I’m not on President Obama’s payroll, no matter what Stephen Colbert says, so I can say this without fear of being fired: I didn’t get that speech. It felt subdued and clichéd. It felt like it was a few speeches stitched …
It’s well known that Barack Obama stocked his Administration with Bill Clinton’s people, including his extremely Clintonesque Secretary of State and all three chiefs of staff as well as most of his top economists and dozens …
I don’t give much political advice, especially to the advisers who helped get a black guy with Hussein in his name elected President. But they really need to find an answer to this question: Are Americans better off than they were four years ago? On This Week, David Plouffe repeatedly dodged it before saying, “We’ve made a lot of …
I will never forget the night I sat in a convention hall in Tampa and watched Mitt Romney accept the Republican nomination for president, because that was the night I saw Clint Eastwood say the immortal words: “Do you just—you know—I know—people were wondering—you don’t—handle that OK.”
The blogosphere has done a nice job of exposing the lies and hypocrisies in Paul Ryan’s prime-time convention speech — not that it will have any effect on his unassailable reputation for courageous straight talk. I’ve already banged my spoon on this high chair before, but I do feel a special responsibility to recount the golden …
My new book about the Obama administration and its stimulus package, The New New Deal, has a provocative subtitle: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. My new story in the magazine, adapted from the book, takes a shot at the question: Why was it hidden? It’s a combination of relentless Republican distortion, awful Democratic …
There’s no way to know what John McCain really thinks of Mitt Romney, who was enjoying draft deferments in France while McCain was an invited guest at the Hanoi Hilton. They obviously didn’t get along during the 2008 …
In honor of his keynote speech Tuesday night, I thought I’d recount a revealing story about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie from my new book, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. If you think of …
TIME just published “The Party of No,” an article adapted from my new book, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. It reveals some of my reporting on the Republican plot to obstruct President Obama …
My main obsession these days is President Obama’s misunderstood stimulus bill—why, yes, thanks for asking, The New New Deal did come out today—but I’m also fascinated by the partisan Republican budget-buster Paul Ryan and …
I should probably just shut up about Paul Ryan, because I believe there’s a federal statute requiring pundits to marvel at his “seriousness” and “courage.” I think there’s also a constitutional mandate enshrining him as a “deficit hawk,” even though he voted for the Bush tax cuts, the Bush military and security spending binge, the …
