On Tuesday, March 27, the Columbia Democrats and the Columbia University College Republicans held their final debate of the year, hosted and moderated by the Columbia Political Union.

This week, the president’s healthcare mandate is being fought over at the Supreme Court, sales of the Etch A Sketch soared thanks to Mitt Romney’s campaign, and the Speaker of the House may have proven that you should never negotiate with him.

Mitt Romney is supposed to be a numbers guy, and after 1,144 (the number of delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination), the number on his mind is 270.

This primary season has proven to be a tough one for the Republican candidates.

There has been much buzz recently regarding who the GOP nominee will choose as a running mate, and rightfully so; as John McCain showed in 2008, the Vice Presidential pick can make or break a candidacy.

It has now been over one year since northeastern Japan was devastated by what has been dubbed by many as the “triple disaster” – consisting of an earthquake, a deadly tsunami, and the nuclear meltdown of the now-infamous Fukushima nuclear power plant.

As predicted, Vladimir Putin won the March 4 Russian presidential elections with over 60 percent of the vote. What followed were the expected accusations of illegitimacy from members of the opposition.

"If you do that then you will lose the people of the community, and then you will lose the organization.”

A multitude of reasons exist why Americans are monolingual. That’s not the point: What is exasperating is the idea that everyone south of the border is brown and sólo habla español.

On Wednesday, March 21, a panel discussed the formation of the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements and their predicted effect on the upcoming 2012 presidential election.

As the Republican presidential race drags on, there has been no shortage of headlines made by the ever-dwindling list of candidates hoping to run against Barack Obama to lead the free world.

A Conversation Between Ahmed Rashid and Steve Coll

At the forefront of the docket of the European Court of Human Rights, the European Union’s highest judicial body, is a case brought by two British women against the British government. The government’s stance, should it become precedent in the Union, would further limit the already heavily regulated area of religious expression.

March, previously forecast as the month that would decide the Republican presidential nomination (read: the month that Romney would clinch it), has instead reduced the race to an excruciating slog to 1144.

Over the weekend, Coptic Christians all over the world mourned the death of their Church’s leader, known as Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria.

The current state of the education reform movement has been referred to as the Civil Rights movement of our time. This description is certainly justified.

Overall, the roundabout guessing game of who will win does not really matter amid the candidate-media interplay. In this seemingly symbiotic relationship between journalism and politics, how do the two really interact?

As CPR is rapidly expanding, we have made it a point to actively engage with student groups and campus politics. To that end, we have collaborated with at least one student group in every issue. We have also started covering campus political events in a new online feature called Political Minutes. If your student group has interest in working with CPR, please reach out to us. There is nothing we take more pride in than serving our campus community.

Clyde Williams, a potential challenger for the 15th Congressional District of New York, is laying the groundwork for a campaign against longtime representative Charles Rangel.

It can be hard to tell whether consultants work to sell an ideology or only to bring in a paycheck. In this broader vein and under a more scintillating name, the US indeed influences elections and campaigns worldwide.