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Sen. Lindsey Graham says he's confident he can win the Republican presidential primaries in New Hampshire and his home state of South Carolina, two of the first voting states in the nomination contest. "I wouldn't be running in New Hampshire if I thought I couldn't win in New Hampshire," he said. "It will be good for the party to have my voice." Sen. John McCain, Graham's friend and colleague and a two-time New Hampshire primary winner, agrees. He joined Graham on Saturday for a full day of events, including a town hall meeting in Manchester

As longtime readers may remember, Ted Cruz and I are old, dear friends. We met on the 2000 George W. Bush campaign. I had taken a six-week leave of absence from National Review; Ted was a domestic-policy adviser. We “bonded,” to use an Oprah-esque word. We had many a late-night discussion at Earl Campbell’s barbecue joint, and other places. Did I mention that the campaign was headquartered in Austin? I guess I didn’t. It was.Speaking of bonding, Ted met an economic-policy whiz named Heidi Nelson on that campaign. They were later married. I first wrote about Ted, at least in...

On today's Morning Joe, Josh Earnest said that President Obama believes that picking Biden as his VP was the "smartest decision he ever made in politics." Joe Scarborough drew the mischievous-but-logical inference that Obama must thus believe it was smarter than picking Hillary as his Secretary of State. Though Mika interrupted to say that's not what he meant, Earnest never said boo to counter Joe's interpretation. Earnest later said that if Biden chooses to run, he could make a "strong" case for his candidacy. He added that other Dem candidates could make "quite" a strong case. Note the qualifier. And...

Sen. Ted Cruz's public accusation that Mitch McConnell lied to fellow Senators has not gone over well among the GOP leadership. Establishment Republicans are predictably going after the Texas Senator and rebuking him for violating Senate etiquette.Cruz made waves last week when he accused the Majority Leader on the Senate floor of telling a bald-faced lie to Republicans -- a lie that Cruz says opened the way to a vote on the Export-Import Bank, which conservative Republicans would have blocked if they had known the Majority Leader's plans. The Senate ended up voting to renew the Ex-Im Bank on Sunday evening. Cruz and other conservative Republicans...

The Republican-controlled Senate is set to vote Monday on halting federal aid to Planned Parenthood, a fast response to the series of unsettling videos exposing the group's little-noticed practice of providing fetal tissue to researchers. The measure is not expected to pass because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the other 53 Republican senators will need support from several Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold, with some moderates on both sides still apparently undecided. However, the effort appears to be another step in the effort by pro-life groups and others to restrict abortions and undermine Planned Parenthood, which provides health...

C-SPAN Partners with New Hampshire Union Leader To Bring August 3rd New Hampshire Republican Forum To A National TV Audience #Voters First (For Immediate Release: July 31, 2015) C-SPAN is partnering with the New Hampshire Union Leader and regional newspapers in early presidential caucus and primary states for the New Hampshire newspaper’s August 3rd Voters First Forum and will provide live nationwide coverage, beginning at 6:30 pm ET to 9:30 pm ET.Fourteen Republican presidential candidates* are participating in the two-hour Forum, which will start at 7pmET at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester on Monday, Aug. 3. Veteran New Hampshire political...

SO AFTER ABOUT 4 HOURS, SCOTT WALKER IS FARTHER AHEAD IN THE INSTAPUNDIT READERS’ POLL THAN I WOULD HAVE EXPECTED. And this lead has been consistent from the very beginning.

Have we come to expect this now of our United States attorneys general? The image is still emblazoned on my mind: those Black Panthers with billy clubs and paramilitary outfits confronting voters at a voting station. Video, proof, and no action from then-attorney general Eric Holder. Now we have Loretta Lynch, a family friend of Eric Holder and his wife, and also a person who received her big career break from Bill Clinton. Eric Holder, who was held in contempt of Congress, who sued states that attempted to enforce purposely unenforced federal law, never provided all Fast and Furious documents...

Alternate headline: “Blogger loses all interest in Thursday’s GOP debate.”I’m less interested in watching Trump throw punches than seeing who’ll throw the first punch at him. Most people would say “Perry,” but Perry’s fallen out of the top 10 in polling thanks to the announcement bounce that Kasich got. Unless something changes in the next 24 hours he’ll be relegated to the JV debate at 5 p.m. Who picks a fight with Trump in the main event, then? Jeb doesn’t need to do it to get noticed. Rubio, maybe? Paul? “I’m not a debater. These politicians — I always...

Donald Trump keeps warning the Republican National Committee to treat him “fairly” and “with respect” during the primary, or else he might run in the general election as an independent. This is meant to be a threat, but it’s a fairly empty one. Trump is a bigger threat to the party on the inside than on the outside. Today, Trump looks like a populism-spouting insurgent with the potential to split the party, giving Republicans cause to keep him in the fold. But that’s because for the moment, he’s running in a Republican primary, solely focused on conservative base voters. Running...

NASHVILLE — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz now has four stops scheduled in a planned trip through Tennessee on Aug. 10 to promote himself as the Republican presidential nominee, all at county GOP gatherings.The Cruz campaign website Friday posted plans for a “biscuits and gravy” breakfast in Chattanooga, a “taste of homecoming” luncheon in Murfreesboro and an afternoon “Southern sweets meet and greet” at Brentwood, Tenn., on that date. The Jackson Sun had previously reported Cruz has plans for an evening dinner event at Jackson on the same day.As previously reported, other planned Tennessee visits by Republican presidential candidates include a...

<p>It may be the Summer of Trump, but the publicity-hungry real estate magnate is not the only Republican presidential candidate relishing all his attention.</p> <p>Donald J. Trump’s surge in the polls has been met with barely concealed delight by Jeb Bush and his supporters. Mr. Trump’s bombastic ways have simultaneously made it all but impossible for those vying to be the alternative to Mr. Bush to emerge, and easier for Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor, to position himself as the serious and thoughtful alternative to a candidate who has upended the early nominating process.</p>

Hillary Clinton says she’s running for president, but at this point in the inexorably unfolding Clinton Scandals, it may be all she can do to stay out of jail: With U.S. intelligence officials scrambling to contain damage from potentially hundreds of spy agency secrets in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private emails, questions are mounting over why the Justice Department has not yet opened a criminal investigation against the Democratic presidential front-runner for mishandling a mountain of classified information.While some secrecy experts believe Mrs. Clinton will be able to build a strong case that material on her server was not classified...

"Does the Bible have authority over the Constitution?" That "gotcha" question was put to Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday. The retired neurosurgeon, however, didn't fall for the bait. NBC's Chuck Todd said it's a question from a Facebook poster by one Victor Roush, adding that it's a "simple question." "Does the Bible have authority over the constitution?" "That is not a simple question by any stretch of the imagination," Carson, retired neurosurgeon retorted. "I think probably what you have to do is ask a very specific question about a specific passage of the Bible...

On Friday, we checked in on the Pentagon’s ongoing effort to recruit, vet, and train ambitious "freedom fighters" to join the battle against ISIS in Syria. It goes without saying that covert US efforts to aid the multifarious groups vying for control of the country have met with disastrous consequences so far, but if there’s anything Washington is particularly adept at, it’s making bad foreign policy outcomes worse, which is why we weren’t at all surprised to learn that the commander of the Pentagon's new Syrian "force" was captured, along with his deputy, by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra last week near...

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden is leaning strongly toward a 2016 presidential bid, a source close to the vice president tells the Herald — news that is spurring excitement among top Democrats in Massachusetts and early voting states who are worried about front-runner Hillary Clinton’s hefty political baggage and sagging poll numbers. An adviser close to Biden, who is familiar with the vice president’s exploration process, told the Herald that Biden will “more likely than not” jump into the 2016 race. A request for comment from Biden’s White House office was not returned yesterday. The news of Biden’s renewed campaign activity...

It’s probably a sign of the times which defines this span of every quadrennial cycle as the silly season, but the media can manage to take any comment from the candidates – be it ever so trivial – and figure out a way to turn it into a controversy. With that in mind it probably won’t come as any surprise that when Donald Trump was tagged for the Sunday shows, a question which seems like one of the most obvious things in the world immediately turned into a punditry dust-up. What did the interviewer want to know? How much...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper fired the starting pistol Sunday for an 11-week political marathon that will end Oct. 19, when voters decide whether he deserves a fourth straight mandate. Harper met with Gov. Gen. David Johnston at Rideau Hall Sunday morning and asked for the dissolution of Parliament to make way for the election. Soon after, he emerged to confirm that the race is formally underway.

The final lineup for Thursday’s debate is nearly set, as well as the five o’clock &#F8220;pregame show” with the poorly performing candidates, and Mark Everson is objecting to the fact that he doesn’t seem to be included at all. In fact, he has written a letter to Fox News to complain about it. Wait a minute… Mark who?Yes, he’s a declared candidate for the presidency who has filed all the required paperwork. But just to be fully honest here, I do this for a living and I had to Google the guy. He declared back in March and has...

For the first time, 14 Republican presidential candidates will be taking questions from Granite Staters at the Voters First Forum being hosted at Saint Anselm College tonight. Readers of the New Hampshire Union Leader, along with partner news organizations in Iowa and South Carolina, sent thousands of responses when asked what they would like to hear the candidates talk about. The top two on their minds: Immigration and the economy. Moderator Jack Heath will ask about those topics, among dozens of others, during the 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. event. Taking part tonight will be Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted...