nbsp Roll Call and the Rothenberg Political Report have posted their first predictions for congressional and gubernatorial races in 2014 mdash and it rsquo s not too early given how far in advance candidate recruitment and fundraising begin nbsp As of now the Democrats need to pick up 17 seats t

We rsquo re 11 days from a possible shutdown of the federal government over congressional Republicans rsquo refusal to authorize any spending that includes the implementation of Obamacare Here rsquo s a roundup of illuminating observations on how we got here and what comes next James C Capretta a

With American politics stuck in a ditch perhaps for at least another decade assuming a Democratic lock on the White House and a Republican lock on the U S House of Representatives fantasies about changing up the system are getting more attention On Monday political scientist Jonathan Bernstein

The polarization of American politics continues to be a fertile topic for researchers with one new study suggesting that our online dating habits contribute to the red-vs -blue schism At the Mischiefs of Faction blog study co-author Casey Klofstad summarizes the findings parents pass their

Over the past week there rsquo s been a hardening consensus that the Republican majority in the U S House with or without the blessing of Speaker John Boehner will force a shutdown of the federal government as part of a last-ditch effort to stop implementation of ldquo Obamacare rdquo the Aff

The libertarian magazine Reason released a Christmas tree of a poll on Tuesday with dozens of questions on government spending U S policy toward Syria Facebook rsquo s stewardship of personal data and other topics on which people mostly agree with the editors of Reason magazine Among the orname

As polls predicted Public Advocate Bill de Blasio easily won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City on Tuesday hovering just above the 40 percent needed to avoid a run-off for the party nomination The New York Times reports that party leaders are urging William Thompson who finished s

What do you get for the person who has no one The U S Census Bureau reminds us that next Sunday is the beginning of Unmarried and Single Americans Week a nod to the 44 percent of adults who do not have a spouse The Census notes that unmarried Americans are forming an increasingly large voting bl

Today is the first round of the New York mayor rsquo s race which got more national attention than usual because of the possibility that former congressman and smutty-photo tweeter Anthony Weiner would win inspiring stories about how Americans like redemption stories and are getting more Europea

Welcome to Un Conventional Wisdom a new blog on the America website Un Conventional Wisdom will focus on American politics offering observations on current issues and presenting original research UCW will not be a tout sheet There are already scores of pundits who are in the habit of making pr