Thunder Road  —  WASHINGTON — I HAVE learned two things covering politics.  —  One, first impressions are often right.  John Edwards is slick.  Hillary Clinton is expedient.  W. was in over his head.  Barack Obama is too much in his head.  Chris Christie can be a bully.

The misuse of American might, and the price it pays  —  The United States no longer knows how to win wars, but it continues to start them.  —  “These days the United States absolves itself of any responsibility to finish wars that it starts,” writes Andrew J. Bacevich.  (Edel Rodriguez / For The Times / January 11, 2014)

Democrats plead with Obama to abandon Social Security cut  —  Democratic senators are pleading with President Obama to abandon his proposal to trim Social Security benefits before it becomes a liability for them in the midterm elections.  —  The president proposed a new formula …

Ariel Sharon Never Changed  —  Shortly after the eruption of the second Palestinian intifada in 2000 — an uprising allegedly, though not actually, triggered by an infamous Ariel Sharon walkabout atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem — I was visiting Sharon's ranch in southern Israel for the harvest holiday of Sukkot.

A National Strategy Funds State Political Monopolies  —  By his third year as chairman of the Alabama Republican organization, Mike Hubbard believed his party had just about everything it needed to win control of the State Legislature.  —  He had a plan: an 88-page playbook for the 2010 campaign …

Maryland officials were warned for a year of problems with online health-insurance site  —  More than a year before Maryland launched its health insurance exchange, senior state officials failed to heed warnings that no one was ultimately accountable for the $170 million project …

Rep. Darrell Issa's agenda in 2014: IRS, Benghazi and Fast and Furious  —  Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in 2014 will pursue the IRS scandal, the deadly Benghazi attack and the botched Fast and Furious operation in what will likely be his last year as the House GOP's chief investigator.

95 Tory MPs call for EU law veto  —  Exclusive: In a major intervention, backbenchers have written to the Prime Minister urging him to change the law to block new EU legislation  —  Parliament must be given the power to veto every aspect of EU law, 95 Conservative MPs demand in a letter to David Cameron.

Christie's bridge scandal and the muddled search for a GOP nominee  —  The bridge scandal that has engulfed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has also brought more disruption to the already-muddled early stages of the Republican Party's search for a 2016 presidential nominee.

U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Anti-Abortion Group's Case For Lying In Political Ads  —  WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear a challenge to an Ohio law that forbids candidates and issue groups from making false campaign statements.  —  The case, involving …