G.O.P. Field Wrestles With Questions on Islam and the Presidency

Faith and politics intersected on Sunday when discussions of how Donald J. Trump handled a question about President Obama’s religion evolved into an awkward debate over whether a Muslim could ever be commander in chief. Several Republican presidential candidates offered halting responses to the question when it was posed to […] Read more »

Debate Reveals a GOP In Search of Direction

That sound reverberating from the Ronald Reagan presidential library was the crash of conservative icons crumbling as 15 Republican contenders tussled over the party’s current identity and future direction in two revealing debates Wednesday night. Only Reagan seemed entirely immune from attack. CONT. Ronald Brownstein, National Journal Read more »

Carly Fiorina Gets a Lift From Iowans After Debate

Carly Fiorina hit a walk-off homer, helium is leaking from Ben Carson’s balloon and Scott Walker’s candidacy is on life support, according to the Republicans in Iowa who will cast the first votes of the nominating contest in less than five months. Oh, and Donald J. Trump is still Donald […] Read more »

How polls have changed since last debate: Outsiders up, establishment down

At Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate, 11 candidates will take the stage in an unexpected order – with the outsiders very much on the inside. That’s because they have broken away from the rest of the field since the first debate. CONT. Kevin Schaul, Washington Post Recent polls: GOP presidential […] Read more »

The Republican Candidates Donald Trump Has Hurt the Most

Donald Trump is hurting all his fellow Republican presidential candidates, though some more than others. Rick Perry, who suspended his campaign on Friday, is at the top of that list but is far from alone. To assess the flow of support among the many candidates since Mr. Trump entered the […] Read more »