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While Thursday night's GOP debate was still on-going, NBC's Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd appeared on MSNBC's The Last Word and hyped that Donald Trump events like the one he held instead of attending the debate have a "sort of like this rock concert feel" while the latest Republican presidential debate felt like it was "low energy" instead. After joking that Rick Santorum was desperately trying to not stand directly behind the Trump campaign podium at the so-called event for veterans, Todd mentioned that he was there for awhile before coming back to the debate site and noticed that...

The showdown over eligibility may shift from the political arena to the courts – at least, it might if two plaintiffs get their way. Both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio face legal challenges to their presidential ambitions based on the circumstances of their birth. In Florida, the challenge comes from a voter whose previous lawsuit against Barack Obama’s eligibility went nowhere, and names both Republican contenders. Rubio’s legal team didn’t exactly shrug it off, but asked the court to do so instead: This week Rubio sought to have a court complaint in Florida against him thrown out, saying the...

A quarter of Republicans think White House hopeful Ted Cruz is disqualified to serve as U.S. president because he was born in Canada to an American mother, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Republican voters nearly mirror independents and the broader electorate in their belief that Cruz cannot hold the White House, with 27 percent of all voters and 28 percent of independents responding he should be disqualified. Cruz, a U.S. Senator from Texas who was born to a U.S. citizen mother and Cuban father in Calgary, Alberta, has brushed aside the attacks about his eligibility as pure politics. But...

During a live post-debate "Kelly File," a focus group of 26 South Carolina Republican voters overwhelmingly said that Ted Cruz was the big winner of the Fox Business Network GOP debate.

For months, Ted Cruz has laughed off Donald Trump's barbs, berated reporters who mentioned him and gone to near-comic lengths to publicly express enthusiasm for the real estate mogul's rival candidacy. Cruz isn't laughing anymore.

Breitbart News published at least 30 stories in the past week about Donald Trump's theory that Sen. Ted Cruz is ineligible to run for president because he's not a natural born citizen, moving into birther territory despite a previous categorical statement from a lead editor that Breitbart is "not a birther site." "I think pretty categorically, I think I can talk for our editorial team and I can certainly talk for Andrew [Breitbart]," Breitbart editor-at-large Ben Shapiro said in 2013, responding to criticism over the site's coverage of President Barack Obama's birth certificate. "We're not a birther site." A spokesman...

Major GOP donors and fundraisers are wondering whether they're wasting their money on super-PACs. They say they're not ready to abandon the super-PACs, but they're starting to look for ways to make them more effective during a presidential cycle that has challenged conventions about how to spend political donations.

Trump: "Just found out that @tedcruz is spending a fortune on Iowa push polls negative to me. Not nice, but OK! New polls are great."

I knew an Old Timey, Clawhammer banjo player who was from so far south in New Jersey that culturally his home was south of the Mason Dixon line. He was in the Navy, at Norfolk, some Limey sailors came into a bar, Jersey-Dixie immediately commenced with The Battle of New Orleans, as you can hear here in Old Timey Clawhammer style, it may have originated in that milieu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeQMYrSUwlg Unfortunately, a banjar makes an excellent club for a barroom brawl. Old Andy Jackson brazenly stood up to the British, but his real forte was standing up to the banks; the...

Senator Ted Cruz has positioned himself as a strong opponent of same-sex marriage, urging pastors nationwide to preach in support of marriage as an institution between a man and a woman, which he said was “ordained by God.” But on Monday night, at a reception for him at the Manhattan apartment of two prominent gay hoteliers, the Texas senator and Republican presidential hopeful struck quite a different tone. During the gathering, according to two people present, Mr. Cruz said he would not love his daughters any differently if one of them was gay. He did not mention his opposition to...

He couldn't be drawing attention to a certain Texas senator, could he? When political candidates play Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." at their campaign rallies, you can usually assume they've never listened to the lyrics. But Donald Trump's apparent decision to add the 1984 tune his warm-up music bespeaks a certain political savvy.

".....[Donald Trump's] detractors will no doubt see his China-bashing as another example of Trumpian buffoonery. Most students of U.S.-China trade will tell you that both countries benefit from the flow of goods and services across the Pacific, and that although China is guilty of imposing nontariff barriers, subsidizing its exporters in violation of global trade rules, and failing to respect the intellectual property rights of U.S. entities, the pros for American investors, workers, and consumers massively outweigh the cons. There is a problem with that view, however....[snip]......Of all the wackadoo ironies of Trump's emergence as tribune of America's white working...

Actual Title shortened to fit: If Trump is Mentioning Cruz's Canadian Birth Again Then He Must Know He's Going to Lose Big in Iowa I am amused that Donald Trump is once again reminding voters that Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Before speaking at a rally on Monday night in Lowell, Massachusetts, Trump stated, "Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: 'Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?' That'd be a big problem." Yet it was only four months ago just as the two were to appear together...

In an exclusive hour-long sit down interview with Breitbart News, 91-year-old conservative icon and living legend Phyllis Schlafly declared that Donald Trump "is the only hope to defeat the Kingmakers," and detailed why she believes Trump alone will return the government to the people. She warned that if immigration is not stopped: "we're not going to be America anymore."

Among the country's better pundits, it's an annual tradition to break out the figurative cat-'o'-nine-tails and indulge in a little ceremonial self-flagellation. For readers, there's sometimes little more satisfying than watching prognosticators and opinion-mongers publicly confess their sins of analysis. So this year, some of the braver ones have copped to underestimating Donald Trump - not just as a media magnet, but as a bona fide political force in the race for the Republican nomination. You won't be getting that from me. And Ted Cruz is the reason why. We'll get to why in a moment. First, as a separate...

EXCLUSIVE–Kathleen Willey Thanks Donald Trump for Highlighting Bill Clinton’s History with Women, Urges More Victims to Come Forward Kathleen Willey, one of the women who famously accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault, and has said she suffered acts of intimidation to silence her, used a radio interview on Sunday to broadcast a message to other possible female victims of Bill Clinton. Stated Willey: I would just like to encourage any woman who has suffered at the hands of Bill Clinton to please try to find the courage and bravery to come forth. Because it’s okay now. Nobody can hurt you...

...Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday he will win the presidency by “painting in bold colors, not pale pastels,” and that his passion for repealing Obamacare, establishing a flat tax and enforcing immigration law will be a contrast to the “mushy middle” that doomed GOP nominees in 1996, 2000 and 2012.“What they did didn’t work,” Mr. Cruz told CNN’s State of the Union.Mr. Cruz, Texas Republican, is leading in Iowa ahead of the Feb. 1 caucuses, even edging businessman Donald Trump by several points in recent polls despite the mogul’s big leads elsewhere and nationally.The Texan said his appeal is based on his loyalty...