Dana Goldstein

A blockbuster A1 story from the New York Times this morning, by David Kirkpatrick, gives progressives more heartburn on health care reform. Rahm says: “We have heard from both chambers that the House sees a public plan as essential for the final product, and the Senate believes it cannot pass it as constructed and a […]

A new study finds that 70 percent of Americans agree, either strongly or somewhat, that it is beneficial for women to take their husband’s last name when they marry. And shockingly, about half of the 815 respondents to the survey said the government should force married women to change their names. USA Today reports: Respondents […]

My friend Nicole McClelland has written an upcoming book on war and human rights in Burma. So if you’re looking for someone to explain the arrest of human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi, for meeting with an American Mormon who arrived at her home uninvited, Nicole’s your gal: Here’s what the Western powers would […]

We last encountered Mark Regnerus in the pages of the Washington Post, singing the praises of early marriage. Last week, while I was blissfully unawares on vacation, he took his argument to a friendlier audience with a cover story in Christianity Today. In the new piece, Regnerus casts himself as a truth-teller to evangelical America, […]

In response to a man from Maine who called himself a “Republican…I’m not sure what I’m doing here,” the president defended the idea that the private market can co-exist with a public health insurance option: You raise a legitimate concern. People say, how can a private company compete against the government? If the private insurance […]

So far, during President Obama‘s town hall event in New Hampshire, there have been no major disruptions. He began with the idea that disagreement is “legitimate” but should be civil. “Where we do disagree, let’s disagree over things that are real, not wild misrepresentations,” he said. In the key argument so far, the president said, […]

Many supporters of health reform believe that systemic questions, such as whether or not reform will include a public insurance option, should inform the congressional and public debates. But the truth is that Americans, unsurprisingly, seem to be most concerned about coverage specifics. After reform, what procedures will and won’t be covered? Will my array […]