One of the great enduring mysteries of American politics is why we pay so much attention to anyone as lazy and ignorant as Sarah Palin. This, after all, is a woman who talks like a character straight out of Amos ‘n Andy. She makes up words such as “refudiate” that the Kingfish would have been…

If Mitt Romney really wanted to prove that he has what it takes to be president, he would have picked up the phone last week and placed a call to Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke before President Obama had a chance to reach her. If Romney really wanted to prove that he stands for…

What is it about Massachusetts that produces such lousy presidential candidates? Has some strange brand of bipartisan political devolution been at work in the Bay State since the heyday of John F. Kennedy, bringing forth such hopeless hopefuls as Michael Dukakis, John Kerry and, last and least, Mitt Romney? Or is it, as Rick Santorum…

As the cliché has it, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. That ancient maxim certainly applies to conservative columnist George Will, who, despite having been wrong about nearly everything else, has been dead accurate in his assessment of the Republican presidential field. Earlier this week he concluded a characteristically orotund analysis with…

If there’s any lesson to be learned from Mitt Romney’s big win over Newt Gingrich in Tuesday night’s Florida GOP primary, it’s that negative campaigning works. That’s the same takeaway that came from their previous battle in South Carolina, though there it was Gingrich, not Romney, who benefited the most from a barrage of advertising…

In my last column, which appeared right before Mitt Romney cruised to an easy victory in the New Hampshire primary, I rather confidently predicted that the GOP’s political clown show was just about over and that the ever-flexible former Massachusetts governor was a lock for the nomination. Oops! I need a redo! In the wake…

The clown show is just about over. There may be some entertaining high jinks ahead from Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum before they make their final exit from the political theater of the absurd otherwise known as the Republican presidential primary, but the prize has already been won. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney…

So long, Iowa. It’s on to South Carolina! I know, I know! The New Hampshire primary takes place on Jan. 10, 11 days before the voting in South Carolina. But the contest in the Granite State doesn’t count for much because, as a former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, Mitt Romney is practically a homeboy and…

Brace yourself. It’s gonna get ugly. No matter who wins today’s Iowa Republican caucuses (which look like a showdown between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and the surging Rick Santorum), this is shaping up to be the most lowdown, nasty, plain old disgusting presidential campaign we’ve ever slogged through. Think Watergate or the disputed Bush v.…

Ah, Sarah Palin, the gift who keeps on giving! Just when you thought that right-wing politicians couldn’t get any dumber than, say, the lamebrain governor of Texas, Rick Perry, along comes the former Republican vice presidential candidate to plumb new depths of vacuity. Becoming the most ridiculous conservative in the country is no small achievement.…