Feature: Latest Reports from Real Clear Politics ‘Opinion Section’

Cruzs VP Gambit
Facing what could be the last week of his presidential campaign, Ted Cruz threw another Hail Mary pass by naming Carly Fiorina as his running mate. The announcement in Indianapolis of a shared ticket comes as the Texas senator finds himself behind in the delegate count with no mathematical chance of clinching the Republican nomination without a contested convention. Cruz’s campaign could either be salvaged or reach its logical conclusion after next week’s primary in Indiana, which has become a last stand for the anti-Trump efforts. Donald Trump leads Cruz in public polling in…

If Trump Were a Woman
WASHINGTON — Regarding Donald Trump’s insulting, diminishing assertion about Hillary Clinton that she is only succeeding by playing “the woman’s card” and that if she “were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote”: If Trump were a woman, he’d be lucky to do that well. Clinton is on the verge of becoming the first female presidential nominee and perhaps the first female president. Certainly, gender and the historic nature of her candidacy have been a boost in that quest — maybe not as much as she might have hoped, but not the hindrance it would have been not many years…

Has the GOP Race Permanently Shifted to Trump?
For most of the year, the GOP primary could best be explained as a sort of collective action problem. Donald Trump seemed to have 35 percent to 40 percent of the Republican electorate locked down, but had difficulty expanding his coalition. The expectation was that he would perform well so long as it was a multi-candidate field. But as the field narrowed, the anti-Trump forces could be expected to mount a late comeback. The upshot of this, however, was that the non-Trump candidates were incentivized to continue splitting that vote: The (reasonable) expectation was that the one who found…

Sanders Bid Reaches Turning Point After Northeast Losses
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defeated in the Northeast, Bernie Sanders’ movement for a political revolution is reaching a crossroads even as he vows to campaign against Hillary Clinton through the June primaries and into the Philadelphia convention. The Vermont senator said after losses to Clinton in Tuesday’s primaries in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut that he would now seek as many delegates as possible to “fight for a progressive party platform,” acknowledging that he had only a “very narrow path” to the nomination. “Every person in this country should have the right to vote for…

Victorious Trump Says GOP Race Is Over
NEW YORK — As news came in that Donald Trump had swept all five of Tuesday’s GOP primaries, his well-dressed supporters sipped libations and munched on canapes in the lower lobby of Trump Tower, just beneath the golden escalators from which the billionaire businessman descended to announce his campaign for the presidency some 10 months ago. Trump himself was occupied at that moment, attending a midtown Manhattan black-tie gala in honor of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people — of which he is one, listed under the “leaders” section. One table over sat fellow…

Primary Roundup; Md., Pa. Senate Contests; Trumps Global Pitch; Grants Bum Rap
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, April 27, 2016. Donald Trump ran the table yesterday, winning all five states in the “Acela Primary,” while Hillary Rodham Clinton came close — winning four of five — as both front-runners staked their claims for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations. For HRC, the results underscore what has been obvious since New York last week: Barring a calamity, a Clinton will once again be the Democrats’ presidential nominee. Republican officials aren’t necessarily willing to go there with The Donald, but they may not have a…

The Fault Line Between Parties and Voters
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump claims the Republican presidential primary system is “corrupt” and “rigged” against him. If anything, the opposite is true: The party’s rules have largely operated in Trump’s favor. Witness the fact that, going into Tuesday’s primaries, Trump had won just 38 percent of the popular vote but 47 percent of the delegates awarded so far. Still, Trump’s griping seems to have resonated even beyond his own supporters. The dispute highlights the friction between the parties’ institutional interests in self-preservation and voters’ convictions that they run the show….

Conflict in the Caucasus
STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh — The military commander of this breakaway Armenian republic predicted in an interview here Monday that a fragile cease-fire could collapse within days. By that night, Azerbaijani shelling had killed two Armenian soldiers in a northern border town, amid accusations by each side that the other had violated the truce. The “frozen conflict” here, stalemated for 22 years, exploded on April 2, when Azerbaijani forces attacked across the 200-kilometer front line. The Azerbaijanis seized ground for the first time since the previous war ended in 1994. Russia…

Beyonces Beehive of Bombastic Buffoons
Question: Why aren’t liberal celebrities ever held accountable for stoking their unhinged fans’ violent threats and stupidity — the same way Republican candidates are called on to disavow every last remote and random act of bad behavior of their supporters? The double standards are as glaring as a glittering diva’s Harry Winston diamonds. I’m looking at you, Beyonce. The singer dropped a highly incendiary album over the weekend titled “Lemonade” on her husband Jay-Z’s failing music streaming service, Tidal. When last we heard from booty-shaking Beyonce, she was growling and cursing her way…

Trumps Narrow Window
Thinks look bleak right now for Ted Cruz. And for Donald Trump. Both will have to pass through a narrow needle to thread their way to the nomination. But one of them will do it. There will be no white knight, and John Kasich’s fantasies of a third or fourth ballot nomination are just that, fantasies. Here’s how Trump’s world looks. He’s got to win in Indiana, where 57 delegates are at stake. And Indiana is likely as hard for him as Wisconsin. Actually, harder. Hoosier Republicans dumped Senator Richard Lugar in 2012 and nominated Richard Mourdock, a staunch conservative in the Cruz model who…

Hospital II
Last week’s column on my lung surgery struck a nerve. Many of you wished me well. Others said I deserve to die. “He likes free markets?” sneered one Internet commenter. “In a truly free market, society wouldn’t subsidize the cost of his smoking. In a truly free market, he’d be dead.” No, I wouldn’t be dead. In a real free market, I would pay for my own care and that care would be cheaper and better because that’s what market competition does. Also, I’ve never smoked cigarettes. Some people who don’t smoke get lung cancer, too. The angriest comments were in The Washington Post: “Stossel should…

McGinty, Van Hollen Win Senate Primaries in Pa., Md.
BETHESDA, Md. – The Democratic establishment won major victories in the Maryland and Pennsylvania Senate primaries Tuesday night, with preferred candidates Rep. Chris Van Hollen and Katie McGinty defeating their party opponents by significant margins. In Maryland, with 98 percent of precincts reporting, Van Hollen was beating Rep. Donna Edwards handily, 53 percent to 39 percent, a much larger margin than predicted. McGinty won the Pennsylvania Senate primary over Joe Sestak, a retired three-star admiral and former congressman, by a slimmer margin of 42 percent to 30 percent, with 80…

Trump, Clinton Victories Convey Aura of Inevitability
Primary voters in five Northeastern states handed presidential combatants Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton key wins Tuesday, giving them an aura of inevitability and leaving competitors worried about how they might alter the front-runners’ fortunes. Trump’s hurtling five-state sweep through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island, especially in the wake of the real estate mogul’s triumph in New York last week, was a muscular rebuke to the stop-Trump drive, led by GOP candidates John Kasich and Ted Cruz. Exit polling conducted Tuesday showed a swell…

Trumps Foreign Policy Speech to Target World Audience
Donald Trump will signal another phase in his metamorphosis from unpolished political neophyte to the would-be Republican nominee for president with a foreign policy speech Wednesday, which he will target not only to voters but to an international community wary of his rise. The remarks, which Trump will deliver in Washington, D.C., will expand on an “America first” doctrine he has recently begun to sketch out, beginning with an extensive interview last month with The New York Times. But the celebrity businessman likely won’t delve into wonky details or offer groundbreaking…

Kamala Harris Couldnt Lose Senatorial Debate
STOCKTON, Calif. — Purely as an act of political mischief, this Republican has toyed with the idea of voting in June for Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., in the race to fill Sen. Barbara Boxer’s seat. Under California’s “top two” primary rules, there’s the possibility that two Democrats could face each other in November. California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the Democratic front-runner, leans way too far left. Given Harris’ ties to national party biggies, I’d rather see the gaffe-prone Sanchez win the seat, as a Sanchez win would deprive Harris of a spot on a not-too-distant national…

Andrew Jacksons Reckoning
WASHINGTON — Harriet Tubman is in; President Andrew Jackson is out. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew’s decision to replace Jackson on the front of the $20 bill with abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor Tubman has been widely praised. It honors women’s role in American history and, indirectly, disparages slave-owner Jackson, who moves to the back of the $20 bill. But there is another irony to Jackson’s traditional place on the $20 bill: He was an ardent critic of paper money. To illuminate this oft-forgotten part of the story, we put some questions to historian Jessica Lepler…

Let the Convention Do Its Job
What are political conventions for? If you’ve ever been to one, you might think the purpose is for attendees to schmooze, drink, and drink some more. That holds true both for the delegates and for the journalists, who usually outnumber them by at least three to one. But that’s not actually why political conventions exist. They’re sort of like volunteer fire departments that almost never get a call. It’s not that the firefighters don’t want to put out fires, but until they’re needed, they’re pretty happy to play cards, watch movies, and eat chili. They…

Cruz-Kasich Alliance; Clapper on 9/11 Pages; Leo Franks Lynching
Good morning. It’s Tuesday, April 26, 2016. Today, five states vote in what has been dubbed the “Northeast Primary.” If pre-election polls are correct, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, and Rhode Island are all fertile ground for the respective Democratic and Republican front-runners, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. On this date in 1912, the brief and hard life of 13-year-old Mary Frances Phagan came to a violent end. Her body was found in an Atlanta pencil factory at 3 a.m. on April 27. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled the day before, observed in…

The Trump Pivot
WASHINGTON — Word on the street is that Donald Trump wants to hire a serious campaign team and give some serious policy speeches — 10 months after his presidential announcement and just as he has nearly secured the Republican nomination. A consistent plurality of GOP primary voters has found such establishment credentials — a campaign with actual content — to be unnecessary. Trump’s disdain for outsiders and his air of authenticity have been enough. But now, according to campaign adviser Paul Manafort, Trump will demonstrate “more depth,” show that he is “evolving” and change…

Lets Break From Identity Politics, Together
Both parties sort voters by color and gender. Though there’s nothing new about promoting solidarity on the basis of genetics, it can get old really fast. One sees some utility in this brand of politicking, especially for Democrats. The party of Donald Trump has done its darnedest to offend the growing Latino electorate. But Republicans will get smart about this and reverse course. Even Trump? Especially Trump. As Trump continues his pivot to normality, his campaign will take a long shower and start making nice to women and Latinos — some of whom have shown interest in him, if only he’d stop…

Ask Richard Answers Your Bathroom Queries
Richard, I am planning to drive from Massachusetts to Florida and, while I hope it will not happen, I might have to stop in North Carolina to use a restroom. Do I need to bring a birth certificate? The “Ask Richard” column, now the most popular on the Internet, has gotten many such questions recently and “Ask Richard” has chosen this one at random. As always, I will answer it the best I can, using the latest info available on various sites, tweets, bots, blogs and lox. The answer appears to be “yes.” The law now states that you can only use restrooms that conform to the sex stated on your…

Super PACs Warm to Cruz-Kasich Deal
It’s likely the surprise détente between Ted Cruz and John Kasich in three upcoming primaries was as much a cue to super PACs and outside groups as it was to voters, lending clear direction to anti-Donald Trump forces hustling to keep the celebrity billionaire from the GOP nomination. In statements released almost concurrently late Sunday, Kasich’s and Cruz’s campaigns each hinted strongly that the agreement — in which Kasich would abandon campaigning in Indiana, while Cruz stands down in Oregon and New Mexico — is directed in large part toward the constellation…

Why the Left Loathes Western Civilization
This month, Stanford University students voted on a campus resolution that would have their college require a course on Western civilization, as it did until the 1980s. Stanford students rejected the proposal 1,992 to 347. A columnist at the Stanford Daily explained why: Teaching Western civilization means “upholding white supremacy, capitalism and colonialism, and all other oppressive systems that flow from Western civilizations.” The vote — and the column — encapsulated the left’s view: In Europe, Latin America and America, it loathes Western civilization. Wherever there is conflict…

If God Is Dead…
In a recent column Dennis Prager made an acute observation. “The vast majority of leading conservative writers … have a secular outlook on life. … They are unaware of the disaster that godlessness in the West has led to.” These secular conservatives may think that “America can survive the death of God and religion,” writes Prager, but they are wrong. And, indeed, the last half-century seems to bear him out. A people’s religion, their faith, creates their culture, and their culture creates their civilization. And when faith dies, the culture dies, the civilization dies, and the people…

Trump Is No Match for This Tag Team
WASHINGTON — Don’t call it strategy, call it strategery: Ted Cruz and John Kasich are going to cooperate to deny Donald Trump the Republican nomination. Also, I don’t know, maybe a hurricane will dishevel Trump’s comb-over and reveal his bald pate, causing such mortification that he quits the race. Or maybe there will be an earthquake next week in Indiana, affecting only precincts where Trump has a lead. The Cruz-Kasich pact comes at the 13th hour. Its announcement Sunday seemed orchestrated to distract attention from the fact that Trump is expected to sweep five more primaries Tuesday…

Conservatives for Trump?
The sudden appearance of Donald Trump on the political horizon last year may have been surprising, but not nearly as surprising as seeing some conservatives supporting him. Does Trump have conservative principles? Does he have any principles at all, other than promoting Donald Trump? A smorgasbord of political positions — none of them indicating any serious thought about complicated issues — is not a principle. Nor is cheering for himself and boasting about all the great things he is going to do as President. Haven’t we seen this movie before? Wasn’t Barack Obama going to heal the racial…

Ethnicity Still Matters in the Politics of 2016
Ethnicity still matters. That’s one lesson I draw from the results so far of this year’s Republican and Democratic primaries and caucuses. We’re encouraged to believe ethnicity doesn’t matter much anymore; only race does. This is the implicit assumption behind the analyses that divide the electorate into four racial categories: whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians. That’s sometimes a useful thing to do. Witness the forecasts that whites will soon (by the 2030s or so) be outnumbered by non-whites; and that that will be the end of the Republican Party, because the voters classified as…

Cracks in Cruz-Kasich Alliance
No one had more fun with the news of the unusual alliance between Ted Cruz and John Kasich than the Republican front-runner himself, Donald Trump. During rallies in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania Monday, the businessman used the term “collusion” to describe his rivals’ coordinated effort against him as conspiratorial and scheming. Colluding is illegal in business but allowed in the “rigged system” of politics, he told the crowd. “Actually I was happy, because it shows how weak they are, it shows how pathetic they are,” he said. Trump had a right to be gleeful…

Clapper: June Release of Secret 9/11 Pages "Realistic"
The Obama administration believes it is a “realistic goal” to publicly release by June at least some classified information that explored Saudi links to the 9/11 terror attacks, the director of national intelligence said Monday. “We are in the position of trying to coordinate an interagency position on the declassification of the 28 pages,” James Clapper told reporters, referring to a secret chapter drafted by an independent, bipartisan panel. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, was directed in 2002 to…

The Endgame of 2016s Establishment Politics
Will Bernie Sanders’s supporters rally behind Hillary Clinton if she gets the nomination? Likewise, if Donald Trump is denied the Republican nomination, will his supporters back whoever gets the Republican nod? If 2008 is any guide, the answer is unambiguously yes to both. About 90 percent of people who backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries that year ended up supporting Barack Obama in the general election. About the same percent of Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney backers came around to supporting John McCain. But 2008 may not be a good guide to the 2016 election, whose most…

Clinton as GOP Uniter; Md. Senate Race; California Dreamin; Samanthas Letter
Good morning. It’s Monday, April 25, 2016. Tomorrow, Pennsylvania and four other states (Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, and Rhode Island) hold presidential primaries. On the Republican side, the political establishment is bracing itself — You-Know-Who seems positioned for another big night. Later this morning, Harvard University’s Institute of Politics will release a national poll of voting-age Americans under 30. This survey will reveal one of the reasons the GOP establishment is so petrified of a Donald Trump nomination that it’s resorting to open collusion between…

2016s Scrambled Coalitions
WASHINGTON — Republicans are a more ideological party than the Democrats, but ideology has mattered less in the GOP primaries this year than in the race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton is in a nearly unassailable position to win her party’s nomination. But assuming she prevails, her primary fight with Sanders has underscored weaknesses she will have to deal with to win in November. And Donald Trump’s moves toward moderation on social issues last week reflects not only his campaign’s understanding that he cannot win as a far-right candidate, but also his need to…

Whats the Real Gender Pay Gap?
WASHINGTON — The gender pay gap is back in the news — and may become a major issue in the presidential campaign. It seems an open-and-shut case of job discrimination. Women earn only 79 percent of men’s average hourly earnings. Who could favor that? Actually, the comparison is bogus. A more accurate ratio, after adjusting for differences in gender employment patterns, is closer to 92 percent. Even the remaining gap of eight percentage points may not stem fully from discrimination. What’s worth recalling (especially for anyone under 40) is that the floodtide of women into the labor…

Edwards, Van Hollen in Tight Md. Senate Race
Reps. Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen are locked in a dead heat in the final days of the Democratic Senate primary in Maryland, a race that’s been hard fought, increasingly negative, and difficult to predict even at this late stage. While some state Democrats say there have been minor shifts in momentum one way or the other, most expect Tuesday’s outcome will be razor close, with an array of factors that could tip the scales for either candidate. Republicans see the potential to turn this seat red after the GOP’s Larry Hogan won a surprise gubernatorial victory in 2014,…

Hillary Clinton: GOP Uniter
Republicans expect to be battered and fractured by the time they finally find a presidential nominee. But party operatives hoping for unity see a sliver of silver lining: Nothing brings the GOP together quite like the Clintons. “If you were going to choose one person who unites the Republican Party, it would be Hillary Clinton,” says Peter Wehner, a veteran of the past three GOP administrations. Republicans have been preparing to run against Clinton in 2016 for the past three years, at least, with well-funded political groups, political action committees, and opposition research…

Trump Says Hes Not Toning It Down, Drawing Clinton Barbs
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A confident Donald Trump told supporters on Saturday that he’s not changing his pitch to voters, a day after his chief adviser assured Republican officials their party’s front-runner would show more restraint while campaigning. “You know, being presidential’s easy – much easier than what I have to do,” he told thousands at a rally in Bridgeport, Connecticut. “Here, I have to rant and rave. I have to keep you people going. Otherwise you’re going to fall asleep on me, right?” Trump declared to the crowd that he has no intention of reversing any of his provocative…

GOPs Final Three: California, Here We Come
Two generations of California political enthusiasts have waited for a pivotal presidential primary. Thanks to New York Republicans, 2016 is the year they get one. After Donald Trump routed Ted Cruz and John Kasich in the Empire State Tuesday, winning 60 percent of the vote and all but four of New York’s 95 delegates, the signs point to a primary season that goes to the last day, June 7. That’s when Californians and voters in four other states go to the polls. In the meantime, the remaining questions about this wild Republican election season have crystalized: Can Cruz staunch what…

The Umbrage Factory
America is a country of strivers. Alas, having attained so much success, many Americans now strive to be offended. Polite agreement to disagree is gone. Now people log on to social media where they discover words that offend their delicate sensibilities. Then they make sure everyone knows they are aggrieved. Sometimes the perennially offended even win a trophy for their troubles — such as the scalp of ESPN analyst and former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling. In August, the network suspended Schilling for posting a tweet that likened Muslim “extremists” to German Nazis to…

Prince, Curt Schilling and the Acceleration of History
History is a slow and usually undetectable process, with change happening in microscopic increments. But sometimes, you can see and feel the world changing, and we’ve just experienced one of those moments. In recent days, there was the sudden death of Prince, a musician whose “gender fluidity and sexual ambiguity granted a kind of permission for future musicians, queer and otherwise, to explore new means of expression of the self and sexuality,” said Slate. The Treasury Department announced it will put Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20 bill and move Andrew Jackson to the back. Curt…

A Discussion That Goes Beyond Bathroom Talk
WASHINGTON — Into the overheated, under-informed bathroom wars comes a well-timed intrusion of sanity in the form of a decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court’s ruling in the case of Virginia high-school junior Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy, was correct — and groundbreaking, with implications beyond the school setting. Yet the decision also creates the legal framework for situations more challenging — and perhaps more unsettling — than what should be the routine matter of letting people use their restroom of choice. Grimm was born a girl but has changed his…

Western Pennsylvania Ready For Another Starring Role
JOHNSTOWN-Funny how Western Pennsylvania voters always find a way to be the center of the political universe in any election cycle. Democrats in a dozen or so regional counties long have been recognized as an electoral power because of their ties to organized labor, an affiliation that began in the days of FDR’s New Deal. They are mostly white, working middle class. They don’t like trade pacts; they do like guns, God, traditional marriage and a fiscally responsible government. Since the 2000 presidential election with Al Gore as their party’s nominee, they’ve felt uncomfortable but still have…

Ted Cruz, Likable Guy? Hes Working on That
WASHINGTON (AP) — After spending a year campaigning as a hardened, uncompromising conservative, Ted Cruz wants voters to see him in a different light. Cruz’s presidential campaign is embarking on a concerted effort to highlight a more affable version of the fiery Texas Republican. He’s started working the late night talk show circuit, a new forum for the senator, and his wife, Heidi, has also been appearing more often on national TV to present him as a likable figure. Cruz’s two young daughters, who have already provided occasional comic relief to their dad’s campaign, will be joining the…