Don’t be fooled by the swagger in Mitt Romney’s walk at the conclusion of Iowa’s caucuses to choose a Republican presidential nominee.

Of all the numbers that have tumbled out of Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to fill a $220 million budget shortfall with cuts to MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, one of the most striking is also one of the smallest.

The votes have been counted in Iowa, and the winner is (drum roll please) … Super PAC.

This year, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up three issues that would be important at any time in the nation’s history: health care reform, immigration enforcement and determinations of geographical boundaries of legislative districts.

If you can’t be optimistic at the start of a new year, you probably won’t get much opportunity later.

The one thing every passenger rightly expects from an airline flight is a pilot who has had enough rest and break time to do the best job possible guiding the aircraft.

Last year ended with a display of remarkable understatement.

For three days beginning March 26, the U.S. Supreme Court will set aside an extraordinary 51/2 hours for arguments on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care law. Court watchers point out that this is the most time devoted to a single case since the 1960s, and a signal of the importance the court assigns to the case.

With only two days to go until the Iowa caucuses and a little more than a week until the New Hampshire primary, political junkies in the other 48 states are supposed to be consumed with jealousy.

Seventy-three years ago, a Boy Scout from Rye, N.Y., got separated from his hiking group on Mount Katahdin.