At the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, Mitt Romney will stand behind a human shield: his wife Ann Romney. And with good reason. While his campaign still frets about his massive "empathy gap," the Republican nominee will deploy his warm, engaging and sympathetic wife as a proxy for the compassion and emotional connection to voters […]

Back in June, Mitt Romney's right-hand man Eric Fehrnstrom declared, "This is not a social issue election." Romney, he pledged, will "govern as a pro-life president, but you're going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people's attention from the Obama performance on the economy." But as the Republicans themselves […]

One of the inevitable developments of any modern presidency is the "psycho-history" cottage industry. That is, academics, physicians, amateur psychologists and dishonest partisans predictably produce elaborate psychological theories tracing the conscious and subconscious roots of the President's personality and political worldview. But on the eve of this week's Republican National Convention that will officially nominate […]

As with virtually every issue, Mitt Romney has a love-hate relationship with his own 2006 Massachusetts health care law. Just days after his aide Andrea Saul provoked right-wing fury by claiming "if people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney's health care plan, they would have had health care," Mitt on Sunday similarly boasted of […]

By every indication, Mitt and Ann Romney are completely committed and deeply dedicated to each other. Nevertheless, they really need to get their lines straight, especially on the subject of their mysterious tax returns. Last month, Mrs. Romney protested that "We give 10% of our income to our church every year. Do you think that […]

Say what you will about the ultra-hardline reproductive politics of Todd Akin and Paul Ryan, but at least those two have always been true believers. Mitt Romney, not so much. As his former strategist Michael Murphy put it in 2005, "He's been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly." But Romney's public transformation […]

Four years ago, Barack Obama beat John McCain among women voters by a healthy 13 point margin. That gap was doubtless made larger by McCain's shameful performance in the final presidential debate, when during an exchange about reproductive rights he used air quotes to mock the very idea of the "health of the mother." Now, […]

On Tuesday, Cathedral Age, a magazine produced by the Washington National Cathedral, published its interviews with President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. In "Faith in America," the quarterly asked each candidate questions about their perspectives on the role of religion in the public life of the nation. While Obama unsurprisingly praised the separation of […]

The Republican presidential nominee was once a strong supporter of Roe v. Wade, but underwent a just-in-time pro-life conversion to seek his party's nomination. Kowtowing to the GOP's evangelical base, he named a hardline social conservative who opposed abortion in all cases, including rape and incest. Then the week before the Republican National Convention made […]

Financial engineer turned Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has boasted for years that "I know how the economy works." Unfortunately for Mitt, global business leaders aren't buying what he's selling. A recent survey of executives around the world found that by a 2 to 1 margin, they believe President Obama be better for the global […]