Michael J.W. Stickings

As The Hill reports, Mitt Romney is pledging to bring the unemployment rate below six percent by the end of his first term -- and of course in so pledging is once more sinking back to his default position of smearing President Obama:

"I can tell you that over...

Ever so slowly, and ever so reluctantly, Republicans are lining up in typical jackbooted fashion behind Mitt Romney. The still-feisty Gingrich is an exception, of course, and he's been hammering Romney for some time now as a "Massachusetts moderate," but so too is Santorum, who is hoping for...

As you've surely heard by now, Jon Huntsman -- Huntsman the Formidable, I once called him -- has pulled out of the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. His withdrawal at this stage was hardly a surprise. Though he finished a fairly strong...

What goes up, must come down. (Even science-denying Republicans can't refute Newton. Well, they can, but it just makes them look like idiots.)

And The Newt is, apparently, coming down. Nate Silver:

The polling data I've seen over the past two or three days suggests that Newt Gingrich's...

Writing last Friday at The Des Moines Register, extreme Tea Partying Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, son of renegade libertarian Republican Ron Paul, pulled no punches in going after GOP presidential frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich:

Unfortunately, while all Republican candidates would be an improvement over the...

When you're on top, people try to bring you down. Especially when you keep telling people you're on top.

Actually, while this may be a general rule, it hasn't really applied to the 2012 Republican presidential race. Romney has been at or near the top more or less...

That seems like a pretty stupid statement, doesn't it?

I mean, he's by far the most "electable" of the GOP candidates for president.

He's got solid ground campaigns all across the country.

Rove and the moneyed establishment seems to be behind him.

His rivals on the right have proven to...

I've been arguing for some time now that it's way too early to count Rick Perry out. He's still the most formidable conservative in the race, the overwhelming majority of Republicans are anti-Romney, or at least uncomfortable with Romney, and he can certainly rebound off his recent lows and remake...

I wrote recently that the GOP presidential race has become, with Rick Perry's recent collapse, Mitt Romney's race to lose. Romney may not have a high ceiling, but his (more) conservative opposition is divided and, unless some other candidate steps up to unite the anti-Romney vote (as many...

Specifically, that the Republicans are a party of extremism and have no interest in compromise even for the sake of America's basic financial health (as when they held the country hostage over the debt ceiling)?

Maybe. Here's Ezra Klein (in a must-read post):

The choice, it turned out,...

Hurricane Irene, currently a Category 3 slamming the Bahamas, is heading directly for the U.S. It is expected to make landfall in North Carolina on Saturday:

Airline flights and events were canceled or postponed in advance of Hurricane Irene, a dangerous storm that is expected to bring widespread...

Sarah Palin's admirers and various other delusional conservatives are doing their utmost to try to convince us that The Undefeated, the hagiographic documentary about Palin, has been a rousing success thus far.

In the process, they're also attacking anyone who suggests otherwise. Take The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf, for example, a...

The Real Clear Politics average still has Romney on top in Iowa, if only barely, but a new poll by The Iowa Republican has Bachmann in the lead for the first time, 25 to 21 over Romney, with Pawlenty and Cain well back at 9.

To...

I never thought The Newt ever had a realistic shot at the Republican presidential nomination, for a variety of reasons that I'll get to shortly. But I thought he'd be in the race at least through the early primaries, if only to reinforce the Gingrich brand that has been so...

Answering the biggest question of the day -- "So is Sarah Palin running, or what?" -- I would note that signs are indeed pointing to YES.

And the latest sign is that she's embarking on a pre-campaignish bus tour:

In a move designed to propel her...

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall, you've probably heard, posted some rather interesting tweets on the killing of Osama bin Laden. I wrote about them on Wednesday, defending Mendenhall, but not excusing a couple of the more inexcusable tweets.

Presenting himself as a 9/11 Truther? Not so good.

I wrote last year about "Mainesanity," the takeover of Maine's state GOP by Tea Party wackos. And by that I don't mean your run-of-the-mill small-government Teabaggers, the sort who are extreme but not utterly insane, or not necessarily so, but rather... well, wackos. As Maine Politics

Jon Chait had a post the other day arguing that John Boehner has no choice, if he knows what's good for him, but to shut down the government.

Basically, Boehner is in a tough spot. (No, don't feel sorry for him. It's what he gets for being where...

I think it's great that Michele Bachmann isrunning for president. I really do. She's so good for the GOP, so much a voice of the conservatism of today. Without her in the race, well, it just wouldn't make sense.

Okay, she's not officially running yet, she's...

Last August, retiring Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd said he would not become a lobbyist.

On Tuesday, it was announced that former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd will be the next chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, a high-profile lobbying position that will bring in an...