Madalyn Ruggiero / AP
+2012 Election | 72 days ago

Over-Selling a Comeback: The Big Risk in Joe Biden’s First Campaign Speech

By Michael Scherer

Pop quiz: What’s the difference between an Obama campaign event and an Obama White House event?

Answer: At a White House event, Republicans are called “folks” or “politicians.” At a campaign event, names are named.

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a campaign event Thursday in Toledo, wasted no time in giving some free press to his foes battling in the Republican nomination fight. “I want to tell you what is real bankruptcy,” he said at one point. “The economic theories of Gingrich, Santorum and Romney.” At another point, he let fly this zinger: “You know it’s kind of amazing. Gingrich, Romney and Santorum–They don’t let facts get in the way.”

+2012 Election | 74 days ago

What’s Ailing Democratic Super PACs?

By Adam Sorensen

The New York Times takes a good look today at Democratic super PACs and their continuing fundraising troubles, tracking down various donors and cash-wranglers to find out where the problems lie. The answers are pretty interesting: There’s run-of-the-mill policy disagreement and radio silence from George “Not Much Difference Between Romney and Obama” Soros, but many [...]

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+Viewpoint | 75 days ago

Two Wrongs and the Right: Overreaction to Conservatives Leads Liberals to Hypocrisy

By Tim Padgett

Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred needs to join the 21st century. Or the 20th. Last week, amid the well-deserved outcry over Rush Limbaugh’s stunningly loutish remarks about Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke — whom Limbaugh called a “slut” and a “prostitute” for supporting mandated contraception coverage — Allred made a stunningly asinine move of her own. She called [...]

+White House | 138 days ago

Bill Daley, a Weakened White House Chief of Staff, Steps Down

By Michael Scherer
Carolyn Kaster / AP

For months now, Bill Daley has been living in a sort of Washington purgatory. His title, White House chief of staff, usually the second most powerful job in Washington, remained the same. But his role was something less. Over the holidays, he decided it was not a job he wanted to keep.

+2012 Election | 157 days ago

Can Well-Heeled Insiders Create a Populist Third-Party Sensation?

By Alex Altman
Mark Wilson / Getty Images

In a city that thrives on power, being attacked is often a sign that you have some. So in mid-December, when President Obama’s advisers took aim at Americans Elect, a bipartisan clutch of political elites planning to bankroll a third candidate in the 2012 presidential election, the group’s members reacted with dramatized indignation that couldn’t [...]

+Media | 158 days ago

PolitiFact’s Semantic Distinction of the Year: Ending Medicare

By Adam Sorensen
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

The ubiquitous fact-checking outfit PolitiFact has chosen Democrats’ charge that Paul Ryan’s budget would “end Medicare” as its Lie of the Year. This dubious honor, which follows 2009 and 2010 rulings that both went against the GOP for its health care claims, is a coup for House Republicans, who will no doubt face an onslaught [...]

+Congress | 165 days ago

Could We Be Headed Toward Yet Another Government Shutdown?

By Jay Newton-Small
Shawn Thew / EPA

For what feels like the 624th time this year, the federal government on Friday will run out of money unless Congress acts. This deadline hasn’t gotten much ink because a) we’re all tired of writing the same fishbowl, government shutdown story, and b) congressional negotiators for once in their lives are on track to sign [...]

+Congress | 187 days ago

Re: The Supercommittee, Compromise and 2012

By Adam Sorensen

With the demise of the supercomittee today, there’s a certain section of Washington that is mourning the death of bipartisan compromise, too. Michael Scherer deftly writes its eulogy with an eye to the next election:

+2012 Election | 187 days ago

With Supercommittee Failure, 2012 Election Offers False Hope

By Michael Scherer
J. Scott Applewhite / AP

“Good riddance!” say the pundits on both left and right. The Super Committee is dead, and with it any short-term hope of a solution to the nation’s long-term deficit woes. For the right, this is a victory, because no tax increases were bartered away. “Good for America,” says Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich. For the [...]

+Congress | 187 days ago

Winners and Losers of the Deficit Supercommittee Deadlock

By Jay Newton-Small
Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

Three months closer to an election year, Congress is proving every bit as dysfunctional as it was during the debt ceiling deal that created the supercommittee in August, and looming primaries – both presidential and congressional – have put bipartisan compromise even farther out of reach. Really, there should be no shock that the committee has failed – there were too many people who stood to benefit from its demise.