Jamelle Bouie

Matthew Yglesias flags the latest Pew survey, which attempts to provide a political typology to describe the different ideological groups that reside in each party. Looking at the extent to which Democrats are divided on social issues and immigration, Yglesias notes the ideological asymmetry between Democrats and Republicans: This is a big contrast from the […]

I, for one, still can’t figure out the logic behind Jon Huntsman‘s decision to run for president: Moving swiftly since his return to Washington from Beijing Friday, Huntsman filed paperwork with the Federal Election Committee to begin “H PAC,” an organization that his aides say will be the last placeholder before a full-blown campaign. There […]

As predicted, President Obama‘s approval ratings have gone up substantially since the killing of Osama bin Laden.” According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 57 percent of adults say that they now approve of the president’s performance, up from 46 percent last month. 61 percent approve of the way Obama is handling the […]

Apparently, America’s Twitter-using teenagers aren’t sure why this Osama bin Laden guy is a big deal: These results were drawn from Yahoo search (which, apparently, still exists), and the good folks at Yahoo offer a little context: According to Yahoo!, The Top Searched Questions on Osama bin Laden are (based on Sunday, 5/1): Is Osama […]

Vivek Nemana looks to a 2009 paper by Art Carden to explain the American South’s historic economic underdevelopment: Before the War, Southern social networks were based on hegemonic bonds relying on power imbalances and the threat of violence. The South was heavily invested in racial subjugation – slavery directly accounted for over a quarter of […]

Brian Beutler reports on the newest Republican talking point: Like so many memes that persist in politics, this one started on the Internet. The morning after President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan, conservatives started crowing that credit should be given to President George W. Bush — specifically, for having […]

Well, this is interesting: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) suggested Tuesday that Republicans may allow a clean vote on raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling in order to demonstrate that it lacks the votes to advance through Congress absent reforms. “If it is necessary for us to tell the president that it is dead […]

Politico bemoans the post-bin Laden “politics as usual” atmosphere on Capitol Hill: Capitol Hill was awash in unity Monday in the immediate aftermath of Osama bin Laden’s killing. But unlike the post-Sept. 11 environment, the feel-good moment might not survive even the next 24-hour news cycle. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Monday afternoon […]

The Wall Street Journal reports: As President Barack Obama pushes to raise income taxes on high earners, opponents are seizing on data that indicates these U.S. households already pay a large and growing share of taxes, even compared with high-tax European countries. And a new congressional study concludes that the percentage of U.S. households owing […]

Jonathan Chait isn’t so sure that opposition to abortion rights is rooted in sexism: I object to the automatic equation of opposition to legalized abortion with sexism. Opposition to abortion rights can reflect a desire to control women, but it can also simply reflect a belief that a fetus is a human being. That’s not […]