GOP Candidates Running on the Bleakness Platform

Four weeks before Iowa voters start whittling down the sprawling and fractious Republican presidential field, the nomination fight is taking on a decidedly dark tenor, with candidates warning of a country left weakened by an administration that would prefer to apologize for America rather than keep it safes. … This despairing tone was on display Monday as Republicans crisscrossed the country on the first full day of campaigning in the new year, and began airing commercials that had a singular and sometimes fearsome focus on national security.

— The New York Times