The voting finally begins in Iowa — but why should it?

Today, after many, seemingly endless months of campaigning, debating, attacking, debunking, and defending, actual voting begins in the 2016 presidential election. Across Iowa, voters will gather to express their preference for whom they would like to see as their party’s nominee. This will give the state an extraordinary amount of influence over the selection of […]

Defeating Trump, Sanders will take someone other than Michael Bloomberg

As D.C. residents were preparing for, and then digging out from, the winter storm of the century, the already-volatile 2016 presidential race faced a potential storm of its own: the prospect of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent, mounting an independent bid for the White House. Now, these rumors have surfaced before […]

Impeachment debacle shows Maine Democrat split: solutions vs. extremism

In recent days, Maine Democrats managed to embarrass not only themselves, but the institution of the Maine Legislature, with a ridiculous debate over impeaching Republican Gov. Paul LePage. At a time when the state has real problems that desperately need serious discussion and bipartisan solutions — like the drug crisis that has gripped our state […]

Democrats’ joint fundraising with Clinton reveals hypocrisy, bias

The candidates running for the Democratic nomination not named Hillary Clinton have faced long odds this election cycle. That’s to be expected, of course, as she was always considered the prohibitive favorite to win the 2016 nomination. However, it’s also been clear that the Democratic Party has gone out of its way to structure the […]

GOP must stand up to the White House on gun control in every way

It appears that President Obama is set to undermine Congress and the Constitution by, yet again, taking executive action on an issue: In this case, the right to bear arms. Of course, there is not much Obama can do in this area without congressional cooperation to undermine our civil rights, but it appears that won’t […]

Democrats should stop trying to oust LePage

The bipartisan investigation into Gov. Paul LePage’s role in keeping Good Will-Hinckley from hiring House Speaker Mark Eves failed to conclude that LePage violated the law. One would assume, then, that the ridiculous push to impeach LePage, led by a handful of extremists in the House, would grind to a halt. Failing that, one would […]

What Democrats should learn from the Bernie Sanders data kerfuffle

The largely behind-the-scenes tension between the Democratic National Committee and Democratic presidential candidates not named Hillary Clinton spilled out into the open late last week over a campaign data dispute. In the end, it would make all sides involved — the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, the DNC, and data services vendor NGP-Van — look bad, […]

An establishment split is fueling the rise of The Donald

Many attribute the rise of Donald Trump in the Republican presidential race, along with the popularity of Ted Cruz, to the continued prominence of the tea party movement within the GOP. While that’s certainly part of the story, it’s not the entire tale. The success of Trump and Cruz is not just due to their […]

We need a leader who’s serious about fighting terrorism

According to a recent Washington Post poll, only 40 percent of Americans approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing handling terrorism — a new record low. That’s no surprise, given comments that he’s made ranking climate change ahead of terrorism as a national security threat, and that after the San Bernardino attack his first […]

It’s time for Clinton to revise her enemies list

During the first Democratic presidential debate, moderator Anderson Cooper asked the candidates which enemy were they most proud of having. This was a fascinating question (and one that should be asked of the Republicans as well), though it elicited fairly predictable responses: The coal lobby, the National Rifle Association and “Wall Street and the pharmaceutical […]