Yesterday, I raised the possibility that the Republican Party has split into two incompatible parties living inside a single body. One Republican Party is traditionally conservative and has been unable to settle on a nominee from among Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Jeb Bush and a host of governors who long ago left the scene. The other Republican Party is reactionary, obstructionist and … Read More

Initial thoughts on Super Tuesday: Republicans.  Major American parties are alliances of disparate interests. They work effectively when their coalition partners can find enough common ground to put aside their differences, and they fail when differences stand in the way of compromise.  With the radicalization of a significant element of the Republican Party during the Obama years, it’s reasonable to ask whether … Read More

Following Donald Trump’s resounding double-digit victories in Nevada, South Carolina and New Hampshire, party leaders are urging Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich to drop out in order to clear the field for the inevitable nominee and allow him to concentrate his fire on Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, his two potential general election opponents. Wait.  They’re not? The whole point of compressing the … Read More

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz came out swinging at Donald Trump in Thursday’s brawl of a Republican debate, giving worried party leaders what they have been craving, but at the cost of allowing Trump to define the party in his image.  Much more on this later today.

Last weekend, I joked that Jeb Bush achieved half his goal of “losing the primary” to “win the general” election. Actually, what he said is that the Republican Party needs to nominate someone who can “lose the primary to win the general election without violating [his] principles.” At face value this statement is just plain silly because, as Jeb acknowledged by suspending his campaign, when you … Read More

With the departure of Jeb Bush from the Republican field and Marco Rubio’s top-tier finish in South Carolina, the path is now clear for Rubio to claim the establishment mantle, not because he is a particularly strong candidate but because he will be the last acceptable candidate standing after every other option fails. Rubio’s disastrous New Hampshire debate performance and his … Read More

Jeb Bush said he was going to “lose the primary to win the general.”  He went one for two.