No one has understood Valerie Jarrett's role, until now  —  Even at this late date in the Obama presidency, there is no surer way to elicit paranoid whispers or armchair psychoanalysis from Democrats than to mention the name Valerie Jarrett.  Party operatives, administration officials …

Rand's grand plan  —  An inside look at the senator's presidential rollout.  —  Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has made key decisions about how to launch his presidential campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination, including a plan to headquarter his effort in Louisville and opting to run …

The Inevitability Trap  —  Hillary Clinton and the drawbacks of being the front-runner. … “I'm sorry—you tapped into something no one cares about.”  —  BUY OR LICENSE »

Examining a racial slur entrenched in American vernacular that is more prevalent than ever.  —  This season, the National Football League is attempting the impossible, a reasoned but dubious mission that has already tripped up an institution as venerable as the National Association …

Billionaires Adelson and Saban, at odds in campaigns, unite on Israel and hit Obama  —  The billionaire political kingmakers planning to bankroll much of the 2016 presidential campaign spoke out together on Sunday with blunt warnings on key issues for their respective parties.

Obama doesn't rule out more troops in Iraq  —  President Obama in an interview broadcast on Sunday did not rule out the possibility of sending additional troops into Iraq.  —  The president said, however, the increase in coalition partners might mean that U.S. troop numbers begin to drop.

Reagan's apology to Thatcher over Grenada revealed  —  A recorded conversation between an apologetic Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher over the invasion of Grenada has been published for the first time.  —  “We regret very much the embarrassment that's been caused to you,” the US leader said during the call.

Cuomo had a secret re-election ‘pact’ with Republicans  —  The state's most powerful Republican secretly worked for months to help Democratic Gov. Cuomo win re-election — in exchange for Cuomo's promise not to aid Senate Democrats in their Long Island races, a top New York GOP leader has charged.

OBAMA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE LORETTA LYNCH REPRESENTED CLINTONS DURING WHITEWATER (CORRECTED)  —  New York federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch, the new nominee for attorney general, has a career filled with high profile cases — and she was a member of Bill Clinton's defense team during the 1992 Whitewater corruption probe.

G.O.P. Is Making Progress Toward Presidency but Is Still Playing Catch-Up  —  After five of six presidential elections in which the Republicans have lost the popular vote, this year's midterm elections point toward a plausible Republican path to winning the White House.

A generation of Democrats lost in the Obama era  —  The scale of the Democratic Party's losses over the course of the Barack Obama era is becoming clear, and they are vast.  On Saturday, Politico reported that Democrats are coming to the grim realization that much of the party's talent pool had been crushed on Tuesday.

In New York City, Marijuana May Mean Ticket, Not Arrest  —  The New York Police Department, which has been arresting tens of thousands of people a year for low-level marijuana possession, is poised to stop making such arrests and to issue tickets instead, according to law enforcement officials.

Lichtgrenze 2014: Commemorating the Fall of the Berlin Wall  —  Numerous events were held this weekend across Berlin, Germany, remembering the November 9, 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall that once divided the city.  A project called “Lichtgrenze 2014” (literally “Lightborder 2014") was erected …