The race for Republican nomination has created a culture war that has bled into foreign policy, writes the Economist's Democracy in America blog.

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney outlines his strategy toward Iran in this Washington Post piece.

At Foreign Policy, Jeremy Rosner and Stanley Greenberg argue that Americans believe in President Barack Obama's foreign policy competence, and that Republican candidates' attacks on his national security record will likely have limited resonance.

Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie outline how to talk about Obama's foreign policy vulnerabilities for a Republican electoral strategy.

At Foreign Policy, Jack C. Chow describes why, if elected, Rick Santorum would be great news for the AIDS fight in Africa.

In this Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum argues that the United States needs bold tax reform, and says that Mitt Romney only wants to tinker at the margins.

The Brookings Institution and Public Sector Consulting report that Michigan should take advantage of its second-strongest post-recession recovery by strengthening links between innovation and manufacturing, making targeted investments within urban areas, and supporting highly trained workers and regional systems.

President Obama's framework on tax reform may not materialize into a bill, but it can create substantial debate before the elections, writes Alexis Simendinger at RealClearPolitics.

China's cheap labor is reaching a tipping point, writes New York Times' Michelle Dammon Loyalka. Is Obama right to suggest that manufacturing may return to the United States?

Steven Hurst writes that Mitt Romney has taken the hard line on foreign policy, indiscriminately escalating rhetoric against both European allies and international antagonists.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney writes that "the character of the Chinese government--one that marries aspects of the free market with suppression of freedom--shouldn't become the norm."

Election year doesn't have to be a wasted year on the fiscal front, say Pete V. Domenici, Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Debt Reduction Task Force and Alice M. Rivlin, Senior Fellow for Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, emphasizing the need to slow down the growth of major entitlements and raise additional revenue from an efficient tax system.

With Rick Santorum's recent caucus victories, Jason Miks takes a second look at the potential candidate's foreign policy talking points, describing them largely hyperbolic, hawkish, and faith-driven.

The Economist comments on Obama's recently released federal budget: as a fiscal document, it is optimistic though not unreasonable; as a political move, it is an early campaign promise towards reelection.

Uri Friedman discusses the evolution of Rick Santorum's hard-lined aproach to Iran, drawing from the potential candidate's time at the Ethics and Public Policy Center to his current polemic.

TIME's Michael Scherer comments on the class-based sense of injustice that is now roiling all sides of the ideological spectrum.

This Pew Research Center profile provides Florida voter registration data as reported by the Florida Division of Elections through January 3, 2012. It also provides key demographic information on eligible Latino voters and other major groups of eligible voters in Florida.

Gingrich, Romney and Santorum pushed for the Iraq War. Now the media should make them explain what they've learned from being wrong and why we should trust their eagerness to bomb Iran, writes Peter Beinart.

Uri Dadush writes that the United States still has three major assets that keep it ahead of other countries, but needs to actively respond to current economic and political trends to keep its advantages.

A Pew Research Center polling report shows that the public focus is predominantly domestic and economic, while still keeping a wary eye on Iran and related security issues.