Politics

If Republicans can’t defund Obamacare and can’t eliminate the mandate, they can try to do the next best thing: eliminate the penalties. Or force Democrats to explain why they want to fine the American people.

Wendy Davis has thrown her hat into the gubernatorial ring. IPI's Tom Giovanetti predicts that the Democratic darling will lose — but Republicans might get bloodied in the battle as well, unless Abbott beats her handily. If Davis loses by anything less than 10 percent, Democrats will be able to spin it as a victory of sorts, Giovanetti says — and they’ll be right.

Speaker Boehner said he would return to “regular order”: if he had, the government-shutdown battle over ObamaCare would have had a much smaller impact.

It's T minus six and counting to the government shutdown. The Institute for Policy Innovation put together some fun facts about federal government shutdowns.

Government shutdowns over budget battles are not new, and they were often led by Democrats.

Greg Abbott has managed what no one expected: He’s got conservatives bristling. The Texas attorney general has joined with Eric Holder in opposing the merger of American Airlines and U.S. Airways.

Our “constitutional scholar” in the White House has done more than anyone to reignite popular interest in the freedoms and limits outlined in the U.S. Constitution—though not exactly in the way President Obama might have hoped.

Liberals have to point to impending catastrophes if they want public buy-in for their agenda. President Obama has disproved most of their predictions, and now their last, best catastrophe may be evaporating.

When the president speaks he may be telling the truth, he may not be, or he may be parsing his words to mislead. It has been his pattern since, well, forever, as John Heilemann and Mark Halperin demonstrate in their excellent book on the 2008 presidential election, Game Change.

We know what neo-conservatives believe about foreign policy, and who knows what Obama believes. Fortunately, conservatives can use the Syria crisis to define and promote conservative principles.