Realistic analyses of the 2016 election continue to be largely ignored by most of the national news media talkers and writers. On air segments or columns/blog posts acknowledging realistic analyses of the ongoing presidential primary races in both parties are lightly sprinkled in with the “infotainment” that pays the bills. As long as the imperatives of the media marketplace are given greater weight than the duty to inform and educate the public, national media outlets will continue to distort political reality in order to produce enough marketable content to satisfy their 24/7/365 political programing needs. Sadly, the unchecked role of big money in our politics combined with the increasing ratings value of big celebrity in media coverage of our politics promise to make this media-generated gap between political reality and political reality TV even greater.

When he described debate hosts as our "media partners" Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus may have given a more accurate description than he intended.

There is plenty of debate punditry available today. Avert your eyes. We really want to see what is going in the Invisible Primary.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar; and sometimes a number is just a number - but not in politics.

Proposed legislation to allow Massachusetts liquor store owners to open on Thanksgiving encompasses capitalism and the rights of workers, as well as commerce and the sacred.

The sad news from the Boston Globe last week was of layoffs in the news room. The sadder news for all of us is the decline of real news coverage in favor of pseudo-news.

Few things about Donald Trump surprise me anymore.  But I must admit to being caught off guard when I read that the blame for his continued political buoyancy should be laid squarely at the foot of the incumbent President.

Last week Brendan Nyhan argued that Democrats shouldn’t expect the chaos in the Republican House of Representatives to hurt the Republicans in the 2016 elections. He is on very solid ground in terms of next year’s congressional elections. Congressmen simply are not punished at the ballot box for Congressional dysfunction and, as Thomas Edsall recently explained well, several national trends bode well for GOP efforts to protect their Congressional majority next year. However, I don’t think Nyhan's analysis is as persuasive in terms of the GOP’s presidential aspirations in 2016.

It's not so much Hillary Clinton's Party as the Party that is deciding on Hillary Clinton.

In the annals of intra party debates, it is hard to fine one completely owned by a single candidate.  That alone makes Hillary Clinton’s total dominance last night historic.