"I am my own man," declared Jeb Bush, but as he prepares to launch a campaign to become the Republican nominee for president in 2016 he'll rely on advice from 21 veteran foreign policy experts from the administrations of his father, George H. W. Bush, and his brother, George W. Bush.

In the heavily Democratic state of California, conventional wisdom makes Attorney General Kamala Harris the logical successor to retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer. But The Field Poll, a respected public opinion firm, surveyed California voters and found that a Republican, former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, was favored over Harris by 49 percent to 45 percent. The pollsters conceded a Rice candidacy was "a dubious prospect."

You don't have to go any farther than the U.S. Department of Energy to find a horrible example of reckless government spending. Official reports say that despite receiving around $39 billion in annual government subsidies over the past five years, the solar energy industry accounted for just 0.5 percent of all the electricity generated in the U.S. in the first 10 months of 2014.