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 Read More
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 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
A lot of the analysis about Sarah Palin’s resignation says more about the analyzer than it does about Read More
Jerry Brown’s career serves as a four-decade testament to the idea that politics is a means to a means. Every time he gains an office, he almost immediately sets out to parlay it into a new one.
Which is why the prospect of his return (after a 28-year absence) to California’s governorship next year Read More
Obama handed his opponents a weapon when he said he’ll engage Iran in the wake of the post-election Read More
With Mark Sanford out of the game, it’s down to Mississippi Governor Haley Read More
One of these years, maybe we’ll finally learn: those bulky, detail-rich policy plans that presidential candidates incessantly hype and commentators and their opponents pore over? They don’t matter. At all.
Just consider Barack Obama’s evolution on health care. At the end of May 2007, not long after he announced his candidacy, he unveiled a Read More
If Congress fails to enact health care reform this year – or if it enacts a sham reform designed to bail out corporate medicine while excluding the “public option” – then the public will rightly blame Democrats, who have no excuse for failure except their own cowardice and corruption. The punishment inflicted by angry voters Read More
It’s not a stretch for Americans to look at the scenes of mass protest in Iran and think back to 1989, when popular uprisings toppled one Soviet-backed regime after another in Eastern Europe. That mental association is one that Barack Obama’s critics have seized upon, arguing that the same presidential bully pulpit that hastened the Read More
