One in six Americans now receive some form of government assistance, USA Today reported early this month, and the latest IBD/TIPP poll found that the figure is nearly two in five (or 39%) when public aid is calculated per American household. Our definition included assistance in the form of Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps and/or jobless or disability benefits, but not Social Security. The

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Despite various efforts to coopt 'tea party' momentum and energy for the mainstream GOP, elections continue to show that the movement has a mind of its own.

Economy: The official word from the group that serves as arbiter of our nation's economic cycles says the recession is over. Good news, of course. But fact is, the recovery is a far cry from what it should be.

Imagine if an inside-the-Beltway consultant met with national Republican leaders and presented an innovative strategy to develop a new political movement that would add millions of voters to the Republican coalition. And what if that consultant assured those GOP leaders that their party would not have to alter its views in order to capture and retain those voters....

But a majority of Americans don't believe Obama has affected race relations in the US one way or the other, according to a new Monitor/TIPP poll.

Blacks and Republicans are more likely than anyone else to say that the presidency of Barack Obama, America's first black chief executive, has impaired race relations in the United States and made race more difficult to discuss.

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Neither the mainstream media nor the political class has apparently learned much from Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts. Both have cast the Tea Party as a fringe phenomenon and refuse to recognize its potency. But Americans simply don't buy their portrayal and see the movement much more favorably.