GOP Candidate

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Photo of a donkey putting his arm around an elephant

A GOP specialty.

Jan 23, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 18 • By FRED BARNES

The Republican death wish is back. It’s the habit of Republicans to do something crazy or stupid that diminishes their election prospects. Think of Watergate in the 1970s. In the 2006 midterm elections, the disclosure of Florida congressman Mark Foley’s flirtation with Capitol pages turned a defeat into a landslide loss. A few unelectable candidates denied Republicans a shot at winning the Senate in 2010.

Photo of Santorum speaking to a blue collar worker

Rickonomics.

Jan 23, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 18 • By JONATHAN V. LAST

Manchester, N.H.
As Rick Santorum moved from Iowa to New Hampshire, his particular brand of populism came into sharper focus. Having secured a base of social conservatives in Iowa, he was looking to add blue-collar voters to his coalition.

Photos of Walter Mondale, Bob Dole, John Kerry

Low-beta isn’t always better.

Jan 16, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 17 • By LAWRENCE B. LINDSEY

A candidate custom-made for the nominating process.

Jan 2, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 16 • By JAY COST

We are just days away from the start of the caucus and primary season, and while many questions remain, it is nevertheless possible to get a sense of where we have been, where we are going, and what all of this means for the Republican party.

Use Obama’s playbook against him.

Jan 2, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 16 • By JEFF BERGNER and LISA SPILLER

The two of us—a marketing professor and a political analyst—have just published a book about the highly successful Obama presidential campaign of 2008. We have distilled a number of lessons from our research. Since the Obama camp already knows these lessons firsthand, we call them “rules for Republicans” and have presented them to a number of the 2012 Republican presidential campaigns. In summary, here they are:

Photo of Mitt Romney at the Missouri Valley Steel plant in Sioux City, Iowa

Who’s going to win in Iowa? Who knows.

Dec 26, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 15 • By STEPHEN F. HAYES

Sioux City, Iowa

Photo of 1932 Democratic National Convention in Chicago

Dec 26, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 15 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

The late Murray Kempton famously said that “a political convention is not a place where you can come away with any trace of faith in human nature.”

Witty—but wrong. American history suggests we’re entitled to put some faith in political conventions.

Aside from getting votes, he’s a great candidate.

Dec 19, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 14 • By JONATHAN V. LAST

There are three basic theories to explain why Mitt Romney hasn’t been able to build support above the 30 percent level, despite being the heavily favored frontrunner for most of the past six years: (1) Republicans distrust Romney because of his history of flip-flopping. (2) Republicans view Romney as insufficiently conservative. (3) Republicans aren’t comfortable with the idea of a Mormon as president.

How the Republican contests help Obama.

Dec 19, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 14 • By FRED BARNES

Republicans are paying a high price for allowing their presidential race to be dominated by nationally televised debates. The GOP candidates have reduced themselves to supplicants whose weak points are probed by media questioners. Meanwhile, they’ve given President Obama a free pass to set the terms of the 2012 campaign.

Photos of Hughes, Dewey, Nixon, and Dole

Dec 19, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 14 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

In the last century, Republicans have posted large gains in midterm elections during the first term of a Democratic president five times. The elections of 1914, 1946, 1966, 1994, and 2010 all reflected popular disenchantment with big-government liberalism, and with the newly elected (or in the case of Truman, the newly sworn-in) Democratic president’s promotion of the same.

Dec 12, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 13 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

“The phrase ‘I do not know’ becomes inexpressibly bitter once one has proclaimed oneself to be a pundit, if not a polymath, especially when station, office, and dignity seem to demand that we should know.”