican Senator Rand Paul, from Kentucky, yesterday announced he is running for the GOP’s presidential nomination. Paul’s declaration, all at once, surprised no one, inspired supporters, and sprouted doubters. Unlike the other lightly experienced Senators–Ted Cruz, who announced recently, and Marco Rubio, who will announce soon–Paul is both weighted down and buoyed by association. His […]