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Nowadays, the “smoke-filled room” is mostly just a metaphor—but there was a real room that started it all. Well, sort of. The compelling image of the smoke-filled room, a “place of political intrigue and chicanery, where candidates were selected by party bosses in cigar-chewing session,” per William Safire, arose during the 1920 Republican convention. That year, Sen. Warren G. Harding of Ohio was the come-from-behind nominee for president, selected after ten ballots. According to historian David Pietrusza, author of 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, the room in question is often credited with the phrase “because the people who...

Over the past couple of weeks, Donald Trump has become the presumptive Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton continues to inch closer to the magic number of delegates she needs to lock up the Democratic contest. Clinton continues to lead Bernie Sanders in our national tracking poll (she is up by 14 points in this week’s results). Attention is now rapidly moving to the hypothetical match-up between the leading candidates with an emphasis on a Clinton and Trump contest. In this week’s poll, Americans are nearly split between their choice of Trump or Clinton; her margin over Trump narrows from 5...

"The fact of the matter is knowledge about Donald Trump is a mile wide and an inch deep," Guy Cecil says. The coming ad assault against Donald Trump from pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action is likely to drill a three-pronged message deep into the minds of swing state voters, if the group’s leaders have their way. The three central tenets of the message will be that the real estate investor is a divisive character, that he’s too dangerous to vote for, and that he’s a con man, Priorities’ chief strategist Guy Cecil explained to POLITICO on Monday —...

This is the craziest presidential election I’ve ever seen. Voters on both sides of the aisle are rebelling against their party establishment. Donald Trump who has never before run for office is the presumptive GOP nominee. And Bernie Sanders, a 74-year old Socialist, continues to give Hillary a run for her money, generating 100% of the enthusiasm on the Democrat side. There’s something else brand new about this election – the role of last election’s loser. I thought the role of a Presidential election loser that doesn’t hold any other elective office is to slither away into hiding somewhere and...

Member Of Congress: “It’s Easy To Manipulate A Nation Of Naive Sheep” You may not believe the incredible things that one member of Congress is saying about the corruption of our political system and the gullibility of the American people. In a brand new book entitled "The Confessions of Congressman X", one anonymous member of the U.S. House of Representatives confesses that he hardly ever reads the bills that he votes on, that his main job is to get reelected, and that it is "far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant...

Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution forbids office holders from accepting anything of value from a foreign state, yet husband Bill Clinton collected $1 million from the Abu Dhabi government while Hillary was secretary of state. Bill Clinton spoke at the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) on December 13, 2011 and received a speaking fee of $500,000. The AGEDI is a program funded by the Abu Dhabi government, so the source of the funds was the government itself. Although the fee was paid to Bill, Hillary equally benefited from the payment. In effect, she accepted money from a...

As the GOPe (elite/establishment) threatens to/prepares to "Wage War" on the Republican nominee for President we need to be reminded just what the "their (GOPe) best ideas" have given us in the last 24 years: 1992 -- Bush 41 / Quayle -- Thanks to a third party run Perot / Stockdale and their "reform party" we were introduced to Bill Clinton and his "moral-less" behavior in office. The damage of his time in office is still felt today. 1996 -- Dole / Kemp -- Fail! Didn't fight, didn't challenge and basically threw punches like a six year old girl. 2008...

Utahns aren't feeling the Bern so much anymore as it looks like they're starting to line up behind the presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. One month after a poll showing Bernie Sanders would beat Donald Trump head-to-head in Utah, Trump has opened a lead over Sanders. He also leads Hillary Clinton after that same poll showed him tied with the likely Democratic nominee. Trump leads Sanders 43-37%, which is a significant reversal from April when Sanders led Trump 49-34%. 20% are undecided between the two. In April, Trump was tied with Hillary Clinton at 38% apiece. Now, Trump leads Clinton...

Overregulation: Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s CEO Andy Puzder has people all in a huff over his idea to automate restaurants. But why be upset with Puzder? This is an inevitable consequence of massive minimum wage hikes by the government. “With government driving up the cost of labor, it’s driving down the number of jobs,” said Puzder. “You’re going to see automation not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants.” He’s right. That’s why whenever the minimum wage rises above the market-set prevailing wage, jobs are destroyed. Who would pay someone $15 an hour to do a job that’s...

Activists and leaders in the social conservative movement, after spending most of the past year opposing and condemning Donald J. Trump, are now moving to embrace his candidacy and are joining the growing number of mainstream Republicans who appear ready to coalesce around the party’s presumptive nominee. Though their support for Mr. Trump is often qualified, this change of heart is one of the more remarkable turns in an erratic and precedent-defying Republican campaign. It reflects the sense among many Republicans that, flawed as they may see him, the thrice-married billionaire is preferable to the alternative.

Mitt Romney made an unsuccessful effort to recruit Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse as a third-party presidential candidate to challenge Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, a source with knowledge of the efforts confirmed to CNN Sunday. Sasse, the freshman Republican, has emerged as one of Trump's foremost critics from the right. Romney and Sasse have talked, the source said, and Romney encouraged Sasse to seriously consider a run... But Sasse is refusing to enter the race... At the Nebraska GOP convention, Sasse was rebuked through a resolution that was overwhelmingly approved by Republicans there who argued that his position would only...

As a longstanding Reagan conservative, my initial preference was Ted Cruz; yet I would have voted for any of the candidates over Hillary. I held my nose for McCain and Romney, and hope some at least hold their noses and vote for Trump. However, I’d rather you do more than that, I’d rather you consider actually voting FOR Donald Trump. The case for Trump is a good one. ..... I found I liked what he said, but not him. Then the earthquake happened: Hillary attacked him as a misogynist and a sexist. Oh no, he’s done for now. But no,...

The head of the Republican National Committee denounced efforts to draft an independent candidate to run against Donald Trump as a "suicide mission" that could "wreck" the United States for generations. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus did not mince words as he urged party figures laying the groundwork for a third-party bid to suspend their work. "They can try to hijack another party and get on the ballot, but, look, it's a suicide mission for our country because what it means is that you're throwing down not just eight years of the White House but potentially 100 years on the Supreme...

Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus declared Sunday the anti-Donald Trump Republicans' effort to launch a third-party bid for the White House is a "suicide mission." In an interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation," Priebus — days after a closed-door sit-down with the GOP presumptive presidential nominee — warns against a third-party attempt at "blowing everything up." "It's a suicide mission because you're not only changing and throwing out eight years of the White House" but also jeopardizing the course of the Supreme Court, he replied. "We could have up to three justices change over in the next eight...

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has a 4-point lead over Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head match-up in Georgia, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll. Trump has 45 percent support to Clinton's 41 percent.

During Donald Trump’s presidential campaign he’s professed love for women, "the Hispanics," "the blacks," "the Muslims" and myriad other groups he has offended — yet hard numbers show they don't love him back. Seventy-seven percent of Hispanics and seven in 10 women view him unfavorably, according to recent Gallup polls. A whopping 86% of black voters viewed him unfavorably in an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll. Meanwhile, just 7% of Muslims surveyed said they would support him, per a February poll from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Mitt Romney devoted an entire speech back in March to attacking Donald Trump in an effort to steer conservatives away from the businessman. Since then, he’s continued hammering the real estate mogul on one issue after another, including Trump’s tax returns. Romney said earlier this week that Trump's refusal to release them was “disqualifying.” “I don’t know what’s wrong with Mitt Romney. It’s so strange,” American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp said on Fox News. “He as a candidate didn’t even release his taxes until Harry Reid took to the floor and claimed that maybe he didn’t pay any income...

Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who on Wednesday endorsed presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, is planning to host a fundraising event for the pro-Trump super PAC next month, the first major effort by the super PAC to raise money. Mr. Pickens, chairman of the hedge fund BP Capital, has invited Ed Rollins, the co-chairman of the super PAC, to visit his Texas ranch in mid-June, along with a few other fundraising officials from the group. The goal is both to raise money for the super PAC and to bolster party unity, a spokesman for Mr. Pickens said.

UPDATE——– #NEVERTRUMPER GOT THUMPED— NEBRASKA REPUBLICANS PASS RESOLUTION TO REPRIMAND #NEVERTRUMPER BEN SASSE.. The Nebraska Republican State Convention is underway today in Omaha, Nebraska. Republican Sam Fischer introduced a resolution to reprimand Senator Ben Sasse for his outspoken attacks on Republican nominee Donald Trump and for leading the anti-Trump movement. Sasse, a Republican, is the top Republican office holder pushing for a third party run this fall against Donald Trump...

Well, it is game on. This will be an election unlike any other in the modern era. Two wildly flawed candidates for president will try to convince voters that the other is the one more unfit for the office. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both have their baggage, but along with his problems, Trump does have a couple of things going for him. Trump’s first big problem is obvious: He’s wildly unpopular. Specifically, he’s unpopular with two critical voter groups, women and Hispanics. He needs to earn support from these groups, but all the evidence suggests it will be very...