Douglas Holtz-Eakin, top economic and policy advisor to the 2008 McCain campaign, on Obama’s agenda — and the future of the GOP.

Arlen Specter bails out, and the GOP’s fight over its own future goes red hot. We’ll hear from Christine Todd Whitman, the Club For Growth, and more.

Pandemic fever. Arlen Specter joins the Democrats. Chrysler in bankruptcy. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

The president lays out his agenda to Congress and the nation. We’ll hear reaction from Republicans and Democrats on the partisan front lines.

Mike Huckabee joins us. We’ll get the Huckabee view of the GOP now, and the Republican Party in the Obama era.

The Republican Party rethinks. We talk with conservative thinkers about the GOP’s Election Day thrashing, and where the party goes from here.

Young conservatives Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam are the toast of Republican thought circles right now. But their call to Republican revival is also a broadside.
Bush-era crony capitalism and government neglect, they charge, have pushed the USA toward a Latin American model of rich and poor and nothing in between.
If the Grand Old Party wants [...]

For almost 20 years now, Rush Limbaugh and the royalty of right-wing talk radio have been mighty barons in the GOP — ideological high priests, attack dogs, and megawatt poobahs with a huge base of followers in Republican country. They’ve been kingmakers.
This year, the Limbaugh crew is in despair. Cold fury. They despise John McCain, [...]

Never count a determined man out. John McCain was down for the count last summer. Broke and written off and flying coach. Now he’s taken Florida, and the Republican race to Super Tuesday has a whole new complexion.
Giuliani is headed for the sidelines. Mike Huckabee hanging in, maybe for a VP seat with Florida’s winner. [...]

So, Michigan has spoken — to Republicans at least — and the word is Romney.
Mitt Romney needed it bad. And he got it. Michiganders went for the man who promised their jobs back, and not John McCain, who said some were gone for good.
But this Republican race is still a free-for-all. Next stop South Carolina, [...]

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was a field marshall in the Republican Revolution. Former senator Gary Hart was a Democratic contender for the presidency.
Now, they’re both saying the country is facing a crisis — and needs a radically new politics that blasts through partisan lines.
Gingrich is still conservative, but says Republicans have failed [...]

Iowa got the first caucuses, but New Hampshire holds the first primary. Today, on a beautiful day in the snowy Granite State, the pressure is on and the stakes are huge for both Republican and Democratic presidential contenders.
Hillary Clinton emoted yesterday as polls showed Barack Obama in the lead. John McCain looks strong as Mitt [...]

It is Caucus Day in Iowa — the first formal vote of Election ‘08 and the long race for the White House. If the Democrats’ complicated caucus procedure looks like a square dance, the Republicans’ is pretty straightforward — show up; vote.
But the GOP contest this year has been anything but a straight shot. Mitt [...]

Eight years ago, Arizona Senator and presidential candidate John McCain had it all: the war-hero biography, the rock-ribbed conservative credentials, and, most of all, the Straight Talk Express that charmed independents and the press.
This time, he was poised to be the Republican comeback kid. But his campaign faltered, and he’s been an also-ran in a [...]

By guest host Jane Clayson
Like a revivalist preacher riding into town, Mike Huckabee — the former Baptist minister, Arkansas Governor, and long-shot Republican presidential candidate — is hogging the limelight, and sparking a lot of curiosity.
In new polls released this week, he has surged to the top of the GOP field in Iowa, and is [...]

Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee tried, in last night’s YouTube debate, to break out of the Republican pack.
They got aggressive, especially on immigration, but also on the economy, on foreign policy, on taxes and on trade. Romney played defense. Huckabee looked like a contender.
But with no clear frontrunner, and [...]

It’s a funny week for Fred Thompson to be odd man out in the scrum of GOP ‘08 presidential contenders. Rudy Giuliani’s got evangelical Christian Pat Robertson blessing his candidacy. Mormon Mitt Romney has the religious right’s Paul Weyrich. Even John McCain has an endorsement from evangelical hero Sam Brownback.
But Fred Thompson — conservative former [...]

If you’re an American voter who identifies with the Christian right, you’ve got to see Kansas Senator Sam Brownback as a stand-up guy. Brownback, a GOP presidential contender, stands up for traditional marriage, for prayer in school, for “faith-based” government programs.
He stands up against abortion, against embryonic stem cell research, against gun control. Critics call [...]