Guns are as charged a topic as ever. But when the President takes up the issue in the near future, as aides have indicated he’ll do, there are a multitude of measures he can endorse without endangering himself politically. Here’s my story on Time.com.
Democratic Party
Morning Must Reads: Realism
(REUTERS/Larry Downing)
–Egyptian VP Omar Suleiman talks with opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
–The Obama administration wants Mubarak gone, just not too quickly.
–As conditions in Egypt have shifted so to has the U.S. response. David Sanger writes the inconsistencies illustrate an unprepared …
Morning Must Reads: Departure
Anti-government protesters take part in Friday prayers at Tahrir Square in Cairo February 4, 2011. (REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)
–Tens of thousands turn out for “Day of Departure” protests in Cairo.
–The Obama administration is angling to get Mubarak out and Vice President/intel chief Suleiman into power with the army’s …
Morning Must Reads: Gambit
Protesters clash outside the National Museum in Cairo early on February 3. (REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis)
–Our colleague Vivienne Walt recounts a harrowing night in Tahrir Square:
I heard heavy rounds of automatic gunfire. Hundreds of pro-Mubarak supporters seemed to be fleeing the square in terror, running through the streets and
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Is the Mac Back?
Senator John McCain is heading to the White House as I type this to meet with President Obama. I have a story out in this week’s dead tree edition, out early here, on the rapprochement of the former rivals as both trek back to the political center.
Could the Senate Flip in 2012?
In the last three out of five elections one or both of the chambers of Congress has flipped. Are the waves over? And even if they are, could Dems lose the Senate in 2012 anyway?
On the face of it, Democrats have a tough cycle ahead of them. They hold the Senate with 53 seats right now, meaning Republicans only need to flip four to …
Morning Must Reads: Rule
REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
–There are massive renewed protests happening right now in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Al Jazeera English, as it has been for the last four days, is offering exemplary coverage.
–Senator Kerry writes Mubarak must go.
–Massimo writes about the unlikely ascent of Mohamed ElBaradei to opposition …
How House Democrats Hope to Return to Power
On Obama’s coattails. That’s the gist of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s first round of activity for the 2012 election cycle announced Monday. Radio ads, calls and e-mails are slated to target 19 districts, 17 of which Obama won in 2008 with an average of around 55 percent of the vote. Those 17 are mostly pendulum …
Morning Must Reads: “Orderly Transition”
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
–Egyptian protests continue in earnest, with a large march reportedly planned for Tuesday. Food is starting to run out.
–As the Obama administration calls for an “orderly transition,” Tony Karon considers where it leaves American interests in the region. They’re
Senate Dems to Test New Comity with Judicial Nominations
On the day he died, Judge John Roll was waiting to speak with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords about getting an additional judge added to the 9th Circuit Court in Arizona. Giffords had been trying to help Roll deal with the massive backlog facing the state’s federal courts. Roll’s death will only worsen the judicial log jam as Arizona grapples …
Morning Must Reads: Apparatus
(White House/Pete Souza)
–From this week’s newsstand issue of TIME: What Obama sees in Reagan, What Joe heard in the State of the Union, what Republicans feel about John Thune.
–Michelle Rhee builds a political apparatus.
–Obama will try to get recess-appointed CMS head Donald Berwick through the Senate.
–Mideast …
Watching the Audience at the State of the Union
The audience has a long history of giving lively performances — whether it’s because they’re yelling, “You lie!” or throwing shoes or protesting so much that Hamlet determines his father was indeed murdered by that slime Claudius. But last night the audience (as seen from the House press gallery that sits above and behind the …
Morning Must Reads: SOTU
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl2g40GoRxg]
–There’s a bit of State of the Union over-saturation going on, but my impressions were that it largely accomplished what such speeches are intended to: It expressed President Obama’s priorities in vague enough terms that few feathers were ruffled or cages rattled. From a policy …