Donald Trump’s most important purely political skill (that is, one not directly related to his abilities as an entertainer and performer) is his ability to intuit what the great angry mass of movement conservatives wish their gutless leaders would say, and then say it. Other Republicans dogwhistle. Trump dispenses with coded language and simply says: We should deport all the illegals. We should ban all Muslim immigration. And now, on Vladimir Putin: “He’s running his country and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country.”

One delusion common to rich business leaders who are all-powerful figures in their own small domains is the idea that they could lead the whole world just like they lead their business. Example Grande: Howard Schultz.

In the same interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader during which he declared that Americans aren’t working long enough hours, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush also said that President Barack Obama uses too many big words.

In a matter of hours, Robert Bruce Ford has gone from being known as "Toronto's conservative mayor" to "Toronto's crack-smoking mayor." But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Before he was Rob Ford, Crack Smoker, he was Rob Ford, Canadian Football Fan. Or Rob Ford, Wildly Racist Bigot. You might even know him as Rob Ford, Wife Beater. To help us explore the Rob Ford of the past, we have compiled a compendium of Mayor Rob Ford's controversies—the scandals, the rage and outrageousness, the wit and witticisms—organized thematically below:

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Congress, after taking all of last week off, now finds itself with only four days left to fund the federal government before everything shuts down. And, of course, the House Republicans and Senate Democrats are nowhere near reaching a final agreement. So what's the plan? Oh, you know this: Pass a bill that stalls for another two weeks!

A deal's reportedly in place for incompetent NBC Universal boss Jeff Zucker to leave the company "a couple of months" after Comcast closes its acquisition. Then he can become another vacuous, wealthy politician. The personification of the American Dream! [NYP]

Gordon "Dreamweaver" Brown is resigning as Labour Party leader, and his replacement could very well be the next Prime Minister. So the question is: Why spell "Labour" with a "U"? No, wait. The question is: Who's his replacement?

Commander-in-chief Lindsey Graham is nearing a deal to close Guantanamo in exchange for just a little bit of our respect for the rule of law.

American Commander-in-Chief Lindsey Graham has been keeping himself incredibly busy lately, tackling all the tough issues that the American people sent him to Washington to fix. Let's look at some of his efforts.

If New York Post editor Col Allan is indeed contemplating "retirement" at the ripe old age of 57, as New York's Gabriel Sherman reports, his departure would cap off a decade of colossal editorial and business embarrassments for the paper.

You know who was a good leader, according to Forbes "Leadership" columnist Sangeeth Varghese? Hitler. Showed a lot of gumption in WW1. And civil improvement? He was big on civil improvement. Of course, he had his drawbacks.

"I would like to nominate Miss California as the new face of the marriage movement," NOM head Maggie Gallagher recently said. A wonderful idea, she'll fit right in with the rest of the GOP leadership!