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Full Title: Aided by a strong economy, Trump approval rises, but a majority also see him as "unpresidential". Aided by a strong economy and perceptions that he has dealt with it effectively, President Trump’s approval rating has risen to the highest point of his presidency, though a slight majority of Americans continue to say they disapprove of his performance in office, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Hillary Clinton has two important challenges in the final presidential debate on Wednesday in Las Vegas. Neither involves trying to discredit Donald Trump. The first will be to respond to and explain what has been learned from the hacking of campaign Chairman John Podesta's email account and other recent revelations. The second and perhaps even more important task will be to make a strong, affirmative and compelling case for a possible Clinton presidency. Clinton's strategy in the first debate was to poke and provoke Trump, knowing that his thin skin could be easily pierced and that, when it was, he...

Bill Clinton has made a mess. It was either out of foolish indifference or plain foolishness, but it has created a terrible moment for his wife and the Democrats, and for President Obama and perceptions of the integrity of his administration. [Snip] The meeting has provided fodder for Donald Trump and Republican leaders to cast doubt on whatever conclusions the career prosecutors and Comey come to. Trump called it "so horrible" and said he was "flabbergasted" by the reports of it. On Friday, he questioned the description of the conversation that took place. "I love my grandchildren so much," he...

Reagan’s challenge to then-President Gerald Ford in the 1976 primaries represented the next great antiestablishment challenge by the party’s conservative wing. That battle went all the way to the national convention in Kansas City, where Ford prevailed. When Ford lost the election to Jimmy Carter, Reagan and his anti-establishment conservatism laid claim to leadership of the party and eventually to the presidency. In the eyes of anti-establishment Republicans, the election of George H.W. Bush in 1988 restored the establishment wing to power. Within two years there was another revolt, this one led by then-representative Newt Gingrich when Bush abandoned his...

My Post colleague Dan Balz has some very interesting reporting from Democratic and Republican strategists. Both groups seem somewhat pessimistic about the GOP’s chances in 2016: A recent conversation with a veteran of GOP presidential campaigns raised this question: Which, if any, of the recent battleground states are likely to become more Republican by 2016? The consensus: very few. That reality highlights one problem Republicans face as they seek to regain the White House after six years under President Obama. Lots of factors affect elections: The quality of the candidates, the state of the economy, the effectiveness of the campaigns....

A recent conversation with a veteran of GOP presidential campaigns raised this question: Which, if any, of the recent battleground states are likely to become more Republican by 2016? The consensus: very few. That reality highlights one problem Republicans face as they seek to regain the White House after six years under President Obama. Lots of factors affect elections: the quality of the candidates, the state of the economy, the effectiveness of the campaigns. But in a country whose demographics continue to change, Republicans will begin this campaign with one significant disadvantage. Over the past three decades, the political leanings...

It was too little, too late. Washington Post correspondent Dan Balz, whose new book Collision 2012 provides in-depth reporting and analysis of the last presidential election, says the Romney campaign’s failure to humanize Mitt Romney was an important factor in sealing the candidate’s loss. Balz tells “The Fine Print” that the more he reported on the campaign, the more “baffled” he became by the Romney team’s “inability to humanize Mitt Romney throughout the entire campaign.” ...

The GOP Empire Strikes Back At Gingrich By Dan Balz January 27 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The revenge of the Republican establishment is a sight to behold. From one corner to another, those who have tangled with Newt Gingrich, who feel aggrieved toward Newt Gingrich or who fear Newt Gingrich have amassed to stop him. They know how much harder it will be to do so if the former House speaker wins Florida on Tuesday. The quintessential example of establishment angst came Thursday from Bob Dole, the former Senate majority leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee. Hours before Thursday’s GOP debate,...

A month before he was inaugurated, Barack Obama pinpointed one of the biggest challenges he would face as president. Could he restore confidence in government, even as he was proposing the biggest federal intervention in the domestic economy in a generation? --snip-- After the New Deal and the Great Society, Reagan made government the enemy and, through tax cuts and generally unsuccessful attempts to cut spending, sought to scale down the size and power of Washington. What Obama proposed -- for the economy, health care and energy -- amounted to an attempt to reverse much of what Reagan had done....

Significant battles sometimes take place in obscure places. Until the last month, New York's 23rd district was known mostly for its cold climate, its history of electing Republicans to the House and its relatively moderate politics. The GOP has held the district for more than a century. As a result of a surprise announcement on Saturday, Republicans are likely to continue to hold it for the time being. But the developments that put Republicans back in a stronger position to win a special House election on Tuesday will reverberate unpredictably far beyond the boundaries of the 23rd district. By the...

In the mail this morning was an advanced copy of Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson's extremely well-reported history of the 2008 presidential campaign: The Battle for America is what the two veteran Posties have called it. The book will be published on August 4; Balz and Johnson will talk about it on Meet the Press on August 2. There are plenty of scoops, and I can't resisting sharing just one involving a critical phase of the campaign in early October of 2008. Whose idea was it for Gov. Sarah Palin to attack Barack Obama as a guy who "pals around...

Has Barack Obama underestimated John McCain? His advisers would certainly say no, that they always assumed the presidential race would be close and hard fought. But it's not too much to believe that at Obama's Chicago headquarters and on his campaign plane, the team did not fully appreciate the Republican position.

Here's an interesting analysis by WaPo's Dan Balz of Huckabee's closing-round Iowa speech, which Balz, a veteran political reporter, says is unlike anything he's ever heard in politics. Excerpts from the Balz analysis. Boldface mine: Most candidates in the final days before a crucial election offer a vision of what their leadership would mean to the lives of ordinary people. They include lists of issue priorities of the kind Hillary Clinton offers. They can wrap policy with an inspirational frame of the type Barack Obama presents or sound a call to arms in the way John Edwards is doing. They...

There are days when you get up and stare at the front page of the newspaper and you just have to put the paper back down. May 30 was one of those days. After escaping for the long Memorial Day weekend, one returns to the real world Tuesday morning. But those who read The Washington Post are reminded that some people live forever in the world of make believe. Witness the front-page headline: "Clinton Is A Politician Not Easily Defined: Senator's Platform Remains Unclear." That is to politics what "The DaVinci Code" is to theology. When you pick up the...

One year before the 2006 midterm elections, Republicans are facing the most adverse political conditions of the 11 years since they vaulted to power in Congress in 1994. Powerful currents of voter unrest -- including unhappiness over the war in Iraq and dissatisfaction with the leadership of President Bush -- have undermined confidence in government and are stirring fears among GOP candidates of a backlash. Interviews with voters, politicians and strategists in four battleground states, supplemented by a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, found significant discontent with the performance of both political parties. Frustration has not reached the level that...

When terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans came together in grief and resolve, rallying behind President Bush in an extraordinary show of national unity. But when Hurricane Katrina hit last week, the opposite occurred, with Americans dividing along sharply partisan lines in their judgment of the president's and the federal government's response. The starkly different verdicts on Bush's stewardship of the two biggest crises of his presidency underscore the deepening polarization of the electorate that has occurred on his watch. This gaping divide has left the president with no reservoir of good will among his political opponents at a...

Critics say Hillary Clinton needs vision for her expected tilt at the presidency to succeed. Dan Balz reports from Washington. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been a diligent legislator for nearly five years, introducing a blizzard of bills and amendments, forging relationships across party lines, establishing credentials on national security and boosting her approval rating at home by paying close attention to all regions of her state of New York. What she has lacked, according to some of her advisers and other Democrats, is a broader, more imaginative frame, a forward-looking national message that Democrats say they badly need in the...

For Democrats, a Troubling Culture Gap By Dan Balz Wednesday, August 10, 2005; A08 Dissatisfaction over the war in Iraq, the economy and rising health care costs might spell trouble for Republicans, but a study by Democratic strategists warns that their party's failure to connect with voters on cultural issues could prevent Democratic candidates from reaping gains in upcoming national elections. Democrats have expressed bewilderment over Republican gains among lower-income, less-educated voters, saying they are voting against their economic self-interest by supporting Republican candidates. But the new Democracy Corps study concludes that cultural issues trump economic issues by a wide...

Dissatisfaction over the war in Iraq, the economy and rising health care costs might spell trouble for Republicans, but a study by Democratic strategists warns that their party's failure to connect with voters on cultural issues could prevent Democratic candidates from reaping gains in upcoming national elections. Democrats have expressed bewilderment over Republican gains among lower-income, less-educated voters, saying they are voting against their economic self-interest by supporting Republican candidates. But the new Democracy Corps study concludes that cultural issues trump economic issues by a wide margin for many of these voters -- giving the GOP a significant electoral advantage....

washingtonpost.com Questions Remain on the Leaker and the Law Rove's Talks With Time Writer May Be a Focus By Dan Balz Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 8, 2005; A02 ... Now, a fast-moving series of decisions over the past week involving Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper have brought a renewed public focus on what role White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove may have played in disclosing the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame. A White House spokesman long ago asserted that Rove was "not involved" in disclosing Plame's identity. Rove, who has testified before a grand jury...