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Republican strategist Karl Rove arranged a meeting between fundraisers for GOP candidate Ben Carson and casino tycoon Steve Wynn, Bloomberg reports. Wynn is a sometimes-business competitor of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, whose campaign is viewing the meeting as an attempt by the GOP establishment to help Carson topple his chief rival in the primary race. "Karl Rove is at the center of the GOP establishment — fearful of what real leadership in Washington D.C. will accomplish," Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told Bloomberg in a statement. "Mr. Trump continues to expose the all-talk, no action politicians propped up their dark...

Karl Rove says Donald Trump may very well win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. But the influential GOP consultant and policy adviser, in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, adds the billionaire developer's acidic attacks on his fellow candidates could hurt his chances. "He's taken the lead - took the lead in July and held it. He's got a chance to win the nomination," Rove said Wednesday on "Newsmax Prime" with J.D. Hayworth. "His challenge is, he's created a high floor, but a low ceiling. It's sort of hard to grow when you've taken on the habit of excoriating everybody...

Influential GOP consultant and policy adviser Karl Rove says former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels would be the perfect running mate for whoever wins the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. And at the very least, Rove adds in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, the GOP's vice presidential pick should be a Midwesterner to maximize the Republican ticket's drawing power. "It would be good to have somebody from the Midwest. I've got an out-of-the-box idea for you, how about the former governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels," Rove said Wednesday on "Newsmax Prime" with J.D. Hayworth. "[He's] done an exemplary job serving in...

POLITICO Caucus shows Cruz gaining ground and Clinton pushing Sanders aside in the early voting states. After months of waiting for Donald Trump’s decline, Republican insiders now concede the poll leader could take two of the first four early voting states, though they caution his hold on Iowa is weak. That’s according to the POLITICO Caucus, our weekly poll of the top strategists, operatives and activists in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. For this Thanksgiving holiday week, POLITICO analyzed seven months-worth of responses to our weekly benchmark question: Who would win your state if the voting were today?...

The Washington Post has a fascinating article up about the Republican Party's establishment plans to take down Donald Trump. In short? There is no plan. Well, perhaps that's not entirely fair. Plan A is to wait for the Trump campaign to implode. This view is put into words by Frank VanderSloot, chief executive of a large nutritional-supplement company and a backer of Senator Marco Rubio: "It’s just going to take a little time for people to take a step back and look at his track record, see who he is and how he’s changed his positions and how unprepared he...

There are three Republican candidates who can plausibly win the GOP nomination in 2016, former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove said Wednesday, but he doesn't think Donald Trump is one of them. Instead, Rove said he'd pick "[Jeb] Bush, [Chris] Christie, or [Marco] Rubio, in alphabetical order," telling MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program that while he can make the case that "probably six or seven people," including Trump, can make the nomination, he doesn't think it's likely that the New York billionaire will win. Rove said he also sees Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, or Ohio Gov. John Kasich...

The super PACs going after Donald Trump are making a "bad, bad decision," the candidate's special counsel and adviser warned Tuesday morning, saying that if the reports are true, "it changes everything." "Donald Trump wants to be treated fairly. He will demand that the GOP treat them fairly," Michael Cohen told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day." If the party does treat him fairly, Trump "will honor the pledge because he’s an honorable guy," he said. But, "if they break that agreement with him, as they say, woe be on them," Cohen cautioned, referring to the loyalty agreement Trump signed,...

Late Friday evening, Breitbart News published an item highlighting, in part, a Go Fund Me campaign started by Republican establishment political consultant Liz Mair - her goal being to target and take down Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. For some reason, Mair seems to have reconsidered her effort, and the campaign is now nowhere to be found at Go Fund Me. Breitbart News reported: True to form, her online fundraising to take down Trump appears to be losing, too. Exactly how much Mair can accomplish with, at this time, all of $356 to take on Trump, remains to be seen. But...

Republican donors with links to several presidential candidates - as well as a prominent GOP operative - are pooling their resources in a new effort to go after Donald Trump and keep the party's presidential front-runner from winning the nomination. The most recent bid is a reported "guerrilla campaign" led by a group called Trump Card LLC and run by Liz Mair, former communications official for the Republican National Committee. The group's goal, according to The Wall Street Journal, is to collect money from anonymous donors to "defeat and destroy" Trump, who has essentially led the GOP presidential field since...

Since early 2014, The Washington Post and ABC News have been polling on the 2016 Republican presidential race. (Let's save the "it's too early to poll!!" thing for another day, shall we?) At no point in those two years has Jeb Bush ever been in as bad a shape as he is in the new Post-ABC poll released Sunday. Here's Jeb's support in a hypothetical national primary vote over that time. Six percent. Six! That's roughly one-fifth the support enjoyed by Donald Trump, the leader in the new Post-ABC survey. It's also a precipitous fall from Bush's peak in March...

A couple of new national polls have come out over the weekend. They are very similar: Both polls show the race to be between four candidates divided into two distinct tiers. What is most telling, though, is the way that Jeb Bush has found a comfy home at around 5%. Via the RCP average

Donald Trump didn't hold back on Karl Rove. In the span of 15 minutes, the Republican presidential front-runner referred to Rove as a "total moron" - adding that "you can print that if you want" - and compared him to someone who has worse aim than someone randomly throwing darts. "A guy like Karl Rove, Karl Rove is Republican establishment. He spent last cycle, $US430 million, and lost every single race," Trump said in an interview with Business Insider last week. "And I saw the commercials and the things that he was making, they're the worst I've ever seen. I...

Former Florida governor is spending more than twice as much as any other candidate, according to new data With a full year left until the 2016 presidential election it's still unclear who will emerge the winner. But when it comes to millions spent on TV ads, one candidate has already taken the top spot: Jeb Bush. However, other than some gift baskets from local stations in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former Florida governor has little to show for it, with poll numbers stubbornly stuck in the single digits. Bush and his supporters have so far spent an eye-popping $20...

He was the night's biggest loser: full of contradiction and without depth. Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate was the best so far. The moderators emphasized substance and the candidates complied, most doing themselves some good-the biggest exception being Donald Trump. -snip- Jeb Bush went in facing the most pressure and came through, reassuring supporters with his best performance so far. He whacked Hillary Clinton for saying that President Obama's economic policies "get an A," declaring that a weak jobs picture, growing poverty and increasing dependency on food stamps "may be the best that Hillary Clinton can do, but it's not...

Despite all the Republican griping over CNBC's presidential debate, Maria Bartiromo says any question will be ‘fair game’ in Milwaukee on Tuesday. -snip- Bartiromo will share moderating duties with Fox Business and Fox News anchor/executive Neil Cavuto and Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker-will ostensibly focus on the economy, jobs, and business, but will also touch on the news of the day, such as whether or not Dr. Carson has misrepresented aspects of his youth (knife fights? West Point scholarship?) in the stories he likes to tell about his coming of age.

In interviews, moderators Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo vow to stay out of the action. Fox Business Network, the host of Tuesday's GOP debate, has its claws out - not for the candidates, as its moderators vow to stick closely to the issues, but for its more famous competitor CNBC. -snip- At FBN, Bartiromo and Cavuto will be joined as questioners by Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker, whom the Journal did not make available for an interview.

When is the next Republican presidential debate? The fourth Republican presidential debate will be Tuesday, November 10th, live from the Milwaukee Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. -snip- Who will moderate the debate? There will be three moderators: FBN anchors Maria Bartiromo and Neil Cavuto and Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker. Before Cavuto was a Fox News staple (he hosts a show every afternoon at 4 PM), he interned in Jimmy Carter’s White House.

Fox News has announced the fourth GOP debate criteria, rules, and who the moderators will be. The debate, which will take place Tuesday, Nov. 10, will be moderated by Fox Business Managing Editor Neil Cavuto, Fox News Global Markets editor Maria Bartiromo, and Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker, according to Politico. Who is moderator Gerard Baker of Wall Street Journal? He has a strong track record as an economics writer, so he will definitely call the candidates out on economic plans that don't add up. Fox News announced that there will be two debates, a main debate and an...

A new poll of New Hampshire Republicans by Monmouth University confirms the fading fortunes of the Jeb Bush campaign. Despite spending more on TV than all other candidates combined, Jeb has dropped to sixth place in nation's first primary state, a must-win for his Presidential ambitions. In July, Jeb Bush was second in New Hampshire. A great deal of Bush's candidacy was predicated on enjoying an enormous financial edge over his Republican rivals. When he launched his campaign this summer, an allied Super PAC announced it had raised just over $100 million to support Jeb in the primary. This announcement...

A veterans advocacy group is criticizing the plan to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released by Donald Trump. Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) said the plan was “heavy of rhetoric, light on specifics” in a statement on Saturday.