When Vladimir Putin returns to the Russian presidency on Monday, May 7, the pageantry surrounding his inauguration will aim to portray a picture of unassailable strength, a confident master of his domain invulnerable to pressures from within or without. But things are not quite as stable...

The off-year gubernatorial contests are often the first real opportunity for a party out of power to get back some momentum.

The Obama budget is already being ripped by Republicans as a political document and by deficit hawks for its failure to attack the debt problem vigorously enough. But in context, it is worth a brief comparison to the Romney and Santorum visions.

In 2008, the "politics of hope" campaign trained volunteers to testify about how they "came to Obama" the way one talks of "coming to Jesus." Now they ask supporters to help build a digital enemies list. Which they'll do, of course. But not because they love him.

For all the talk about independents and tea parties, the defining characteristic of this election is the revolt of the white working class, which may determine the outcome of the Senate election in West Virginia.

As the case of Marco Rubio demonstrates, it seems that no matter whom the GOP includes, it is always the wrong kind of inclusiveness.

Having a supermajority may have hurt Democrats more than it helped them: it enabled them to block Republicans out the health reform legislation process, thereby violating Barack Obama's campaign promise of bipartisanship.

With the UN-mandated imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, President Obama has now thrust us into our third Mideast shooting war.