All Politics Voices

If you're thinking the speakership complicates a later bid for the White House, don't. No Ways and Means Committee chairman has made it, either – and none have tried.

Why presidential candidates are eager to let voters know that a father, mother, or grandfather worked a blue-collar job.

Clinton was poised, knowledgeable, made very few mistakes and generally commanded the stage. But Sanders supporters have reason to claim their candidate won. 

Only Bernie Sanders made any impact at all. But deprived of his adoring crowds, Sanders’ pitch fell flat. 

In the 'new math' evidently embraced by many media pundits, Hillary Clinton’s $28 million is not nearly as substantial as Bernie Sanders’s $26 million.

Maybe 'heading down into the box canyon – not getting out – is the whole point.'

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich alienated colleagues by centralizing enormous power in the speakership. But going too far in the other direction could be worse.

With time running down on his commission, John Wayne – as Capt. Nathan Brittles in 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' – decides to rush off to lead his troop one last time. 

This is not the first time that Bill Clinton's effort to protect his wife may have backfired.

When the usual adjectives won't do, a bomb-riding war monger is becoming a go-to image for what pundits see as absurd moments in politics. 

For the next month, Speaker John Boehner is untethered from the hard right, setting the stage to pass stalled measures. But removing Boehner also makes longterm prospects worse.

Since the 1990s, Republicans often invoke the term 'train wreck' to describe policies they oppose. But no one has used it as often in Congress as Sen. Ted Cruz.

'The only way John Boehner will vacate the speakership is if he decides he no longer wants the job.' On Friday, that's just what he did.

In September 1796, George Washington made history by announcing his decision to not to run for a third term. Here's a Donald Trump spin on such a moment. 

The Senate is supposed to calm the boisterous House. But the Senate has become just as polarized, partly because so many senators these days served in the House first. 

When something is 'evidence based,' it sounds like a fact. That makes the term a useful tool for politicians. It's a staple for Hillary Clinton, in particular.

Ronald Reagan is famous for the optimism of his 1984 reelection campaign. But before that, as an outsider, his tone wasn't so different from those of today's Republicans.

With the support of super PACs and other outside spending groups, several candidates might be able to outlast their 'sell-by' date. So-called laws of politics, based on patterns in past campaigns, may not apply. 

John Kasich exudes a type of Midwest reasonableness that stands in stark contrast to some of the more ideological firebrands in the Republican field. 

After 15 years of working on legislation to protect the Boulder-White Cloud Mountain range with a wilderness designation, Rep. Mike Simpson leveraged all his relationships and know-how to get a bill to the president's desk.