For most of 2012, President Obama has been running in the Democratic primary. I know that seems odd, given that he’s essentially running unopposed. But that's not what I'm talking about.

Although only 14 percent of the public approves of Congress, in an ordinary year 95 percent of all incumbents are re-elected. How is this possible?

On a variety of indicators, President Obama has far more in common with incumbent presidents who lost their bid for reelection than with those who won.

It's more perilous for an incumbent to be a Democrat than a Republican this year, in primaries as well as in the general election.

We are not in a cold war with China. That is too simple a metaphor to describe the state of Sino-American relations.

Last week I wrote about the standings in the presidential race and said it looked like a long, hard slog through about a dozen clearly identified target states, much like the contests in 2000 and 2004. Call it the 2000/2004 long, hard slog scenario.

This conference will examine recent analysis by Gautam Gowrisankaran on the overwhelming historical success of U.S. Senate incumbents in keeping their seats. Examining several factors that might explain the historical advantages that incumbents enjoy, this work is of particular importance as campaigns begin for the next senatorial elections in...

While markets are again correctly obsessing over Italy and Spain’s poor economic growth prospects, as reflected in markedly higher government bond yields for those two countries, they seem to have taken their eye off two upcoming political events that could usher in a new and more serious phase of the...