Four years ago, the presidential campaign was a celebration of the little guy. Two thirds of the money raised by Barack Obama came online, and 34% of his money came from donors who gave less than $200. This cycle, Obama is doing even better than he did in 2008 with small donors. Through June, 2.4 million Americans have given to his …
2012 Election
Billions For Ballots
Big money will flow through an array of groups supporting Obama and Romney this year. A TIME estimate of how much each group could pump into the campaign
Virginia’s Virgil Goode: Could this Man Cost Mitt Romney the Presidency?
Virgil Goode glides through the doors of a McDonald’s in Farmville, VA, at 11:52 am and instantly three construction workers in the back booth rise to their feet. “I’ve been wanting to shake your hand a long time, sir,” says …
Cruz Wins in Texas as the GOP Establishment Cracks
Thirty years ago, it was said Texas Republicans were so few that they met in a phone booth. These days, a Roman amphitheater might be a more suitable venue. The colossal $45 million GOP U.S. Senate primary battle that culminated …
Romney Abroad: A Candidate Tries to Find His Diplomatic Voice
Seasoned foreign policy advisers will tell you that in diplomacy there’s an inside voice and an outside voice. Candidates – especially those running in primaries – will say the most bombastic and outrageous stuff on the …
Elizabeth Warren on Running for Office: ‘It’s Been a Hard Learning Curve for Me’
Elizabeth Warren says she’s struggled with the “hard learning curve” of electoral politics and was blindsided by the controversy over her decision to report her ethnicity as Native American during her career as a law professor. …
Partisanship, Principle Color Massachusetts Senate Race
On a recent sweltering Tuesday night in Brockton, Mass., Elizabeth Warren told a crowd of 200 people packed into a storefront campaign office that she’s no typical campaigner. “I’m not a politician,” she said. It’s a line she …
The Man Behind Romney’s Israel Trip
Under real-world rules, Dan Senor should not be anywhere near Mitt Romney‘s foreign policy inner circle. This is the man who, as spokesman for the disastrous Bush Administration reconstruction effort in Iraq, told a group of reporters, according to Imperial Life in the Emerald City by the Washington Post‘s Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Off …
Mitt’s Mission in Israel: Optics, Christian Zionists and Absentee Ballots
There are a number of ways to understand Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel, where he pitches up Saturday night from London.
Artur Davis, Former Obama Booster, Speaks the GOP’s Language
Artur Davis, a former Democratic congressman from Alabama, appeared on a panel in Washington Thursday to discuss contentious voter ID laws. One might have expected Davis, an African American, to take the classic liberal line: …
In the Holy Land, Romney to Court the Jewish Vote
Every four years, a Republican presidential candidate claims he can lure Jewish voters away from the Democratic Party. And every cycle, most of those voters stay put. Mitt Romney isn’t going to win the bulk of the Jewish vote …
Romney Stumbles in London
Mitt Romney’s foreign trip is not going well. Since arriving in London, Romney has been tripped up by a series of niggling skirmishes. Taken together, they have sidetracked media coverage of a sojourn intended to showcase …
Chick-fil-A Meets a First Amendment Buzzsaw in Chicago
Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-fil-A, is a self-described Christian businessman, who proudly runs his fast-food chain according to his own vision of Christian principles. His stores close on Sundays, for instance, and the company gives money to nonprofits that support limiting marriage to unions between a man and a woman. A couple of weeks …