Why Obama Can't Say His Spies Underestimated ISIS  —  On “60 Minutes,” the president faulted his spies for failing to predict the rise of ISIS.  There's one problem with that statement: The intelligence analysts did warn about the group.  —  Nearly eight months ago, some of President Obama's …

Hong Kong “hands up, don't shoot” emulation of Ferguson protests is such a powerful image: pic.twitter.com/1Sk27MO1Y2  —  Hong Kong's protesters have good reason to put their hands up: police are using what many observers describe as an unprecedented level of force against the demonstrations …

Senate Update: When Should Democrats Panic?  —  The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll always makes news and with good reason: The pollster that conducts it, Selzer & Company, is among the best in the country, according to FiveThirtyEight's pollster ratings.  On Saturday evening …

Ted Cruz Is Prepping a Foreign Policy-Focused Presidential Campaign  —  The junior senator from Texas thinks he has found a policy “sweet spot” to anchor a 2016 run.  —  LINES TO SHARE  — On 2016, one Ted Cruz aide said, 'At this point it's 90/10 he's in.'

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is an American Hero  —  She's staying put—and has some choice words for young feminists.  An interview.  —  Ruth Bader Ginsburg was considered a judge's judge when she was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993, an incrementalist who thought Roe v. Wade might have gone too far.

Saving California One Republican At A Time  —  SHARES  —  California is morphing into a warmer Detroit with beaches and pneumatic blondes, but it doesn't have to be this way.  Only liberalism could've taken the most beautiful, most hard-working, most entrepreneurial state in the union …

Our Invisible Rich  —  Half a century ago, a classic essay in The New Yorker titled “Our Invisible Poor” took on the then-prevalent myth that America was an affluent society with only a few “pockets of poverty.”  For many, the facts about poverty came as a revelation, and Dwight Macdonald's article arguably …

The Revenge of Rand Paul  —  The Senator has fought to go mainstream with the ideology that he shares with his father.  How far can that strategy take him? … “You don't need to conduct me so hard—I'm right here.”  —  BUY OR LICENSE » … “So how does that eightfold path get us back on the Garden State?”

The stars align for baby Charlotte  —  Leading astrologers say that Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky is destined for a future working on social justice and will enjoy a strong relationship with her proud grandparents, Hillary and Bill.  —  After Chelsea Clinton and Mark Mezvinsky's daughter …

What Does Thom Tillis Want?  —  Thom Tillis is a man in a hurry.  He went from city councilor to North Carolina House speaker in just five years.  Four months into his second term as speaker, he was running for U.S. Senate.  The man who would hand the Republicans control of the Senate …

Senate showdown: GOP frets over Harkin seat  —  Three Koch-linked groups have invested substantially.  Concerned Veterans for America has already spent $2.5 million, Americans for Prosperity put in $1.2 million earlier in the summer and Freedom Partners (through two separate entities) has spent around $835,000.

House Hopefuls in G.O.P. Seek Rightward Shift  —  One nominee proposed reclassifying single parenthood as child abuse.  Another suggested that four “blood moons” would herald “world-changing, shaking-type events” and said Islam was not a religion but a “complete geopolitical structure” unworthy of tax exemption.

EXCLUSIVE: JAMES O'KEEFE RELEASES SECOND VIDEO EXPOSÉ ON BATTLEGROUND TEXAS  —  HOUSTON, Texas — Battleground Texas (BGTX) may have failed to take any action regarding the “admission” of an undercover volunteer with BGTX that she had broken multiple election laws …

The Tide of the Culture War Shifts  —  Not long ago, it would have been unusual for a Democratic senatorial candidate in Iowa to run a powerful abortion-rights television ad like the one recently broadcast by Representative Bruce Braley.  —  The ad lists in detail the anti-abortion positions taken …