Mark Mellman

Just how likely is it that the polls will be right? Notice first, I said, polls, plural, with an “s.” There is no particular reason any one poll should be…

We think of “follow the leader” as a rather inane children’s game. It’s much more than that. In an adult version, it describes how many partisans go about deciding their…

Perhaps we have reason to be complacent about the persistence of our democracy. It’s lasted nearly 230 years, through war, depression, recession, cultural change and even civil war. Still not…

Where to begin? Stranger things have never happened in presidential politics — at least in the modern era. A candidate for the highest office in the land gleefully describing his…

As a wise and wizened reporter once pointed out: “Buried deep inside that word ‘newspaper’ is the word ‘news.’ And inside that, you’ve got ‘new.’ ” This aphorism explains why…

We enjoy believing debates are central determinants of election outcomes. They give campaigns a focus, journalists a hook around which to wrap their coverage and citizens the illusion that we…

Republicans have suddenly discovered the economic privations afflicting America’s middle class and those struggling to join it. Their newfound interest in people they argued for decades would benefit if only…

Pundits now regularly proclaim that Hillary Clinton has an almost singular and unique problem with voters who don’t think she’s honest or forthright. These pundits are wrong, both as a…

As we say good-bye to the summer and the party conventions fade in voters’ memories, polls suggest two very different sets of people will be disappointed come November: Republicans who…

Nominating Donald Trump probably won’t change the Republican Party, but putting him atop the ticket will damage it. All the channels through which he could influence the future of the…