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January 27, 2012 From his assault on food stamps to his eviscerating of the news media, Newt Gingrich literally brought crowds to their feet during last week's debates in South Carolina. For a moment, you could almost hear the rebel yell. But Florida has been a different matter.

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January 25, 2012 ANALYSIS: There were appeals to what unites Americans, and even to what may unite the warring parties in Washington. But the spirit and bite of the address were in the throwing down of the gauntlet.

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January 24, 2012 ANALYSIS: It would be too much to say Romney had turned his ship around. But at least he righted it again after the knockdown it suffered in South Carolina

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January 22, 2012 It may have been the rudest gesture South Carolina has shown the national GOP since Fort Sumter.

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January 19, 2012 How embarrassing for Iowa GOP officials. How embarrassing for Iowa Republicans as a party. How embarrassing for Iowa. But who told the world to hold its breath earlier this month, awaiting the latest word on who had edged ahead in the Iowa caucuses? That would have been us. The news folks.

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January 17, 2012 The former Utah governor had a bankable blend of looks, charm, money, conservative karma and international street cred. Best of all, perhaps, was his ability to sit down with a big-time journalist and talk a good game.

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January 15, 2012 In a gathering in Texas this weekend, evangelical Christian leaders and activists threw their collective weight behind presidential hopeful Rick Santorum. Instead of demonstrating their power, though, the 11th-hour endorsement may well be a revelation of their weakness as a force within the GOP.

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January 11, 2012 The real danger of the Bain story will not be manifest among Republicans this winter and spring. The real danger is that the story bobs back up in the summer and fall.

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January 9, 2012 Despite the lukewarm way most Republicans respond to Mitt Romney in the Granite State, no one challenger has emerged to capitalize on the dissatisfaction.

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January 8, 2012 At last, the rivals who were supposed to savage front-runner Mitt Romney in the final weekend before Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire got down to business. In their debate Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, they let fly the roundhouse punches they'd been pulling for months.

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January 8, 2012 Front-runner Mitt Romney was hardly bruised in Saturday night's debate, though his rivals exchanged their share of blows. Time is tight to hurt his campaign with the New Hampshire primary bearing down on Tuesday.

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December 14, 2011 We do know that it's a lot easier to tell a pollster you're for somebody than it is to vote for that somebody. The former is theory, the latter is fact. People know when they are going to vote and they get ready. No one knows when or even whether they're going to be polled.

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• 5 Things You May Not Know About Rick Perry

November 21, 2011 Both parties act as though they can blame the other, striving to please constituencies that insist they do so. Yet, few achievements in American history have been so bi-partisan as the national debt.

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October 11, 2011 Unlike the previous half-dozen debates, this one took place around a table. And by sitting everyone down, the sponsors managed to elevate the discussion.

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October 7, 2011 There is in the American air — some 13 months away from the 2012 election — a whiff of suggestion that Obama might not be re-elected. Or re-electable. Past presidents have weathered stormier times, but when you hit bottom matters.

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