The Editors

Courtney E. Martin considers the true meaning of patriotism and its implications for America’s future: Loving this country means not just loving and interacting with one segment of it… To realize this definition of patriotism, we need the guts to walk up to people unlike us and introduce ourselves, the initiative to create authentic relationships […]

Michelle Goldberg looks at how Mark Dybul’s ousting will reshape the fight against AIDS: [A] fierce debate is underway about whether Dybul was unfairly treated. What’s at stake is more than just the reputation of one man, because the argument is really about America’s AIDS policies and the future of PEPFAR, Bush’s lone but in […]

Gershom Gorenberg worries that the results of the Israeli elections may give Avigdor Lieberman far too much power: The worst news, however, is that ultra-rightist Avigdor Lieberman and his Israel Is Our Home party have won 15 Knesset seats. Lieberman is a blustering, bellicose figure in the mold of the European radical right. His platform […]

For more on Jindal, you can revisit Mori Dinauer‘s profile from last May, when the Lousiana governor was considered a potential V.P. pick. On social issues, Jindal has a record only James Dobson could love. He strongly and openly opposes abortion (without exception, even in cases of rape and incest), supports teaching intelligent design in […]

Robert Kuttner takes a look at Timothy Geithner’s recent missteps: Geithner has unveiled a Rube Goldberg of a second bank bailout that won no plaudits anywhere on the spectrum. The idea was to reassure financial markets by resisting nationalization of failed banks. But the financial markets took one look at the plan, and the Dow […]

Over at TAP Online we’ve got two pieces related to tomorrow’s Thinking Big, Thinking Forward conference, co-sponsored by the Prospect, along with Demos, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Institute for America’s Future. Robert Kuttner admonishes that now is the time to think big: Looking forward, we need a very different sort of economy, one […]

Tim Fernholz writes that a number of Republicans appear to be in a bit of a political bind: [W]ith public opinion polls showing that voters across the country support quick action on Obama’s economic-stimulus legislation — and that the approval ratings of both the president and congressional Democrats are much higher than those of the […]

New York TAPPED readers — TAP Online columnist Gershom Gorenberg is coming to town to speak this Sunday on the Israeli elections and Israel’s future. The talk is co-sponsored by The American Prospect and Meretz USA. The New Israel Fund presents The Israeli Elections, Israel’s Future, and American Jewry with Gershom Gorenberg Sunday, February 8 […]

TAP’s own Ezra Klein has been doing full-court press on Daschle‘s withdrawal and has amassed a list of replacement names being bandied about. –The Editors

Gershom Gorenberg writes a letter to the new U.S. envoy to the Middle East: The president’s choice of you as his diplomatic alter ego was a pleasant surprise: The agreement you brought in Northern Ireland, in a conflict that looked as bitter and irrational as our own, means that you come carrying evidence that it’s […]