Democrats are in denial.  Their party is actually in deep trouble.  —  The Democratic Party is in much greater peril than its leaders or supporters recognize, and it has no plan to save itself.  —  Yes, Barack Obama is taking a victory lap in his seventh year in office.

CNN/ORC poll: Hillary Clinton wins debate, but Bernie Sanders rises  —  Washington (CNN)With the first Democratic debate in the books, a new CNN/ORC poll finds most who watched think Hillary Clinton had the best performance of the night, but her strong showing hasn't boosted her standing in the race for the party's nomination.

Gowdy appears to accidentally release CIA source's name  —  <p>House Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy appears to have accidentally released the name of a CIA source in the midst of a back-and-forth with Democrats about how sensitive the information was and whether its presence …

Poll: Trump Hits Highest Mark Yet, But Carson Is Close Behind  —  Real estate mogul Donald Trump remains the frontrunner in the Republican presidential field, while former neurosurgeon Ben Carson holds a close second place, a new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll shows.

Over A Year Before 9/11, Trump Wrote Of Terror Threat With Remarkable Clarity  —  “I really am convinced we're in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers.”  —  Al Bello / Getty Images

Trump Is Right About 9/11  —  Donald Trump utters plenty of ugly untruths: that undocumented Mexican immigrants are “rapists,” that Syrian refugees are committing “all sorts of attacks” in Germany and represent a “Trojan Horse” for ISIS.  But he tells ugly truths too: that “when you give …

What The New York Times Didn't Tell You  —  “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”  —  If you read the recent New York Times article about Amazon's culture, you remember that quote.  Attributed to Bo Olson, the image of countless employees crying at their desks set …

Americans' Desire for Stricter Gun Laws Up Sharply  —  STORY HIGHLIGHTS  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fifty-five percent of Americans say they want laws covering the sale of firearms to be stricter than they are now, a distinct rise of eight percentage points from 2014.

Jim Webb to consider running as an independent  —  Jim Webb, the longshot Democratic presidential candidate, may run as an independent, his campaign said in an email to reporters on Monday evening.  —  The former Virginia senator, who complained last week about not having enough talking …

Stoner high school student says he hacked the CIA  —  Hillary Rodham Clinton's e-mail scandal didn't stop the head of the CIA from using his own personal AOL account to stash work-related documents, according to a stoner high-school student who claims to have hacked into them.

Dramatic motorcycle crash caught on video; DPS investigating  —  GRANBURY - The road rash and deep cuts all over Eric Sanders' body only begin to tell the story.  —  “I've got a gouge in my elbow that is bone-deep,” Sanders said.  —  The video tells the rest.

‘I Will Take Something Good Out Of This’: Bride-To-Be's Family Turns Cancelled Wedding Into Banquet For Homeless  —  A California family has turned their bride-to-be's heartbreak into something positive.  —  Quinn Duane, 27, was looking forward to a lavish wedding at Citizen Hotel in Sacramento …

The women in the van  —  <p>A few dozen reporters who regularly cover Hillary Clinton gathered last August to watch the first GOP debate at her headquarters in Brooklyn.  MSNBC's Alex Seitz-Wald stopped for a moment and looked around.</p><p> A second later, he realized what seemed strange …

Finally - a change in course on drug policy  —  “Greatness comes in simple trappings,” Richard Nixon once said.  It seems appropriate to quote the man who started the failed war on drugs to applaud good efforts to end it.  —  In an as-yet unreleased statement circulated to the BBC …