AEI Election Watch 2012: American Enterprise Institute experts Karlyn Bowman and Henry Olsen discuss the results of contests in Alabama and Mississippi and preview key next battles – Puerto Rico and Illinois – in the 2012 GOP presidential contest.

Believers in central planning should take a look at Washington's Metro rail transit system. While they will find many things to like, they will also see examples of how central planners -- and especially rail transit planners -- can get things disastrously and expensively wrong.

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.

Mitt Romney’s showing in Michigan, on top of his proven appeal to this demographic—and particularly to affluent women—suggests they could make a difference in November 2012.

On the front page of this morning’s Metro section there was a story about Wal-Mart’s plan to open six stores in the District of Columbia. But in the box listing the locations there was an impossible address, “801 New Jersey Ave. NE”. 

The large domestic outflow from coastal metropolises is disturbing, and suggests a vote of no-confidence in our formerly fastest-growing metro areas.

One approach for Mitt Romney would be what opponents might call a double-vanilla ticket, with another white male as vice presidential nominee. Four possibilities come to mind.

AEI's Election Watch series returns in 2012 for its sixteenth season, bringing together AEI's nationally renowned team of political analysts.