This issue of Political Report covers public views of Barack and Michelle Obama and Joe Biden, the state of the parties, ideology, gay marriage, marijuana, gun control, and more.

Mitt Romney's impressive victory Tuesday makes it very likely that we will look back on the Florida primary as the contest that determined the 2012 Republican nomination. To be sure, the campaign fight will go on, and Romney is by no means assured of a sweep of the relatively few February contests.

The Republican presidential candidates, except for Ron Paul, haven’t been paying much attention to young voters in the primaries and caucuses so far. But any Republican nominee — which is to say, probably Mitt Romney, or maybe Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum — had better be paying attention to them in the summer and fall.

Developing cannabis into aneffective prescription medication can be a goal within reach. But it will take a federal government that is truly open to the research that it claims to value.

A neuroscientist recalls how a host of substances took over his life and how, at last, he learned to impose new patterns of thought and behavior.

Why is marijuana, of all drugs, the main target of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy?

The tale is generously sprinkled with facts debunking common misperceptions, and Mr. Yergin sagely analyzes how well the energy industry really works. What he does not do—despite what some readers may long for-is draw many conclusions.

Once again, as another Supreme Court term comes to an end, the AEI Federalism Project has assembled a panel of distinguished experts to examine the fallout. Does the United States Constitution still have a Commerce Clause and a Takings Clause? Or have this year's medical marijuana case and property...