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The Schumer Option: A Short-Term Winner

We still don’t know for sure what the final Senate health care plan will look like, but the most likely resolution to one of the stickiest issues has been obvious since early May. That’s when Chuck Schumer outlined his own compromise vision for an optional government-run insurance package. His proposal, a “level playing field” public Read More

Change or Bust: In Prime Time, Obama Makes Things Stark

Near the top of his latest primetime news conference, President Obama acknowledged that “Congress is still working through a few key issues” as it seeks to produce a unified health care plan. That meant that there wasn’t any specific proposal for Obama to point to and rally support for. We still don’t know how whatever Read More

Why They Hated Clinton Then, Why They Hate Obama Now

“He is not an American citizen!” the Obama-hating Delaware woman rages in the latest viral YouTube video. “He is a citizen of Kenya. I am American…and I don’t want this flag to change. I want my country back!” The entire rant is notable not just for the quivering hostility this unidentified woman expresses toward the Read More

Why They Hated Clinton Then, Why They Hate Obama Now

Blue Dog Math

"Fiscal conservative” is one of those terms used by politicians of all sorts to describe themselves, without any real justification. Parroted mindlessly from one news cycle to the next by major media outlets, that phrase is often used to mislead the public about the priorities and policies favored by those who claim to embody budgetary Read More

Hold ‘Em Republicans

Asked on Sunday’s Meet the Press whether he believes there’s a need for Congress to pass some kind of health care reform, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell replied, “Oh, absolutely. I’m not in favor of doing nothing.” Well, of course he’d say that. Voters have long ranked health care as one of their top concerns Read More

Obama’s Grim Choice on the Public Option

A moment of choosing is fast approaching for Barack Obama and his party’s congressional leaders: to sacrifice the public option that the Democratic base holds so dear, or to stick with it, damn the consequences. Their decision looms as the difference between (almost) sure-thing passage of a compromise health care plan and an ugly, protracted Read More

What Is Jeff Sessions’ Agenda?

How many candidates for Congress—Democratic and Republican—have you heard loudly insist that they don’t believe in party labels, just in doing the right thing? And how many of them, once elected, end up voting with their party pretty much all the time? It’s an absurd dance. Voters like hearing about “independence” and “bipartisanship,” so candidates Read More

Bill Clinton, Lagging Indicator

Bill Clinton has never been one to needlessly stake out an unpopular position, which tells us something important about his recent declaration that he’s “basically in support” of gay marriage: the issue is fast becoming a mainstream one in Democratic politics. The former president had previously said that his position on gay marriage was “evolving,” Read More

Obama’s Dusk, Obama’s Morning

Unemployment will drag the Democrats down in 2010, but by 2012 Obama will be back in Read More

Why McCain Still Defends Palin

One of the responsibilities that comes with picking a vice-presidential candidate is never admitting that you might have made a bad call—even if it becomes painfully obvious to the rest of the world that you did. So it was that John McCain withstood a six-minute grilling on Sunday from David Gregory on the subject of Read More

Paterson’s Moment, Diminished

Just when David Paterson seemed to be on to something, Democrats in the State Senate decided on Thursday to welcome back the thug half of the “thief and thug” duo that defected to the G.O.P. last month, apparently ending the stalemate in the chamber and restoring a 32-30 Democratic majority. This dramatically deflates the significance Read More

Sometimes, It’s Good to Be a Quitter

To her critics, there’s only one acceptable way to view Sarah Palin’s decision to quit as Alaska’s governor: Her rationale, as Eugene Robinson put it, is “not just contrived or implausible but literally nonsensical,” and anyone who even suggests she remains a viable 2012 contender is, in the words of Josh Marshall, “being witlessly contrarian Read More

Carolyn Maloney and the Lure of the Senate

Carolyn Maloney will turn 62 next year, so if serving in the U.S. Senate is the be-all, end-all goal of her career, then she should go ahead and challenge Kirsten Gillibrand in the Democratic primary. She’s not likely to get another chance and there’d be nothing worse than living out her life wondering what would Read More

Palin’s Exit Prompts Really Bad Punditry About Palin’s Future

A lot of the analysis about Sarah Palin's resignation says more about the analyzer than it does about Read More