Columns

WASHINGTON -- Every sulfurous belch from the molten interior of the volcanic Trump phenomenon injures the chances of a Republican presidency. After Donald Trump finishes plastering a snarling face on conservatism, any Republican nominee will face a dauntingly steep climb to reach even the paltry numbers that doomed Mitt Romney. 

The issue of education, as expected, has been inserted into the presidential campaign. Not surprisingly, some candidates prefer to focus on how states should avoid accountability for the continued failure of our students, while raising the boogeyman of 'Common Core' as a term rather than the reality of higher standards and expectations developed by states. 

I don’t care what they tell you. I don’t care what they think. They don’t know us. They don’t influence us.

Clearly gunning for a Pulitzer Prize, which apparently it thinks is a great honor, the Tampa Bay Times has discovered the obvious fact that students in government schools aren't learning.

Marco Rubio is in an odd position in the Republican presidential pack. Polls show Rubio is well-regarded in key states but he’s behind Donald Trump and other candidates. 

  There’s a surprise coming to Florida property owners at the end of August, one wrapped in the federal government’s signature red tape.

Since China devalued its currency 3 percent, global markets have gone into a tailspin. Why should this be? 

Bowing to politics instead of science, Florida regulators are violating state law with unjustified restrictions on two Indian Rocks Beach basins.

Even as the Wall Street Journal reports that he is drawing closer to entering the 2016 presidential race, Joe Biden will soon find he will be running against history’s headwinds. 

Donald Trump's six-page platform on immigration may not be, as Ann Coulter wrote, "the greatest political document since the Magna Carta." But given the issue's role in elevating the candidate to leading Republican polls, it merits serious attention. 

Before any more state capital folks take a misty-eyed stroll down memory lane, let's get one thing straight. Term limits happened in Florida for a reason.

"This was not a subject that was on anybody's mind until I brought it up at my announcement."  -- Donald Trump, on immigration, Republican debate, Aug. 6

Florida is doing the right thing. In case you doubt the wisdom of Attorney General Pam Bondi's decision to join a multi-state bipartisan lawsuit against the EPA attempt to seize regulatory control over large categories of state waters, you might want to take a look at the graphic reproduced just below.

Let's assume, for fun, that Donald Trump's supporters are thinking with their brains, not their viscera. If so, they will want to know that the issue he has lassoed for self-aggrandizement has been utterly demagogued. Trump is playing them for chumps.

With businessman Donald Trump leading national polls and now ahead of the GOP primary pack in key states including Florida, former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., is relying on the last Republican to sit in the White House for help: his brother former President George W. Bush.