Matthew Dowd

The president could learn from her well-honed habit of following her gut instincts.

Life is really about the moments and whether we're ready to take advantage of them. We can meet someone and have a wonderful connection, then back off because of fear or preexisting plans and hope another moment...

President Obama's stand today in support of gay marriage has unleashed much conversation surrounding the political impact of his statement and the effect it could have on the electoral map and election this November. And part of this discussion has repeated a myth that I have tried to dispel before...

This past weekend I was horsing around with my daughter, playing in the parking lot with a green Buzz Lightyear four-square ball, and it got me thinking about four square. Many of us became familiar with this playground activity as youngsters; it involves a person standing in each square and...

Do you want a road map to the general election for Mitt Romney and President Obama? Think amusement parks and summer fun -- and specifically think Disney World, Cedar Point, and Kings Dominion.

There are many important geographic areas in this election, and many key demographic groups that will be...

Nearly every morning I try to wake up, be grateful for a new day, put my feet on the floor slowly, have a cup of tea, be as Zen as possible, and ease into the day as best as I can. As I say, "feet floor, tea, door!" Today in...

As we move from the primary contest to the general election and are on the verge of the 200-day war between President Obama and Mitt Romney, let's pause for a minute and reflect on some things we have learned about Romney, and offer a little advice on his immediate next...

On the eve of Tuesday's Super Showdown in the Republican nomination process, let's take a look at where things might be headed.

First, we learned a little bit about front-runner Mitt Romney and the other candidates in the midst of the blowup over Rush Limbaugh's controversial and outrageous remarks about...

It's not a surprising observation, but this is an economy election. The economy is still by far the dominant issue with voters concerned about jobs, finances, and the federal deficit's impact on economic growth. So why, in the Republican presidential primary, are candidates talking more and more about social and...

Ten days ago, Michigan was a major battleground state for the general election, Mitt Romney was looking to reconnect with the middle class in his home state, and Rick Santorum was gaining momentum after three big wins and looking at maybe becoming the first Catholic nominated by the Republican party....

The mythical Curse of the Bambino fell upon the Boston Red Sox when in the 1919-1920 season they sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. The Red Sox went nearly a century after that without winning another World Series. The curse was lifted in 2004, but could it then...

What happens in an election when two candidates who are unelectable run against each other in the fall? We are about to test that proposition.

The Florida primary is now in the record books, and Mitt Romney walked away with a big win, money in the bank, and a...

Now that the president's State of the Union is behind us, we have a good indication of what kind of campaign he is going to run: economic populism. President Obama and his team have been signaling such a strategy for the past few months, but they put a...

As we get ready to hear President Obama's third State of the Union address and all the discussion and analysis that will go along with it, let's try to understand where the citizens of America are at this moment and why the unfolding of the presidential race reflects the sentiments...

I have often written of the many myths and fictions that get adopted in politics and the discussion of campaigns. Another one has recently developed, and it has to do with the impact of television ads and specific state campaign activities.

Here's the myth: Newt Gingrich took a huge...

In an election dominated by the economy and jobs, Mitt Romney has positioned his service as the CEO of the private equity firm Bain Capital as the main asset of his run for the presidency. But as the attacks mount on Romney's private sector leadership, could this asset turn...

An increasing number of voices in the media and political classes are crowning Mitt Romney as the inevitable Republican nominee. As I wrote in my column earlier this week, although I believe that he has best odds today of winning the whole thing and is likely to do so, he...

Given that the NFL playoffs begin this weekend and college basketball is heading into the fun of March playoff brackets, this seems like an appropriate time to take a look at the sport of running for president.

President Obama sits waiting on one side of the bracket for the final...

Many times we get caught up in stories and we keep repeating them, even though they no longer apply to the current reality. We ignore facts along the way that provide opposing evidence because it just seems easier and more comfortable to keep repeating a story or narrative that we...

Sunday night, watching Denver quarterback Tim Tebow's post-game press appearance and President Obama's interview on CBS's 60 Minutes, I was struck by the fact that one man is offering his team (and the country actually) the leadership they need while the other is trapped in traditional discourse and scoring political...

Trying to get a handle on the wild and seemingly unpredictable ride of the Republican nomination process seems a bit of an impossible task. With the rise and fall of many candidates, the fall and rise of one candidate in particular and a new front-runner seeming to emerge each month,...