Mitt Romney has long run a campaign obsessively focused on Barack Obama’s economic record. Romney has been so monomaniacal that I recently wondered in this space whether he might actually be putting too much emphasis on the …
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How Polarization Explains Republicans’ and Democrats’ Governing Priorities
The headline on Pew’s new 25th anniversary American Values survey is probably not surprising to anyone attuned to Washington’s frequency the past few years: political polarization has risen sharply, not just in Congress but …
Two Wrongs and the Right: Overreaction to Conservatives Leads Liberals to Hypocrisy
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 …
After Two Days of Debate, Evangelical Leaders Unite Behind Santorum
A group of 125 evangelical leaders met in Texas this weekend and after eight hours of conversation and a final ballot taken on 3 x 5 cards named Rick Santorum as their preferred GOP candidate. “I will have to admit that what I …
Can Well-Heeled Insiders Create a Populist Third-Party Sensation?
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 …
PolitiFact’s Semantic Distinction of the Year: Ending Medicare
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 …
Could We Be Headed Toward Yet Another Government Shutdown?
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 …
Re: The Supercommittee, Compromise and 2012
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:
With Supercommittee Failure, 2012 Election Offers False Hope
“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 …
Winners and Losers of the Deficit Supercommittee Deadlock
With the deficit supercommittee charged with finding $1.2 trillion in savings teetering on the brink of failure, Washington is embroiled in a high stakes round of recriminations. Depending on whom you listen to, everyone’s to …
Pro-life Christians Challenge Congressional Republicans on Mercury Regulation
You might not expect evangelical Christians to get involved in a political fight over mercury regulations. But when the Environmental Protection Agency proposed in March to tighten limits on industrial mercury emissions, the move caught the attention of an influential group of religious environmentalists who are now butting heads with …
The Sisyphean Stimulus Sell: Why Obama’s Big Job Speech Will Likely Prove Unpersuasive
Governor Rick “Galileo” Perry declared at the Reagan Library last night that President Obama and his 2009 stimulus have “proven once and for all that government spending will not create one job.” Actually, in the last …
Ben Bernanke Embraces Obama’s Reality-Based Presidency
Texas governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry still knows about as much about monetary policy as Sarah Palin knows about American history—or, for that matter, about monetary policy—but maybe there was a glimmer of …