Until now, Barack Obama’s strategy on health care has been a conscious effort to avoid the mistakes of Bill and Hillary Clinton, who delivered a 1,000-plus-page bill to Congress and then watched it get dismantled. Though Obama produced a health care plan during his presidential campaign, he has signaled since his inauguration that he is [...]

Seems the President will have to find another GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote for Sonia Sotomayor.

President Barack Obama, who during the campaign pledged to end the policy of don’t ask don’t tell, yesterday neatly avoided a political land mine that hamstrung President Bill Clinton’s first 100 days. Obama named Rep. John McHugh, a New York Republican, to be Secretary of the Army. The White House said the issue never came [...]

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia–After a royal airport greeting, President Obama’s motorcade sped off to King Abdullah’s private farm, where the two are expected to have private meetings well into the night. The official diplomacy, however, was preceded by some brief and bland public remarks, marked primarily by the fact that Obama tried out a little bit [...]

Well, sort of. This is perhaps the strongest sign yet that Republicans are reconsidering the wisdom of personal attacks on Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. Or maybe, that Newt Gingrich is reconsidering the wisdom of sending out his every thought on Twitter. My initial reaction was strong and direct — perhaps too strong and too [...]

President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is not yet done with her first day of Senate courtesy calls and it’s already apparent that her visit has been tougher on Senate Republicans than it has been on her. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and his members have gone out of the [...]

I’m heading overseas for several weeks, into areas where blogging may not be possible or advisable. I’ll try to let you know where I am, and what I’m doing, when I get there. Meanwhile, Marty Peretz, the owner of The New Republic, offers his daily pearl, this time on the June 12 Iranian elections: Anyway, [...]

An update from me on the longest running battle for a U.S. Senate seat in 34 years.

Catherine Mayer, our Swampland correspondent in London, reports to us that they are at it again: If there’s one lesson Robert Gibbs might draw from British politics, it’s that people doing his sort of job should guard against flamboyance. Tony Blair’s communications chief Alastair Campbell stepped back from a frontline press role, and then stepped [...]