Ken Rudin

After eight years of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles voters will pick a, shall we say, more charismatically-challenged successor.

The President has been inaugurated. Now comes the hard part — getting his agenda through Congress. He also needs to fill the upcoming vacancies in his Cabinet.

It's been a rough couple of weeks for John Boehner. He was all but shut out of the fiscal cliff deal, dissed by his own party, and suffered 12 GOP defections when re-elected as speaker. But did he emerge from all of this as a loser? It's not that simple.

George McGovern, Arlen Specter, Warren Rudman, Dan Inouye ... just some of the political giants who died in 2012. This week's super-sized Political Junkie column is dedicated to their memory.

The election is over. Or is it? Both sides look ready to start fighting again should President Obama nominate U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

The Tea Party and other conservatives argue that Mitt Romney lost the election because he was "too moderate." And they are calling for a complete overhaul of the Republican Party. But the evolving demographics may have played a bigger role.

This pre-election Political Junkie column focuses on all presidential swing states and key races for House and Senate.

After everything that's happened — the primaries, caucuses, V.P. picks and conventions — it's now time for the debates. They have the capacity to change the dynamic. But, more times than not, they don't.

In Political Junkie Ken Rudin's view, not since Jack Kennedy picked Lyndon Johnson has the choice of a running mate truly affected the outcome in November. The record for subsequent No. 2s is a bit mixed. Here's a scorecard.

It's too early to know what kind of a difference Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan will make to the GOP ticket. Still, there have been choices who have proved crucial. Here, the top five from the last half-century or so.