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Veteran pollster John Zogby sent out an “Uh-oh” alert Saturday night noting that heading into Sunday, two key voting groups that had shifted toward Barack Obama by the Saturday before the 2012 election — and that gave him his landslide victory — were not moving Democrat Hillary Clinton’s way four days before Tuesday’s election. “The two groups were 18-29 year olds and self-identified members of the ‘Creative Class’ were clearly moving in the president’s direction both nationwide and in the battleground states,” he said. But here’s what Mr. Zogby sees as of Saturday night: “After serious doubts expressed among mainstream...

If Donald Trump can keep up his winning streak, he will head to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland with just barely enough delegates to win the presidential nomination outright, avoiding a messy fight that has all sides of the GOP wary of the consequences. Even if he is just shy of the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, Mr. Trump will still likely walk away with a first-ballot win after he sways enough uncommitted delegates to back him for the sake of avoiding a contested convention, one prominent Republican prognosticator said. The billionaire businessman will get his next...

M. Stanton Evans, arguably the funniest serious man in America for much of his 80 years on the planet, died Tuesday after a long bout with pancreatic cancer. For most of his life, as Mr. Evans watched fellow conservatives come and go, he lamented — always with humor, not bitterness — their tendency to catch “Potomac fever” as soon as they come to power. “When our people get to the point where they can do us some good, they stop being our people,” he said, uttering what became known as “Evans‘ Law of Politics.”

Phyllis Schlafly has long argued that the American conservative movement’s purpose is to influence, not echo, the Republican Party. And still going strong at age 90, Mrs. Schlafly wants to influence the GOP anew by warning against letting the party’s “kingmakers” — the Wall Street elite and political consultant class — coronate former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as the presidential nominee in 2016.

Bipartisan send-off for insider columnist It's a safe bet that Robert D. Novak would have loved the service for him on a steamy Friday morning at St. Patrick's Church in the heart of the city he loved. ...political consultant Jeff Bell - the late Mr. Novak's godfather and friend - and National Review Editor Kate O'Beirne delivered readings of the Mass... After the Mass came the kind of spontaneous political gabfest that Mr. Novak also would have loved... "Novak cost me an ambassadorship after Nixon had resigned and Ford took over," recalled Pat Buchanan, conservative political commentator and former top...

RNC reconsiders primary schedule Health care, cap-and-trade plans opposed By Ralph Z. Hallow (Contact) | Sunday, August 2, 2009 SAN DIEGO | Before wrapping up the four-day annual summer meeting of the Republican National Committee, members debated changing the 2012 GOP presidential primary schedule - something for the first time in their history they can actually do on their own, without approval of the more than 2,000 delegates who attend the quadrennial Republican National Convention. "Any change we make will have to be approved by two-thirds of the RNC members, so there will have to be a solid consensus that...

Two guys in a newsroom discussing Governor Palin:Click on image.Don Lambro speaks to Ralph Z. Hallow about his exclusive interview with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Republican state party leaders are rebelling against new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele for failing to dub President Obama and the Democrats as "socialists." And the rebels insist that the label matters. Even though Mr. Steele has called his Democratic adversaries "collectivists," at least 16 state leaders say the term lacks the pejorative punch needed to sway public opinion and want all 168 members of the Republican National Committee to debate and vote on it.It is the first time in memory that a sitting national leader of the Republican Party has faced a public challenge over his ideological...

In an attempt to deflect attention from growing problems with conservatives in his party, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele has begun naming top aides two weeks ahead of schedule. Mr. Steele on Thursday named Ken McKay his chief of staff, the start of a plan to spread over several days the revelation of his choices: technology chief on Friday, communications director on Monday, finance head on Tuesday and other key positions later. To the consternation of many Steele supporters and critics alike, the vital department-head positions have gone unfilled since the charismatic former Maryland lieutenant governor won election...

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has won the backing of some of America's best-known conservatives in his bid to become Republican National Committee chairman, just days before he and the other hopefuls are scheduled to begin a week of joint appearances to Republican Party audiences. The soft-spoken politician has received public endorsements from across the spectrum of conservatives - social, movement and economic, but some in the party, people who back him and people who don't, fear he may lack the charisma needed to represent the party on television. Blackwell supporters include limited-government champions such as American Conservative...

A power struggle that will determine the future leadership of the Republican Party has broken into the open as dissatisfied Republican leaders pushed for a meeting early next month that they hope will be the first step toward ending Washington-based control of the party. In a move seen as a backlash against years of control of the Republican National Committee (RNC) by allies of President Bush and their District-based consulting firms, several senior members of the party's governing body are working to call an extra meeting to hear from all candidates for national chairman three weeks before the election for...

A battle to take the reins of the Republican National Committee is taking off between former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Michael Steele. Republicans close to each man say they are intent on ousting Mike Duncan when his tenure ends in January and to insert themselves to articulate a counter-agenda to President-elect Barack Obama´s administration. A bevy of backers for each man, neither of whom is an RNC member, have been burning up the phone lines and firing off e-mails as they try to sway the 168 RNC members in the wake of the second consecutive...

The McCain campaign, acting through the Republican National Committee, has been negotiating with Rep. Ron Paul to win his support and acquire the names of his sympathizers among the 4,607 delegates and alternates at the Republican National Convention, according to a senior aide to the Texas congressman. The aim is to try to win support for the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket from Paul sympathizers, some of whom formally committed to Mr. Paul during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and others of whom are closet sympathizers of his libertarian brand of Republicanism. Sen. McCain and national party strategists worry...

Pro-choice GOP women praise pro-life PalinRalph Z. Hallow Sunday, August 31, 2008 MINNEAPOLIS | Pro-choice Republican women, including one of their movement's best-known leaders, have embraced the strongly pro-life Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as Sen. John McCain's choice for running mate. Somewhat surprisingly, Mrs. Palin has elicited enthusiasm not only from pro-choice Republican groups, but from many rank-and-file pro-choice Republican women. Ann Stone, who founded Republicans for Choice in 1989 and has led it ever since, told The Washington Times that in picking Mrs. Palin, Mr. McCain did what he needed to do to make the Republican National Convention a...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's lead in Massachusetts has plummeted 14 percentage points since June, a new Suffolk University-7 news poll shows. Mr. Obama leads Republican John McCain 47 percent to 38, down from a 23 point spread in June, and is bleeding support from male voters, independents and older voters. * * *

Sen. John McCain is making surprising headway with religious conservatives - that part of the Republican electoral coalition he was expected to find the most resistant. For a campaign that Republican critics have called ill-managed, disorganized and message-challenged, the Arizona senator's organization has, from all outward appearances, been doing things right in its appeals to evangelicals and other religious conservatives. In the past week, Mr. McCain won over a major group of social conservatives, thanks to personal appeals, and the campaign has made personnel moves appealing to religious voters. In Denver last week, a meeting of nearly 100 religious conservative...

Former Rep. Bob Barr says a number of Republicans have been trying to persuade him not to run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, but none has given him a convincing reason. The former Republican congressman from Georgia formed an exploratory committee last month and told The Washington Times that he has since been subjected to the behind-the-scenes pressure from Republicans not to run.

More than 20 social-conservative leaders purchased a full-page ad in an Arizona paper warning Sen. John McCain against picking Mitt Romney as his running mate, calling the former Massachusetts governor a "deal breaker" and an "utterly unacceptable" choice for social conservatives. The open letter to Mr. McCain, which focuses on Mr. Romney's record on abortion and gay marriage and calls him "unfit to be a 'heartbeat away' " from the presidency, runs in tomorrow's editions of the Prescott Daily Courier. It's dominated by block type words "No Mitt." The ad is timed to coincide with a McCain rally tomorrow on...

NEW ORLEANS — Sen. John McCain, in his post-victory debut before the conservative movement's top donors and leaders, will address the Council for National Policy's annual winter meeting here today. *snip* "Many conservative leaders did not support him, but he is a proud conservative Republican who thinks he can earn their support in the general election," Mr. [Charlie] Black added.

Some 50 stalwarts of the political right privately met with Mitt Romney minutes after he dropped out of the Republican nominating race to discuss the former Massachusetts governor becoming the face of conservatism, as Ronald Reagan became en route to his 1980 election win.