“Ladies and Gentlemen, the state of the Union is….is….is….” If you clicked on your television several hours ago hoping to hear the President of the United States finish that sentence, and in doing so give you a sensible and coherent framework for understanding the complex and sometimes frightening world you inhabit, you listened for 53 [...]

His critics say Rudy Giuliani has just one message, which is to remind voters incessantly of 9/11 and his role on that horrible day. Which brings us to the latest missive from Rudy’s campaign, this notice of a union endorsement….. International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 911 Endorses Giuliani for President Daytona Beach, FL – [...]

As Greg Sargent over at TPM Election Central notes, the Las Vegas Review Journal has bestowed its endorsement on Barack Obama ahead of Nevada’s caucuses. But the endorsement is so tepid that you have to wonder whether it will help or hinder Obama’s chances. Here’s an excerpt: Is Barack Obama, then, the ideal Democratic candidate [...]

On the R’s, Ana Marie Cox explains Romney’s Michigan primary win here. And looking at the D’s, Michael Scherer praises the heckler at the Las Vegas debate and Mark Halperin grades the contestants. Update: Links have been fixed.

So Mitt Romney listened to the economically distressed voters of Michigan, and in the process he found his voice — or at least a new voice. He didn’t cry, but he shed his painfully phony social conservative veneer and ran as something closer to his real self, an earnest, smart, results-focused businessman who thinks what [...]

Is Mike Bloomberg pulling a redux of Mario Cuomo’s 1991-1992 rendition of Hamlet on the Hudson, with all the attendant frustration engendered among would-be supporters? Or is New York’s mayor simply adopting the same methodical, clear-eyed analytical practices he used in becoming a wildly successful billionaire businessman to assessing a possible presidential run, with the [...]

Much has been said and written about the moment Hillary teared up in New Hampshire on Monday, and how it turned the tide in her favor by rallying women voters to her side. But I think there was an earlier Hillary moment that was equally important and, by and large, just as misread by the [...]

So a social scientist friend of a colleague here has run some comparisons into the pre-election polls and the actual turnout to see if there were signs of a so-called “black tax” in New Hampshire — the phenomenon familiar to students of the Harvey Gant-Jesse Helms races in North Carolina. He didn’t find any evidence [...]

As the good citizens of New Hampshire turn out in what are expected to be record numbers on this balmy winter’s day, a couple of notes from the end of the trail: – I was traveling with the McCain campaign yesterday — part of it with the candidate on the Straight Talk Express, the other [...]