Why Ames Actually Matters  —  It is easy to make fun of the Ames Straw Poll.  It can't exactly be described as democratic when you — or the candidate hoping to secure your vote — have to pay your way into the polls.  —  But Ames has a pretty good predictive track record.

Rick Perry's presidential run reorders 2012 landscape  —  CHARLESTON, S.C. - It sounds like a political fairy tale: Months of campaigning by nearly a dozen candidates have left Republicans restless and worried.  No one quite fits the bill.  Less than six months remain before the primaries.

Nikki Haley Calls Rick Perry's Timing for Announcement “Brilliant”  —  ABC News' Arlette Saenz (@arlettesaenz) reports: Hours before Perry's official announcement, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called Texas Governor Rick Perry's timing for his announcement “brilliant.”  —  “I think his timing was brilliant.

Why I'm Running  —  What I learned in my 20's traveling the globe as an Air Force pilot, our current president has yet to acknowledge in his 50's - that we are the most exceptional nation on the face of the earth.  —  As Americans, we believe freedom is a gift from God, and government's prime function is to defend it.

Statement on temporary wireless service interruption in select BART stations on Aug. 11  —  Organizers planning to disrupt BART service on August 11, 2011 stated they would use mobile devices to coordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART Police.

What Happened to Obama?  Absolutely Nothing.  —  He is still the same anti-American leftist he was before becoming our president.  —  It's open season on President Obama.  Which is to say that the usual suspects on the right (among whom I include myself) are increasingly being joined …

They have no idea what they're doing  —  Journalistic standards and modern political norms place some restrictions on what a reporter can and will say in a news article.  It's what too often leads to unhelpful he-said-she-said reporting ("Eric Cantor today said two plus two equals five; Democrats and mathematicians disagreed").

Ordinary Americans Continue to Deliver Progressive Messages at Republican Town Hall Meetings  —  Two years ago, a concerted effort by a corporate-funded Tea Party movement to get conservatives out to town hall meetings changed the dynamic in Washington on health care reform and paved …

Sarah Palin and The Brody File One-On-One at Iowa State Fair  —  Sarah Palin came over and agreed to do a one-on-one interview with me at the Iowa State Fair Friday afternoon.  Just her and me.  This took place during her private lunch reception.  I asked her to come over and talk with me and she did.

Faltering Rhode Island City Tests Vows to Pensioners  —  When the small, beleaguered city of Central Falls, R.I., filed for bankruptcy this month, it sought to cut the pension checks it has been sending its retired police officers, firefighters and other workers by as much as half.