Maybe in the spirit of the previous post, I will make this a feature. Probably not. 1. Noam Scheiber of the The New Republic turns in his eagerly anticipated profile of Larry Summers, in which the writer argues for even more power for Obama’s “single virtuoso performer.” 2. Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker turns [...]

I woke up Sunday morning to watch John King’s Dick Cheney interview on CNN. As the two men finished, I began to write a blog post about Cheney’s comments on Iraq, which seemed to me both overly rosy, and unfair. (“We did, in fact, accomplish what we set out to do,” Cheney said, at once [...]

This stark reminder that we are no longer in control of our own economic destiny leads the print versions of both the NYT and the Washington Post this morning.

Secret meetings? Smoke and mirrors around other secret meetings? So far the Senate talks on health care reform have hardly been on C-SPAN. But, as I report today, we’re getting closer to the time when they may be. Another early question of transparency: the prospect of using budget reconciliation to pass this would be controversial [...]

Had trouble loading this State Department video, so here is the link (H/T Matt Cooper via Twitter). While I heartily endorse all these common-sense tips, I couldn’t help remembering my own trip to Merida with the then-First Lady in 1999. Dressed as First Ladies must on these occasions–professional pantsuit with delicate pumps–Hillary Clinton could only [...]

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag is a numbers guy, a propeller head as President Obama would say. But as David Von Drehle and I write in this week’s print version of TIME, Orszag has been spending his time recently reading not about spreadsheets, but about psychology. In particular, he has been reading a new [...]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’s willing, nay anxious, to work with President Obama on one issue. The economy? Nope. Health care? Not at all. McConnell, speaking at a breakfast this morning hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, says he wants to work hand in hand on Social Security reform. Perhaps he’s hoping the [...]

Here’s what media critic JP has to say about Stewart v. Cramer.

There are dueling op-eds about Afghanistan policy in the New York Times today, by Les Gelb and by Max Boot and the Kagan Family Singers. The headlines are more extreme than the pieces: Gelb wants to withdraw from Afghanistan (but not really) and the Bootists want to “surge” there (but not very much). For the [...]