“Any Plans For A Real Press Conference?”

Those words were shouted by a member of the U.S. press corps, as President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón left the Rose Garden this afternoon. The official White House press schedule for Tuesday had announced, “The President will hold a joint press conference with President Calderón in the Rose Garden.” But when it was all …

The State Of The Media: Look At Me!

A year or so after moving to Washington, I got a call from a book agent, who offered to buy me a drink anywhere in the city. I chose Off The Record at the Hay Adams Hotel, because it seemed the most obnoxious option. He sat me down, and asked, “Everyone knows what the Malcolm Gladwell brand is. But what is the Michael Scherer brand?” …

Dispatch from Kentucky

I have a Time.com piece up on Rand Paul’s victory party last night. For a candidate who framed himself as the crusading outsider, the shindig was a pretty genteel, insider-y affair, populated more by personal connections, campaign coordinators and influential backers than Tea Party folks. (There were none of the ubiquitous “Don’t Tread …

In the Arena In the Arena

Today in Afghanistan

Things are getting a bit hairy. After yesterday’s grisly attack on a U.S. convoy in Kabul, the Taliban attacked Bagram Airbase this morning. There was a certain futility to this attack, which may reflect the insurgents’ frustration with the efficacy of recent U.S. successes in wiping out the Taliban’s mid-level leadership…or it may …

The Wave Only Gets Bigger

From the top of my Time.com story about last night:

This is how it goes in 2010 at the ballot box: old orders are upended, political lions become roadkill, chosen successors get left behind and the outsider, riding a wave of discontent, becomes the new front-runner.

In quick succession Tuesday night, the jittery inhabitants of

Specter Exits Stage Left

Arlen Specter has survived a lot of things: a brain tumor, two bouts with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and five squeaker elections for the U.S. Senate. But in an anti-establishment year where the far right hates the moderates and the far left hates the moderates, Specter – whose voting record over the past 30 years is almost perfectly down the …

In the Arena In the Arena

It Looks Like Sestak

AP has called the Pennsylvania Senate primary election for Joe Sestak over Arlen Specter. Earlier, in Kentucky, Rand Paul won as a libertarian tea partier running for U.S. Senate against Mitch McConnell’s favored candidate. What’s the big message? A no-brainer: not good for incumbents. I suspect that Joe Sestak will have a better chance …

Arizona Saturation

The state’s new immigration law is now so pervasive in the political landscape, it’s being used as a campaign platform in faraway, borderless South Carolina. Republican Rep. Gresham Barrett, who’s running for governor, is up with this ad stating, “Gresham Barrett’s immigration plan: pass a common-sense Arizona law,” complete with images …

A True Test of Engagement

Just one day after Iran announced a deal with Turkey and Brazil to export some of its nuclear fuel for enrichment, Secretary of State Clinton said Tuesday the P5+1 had reached a tentative deal for multilateral U.N. sanctions. Our colleague Massimo Calabresi parses:

Unmoved by the latest Iranian offer, the Administration is pressing

  1. 1
  2. ...
  3. 642
  4. 643
  5. 644
  6. ...
  7. 1199