Jamelle Bouie

A few days ago, Matthew Yglesias floated the possibility that Republicans are trying to sabotage economic growth for political gain: So I know that tangible improvements in the economy are key to Obama’s re-election chances. And Douglas Hibbs knows that it’s key. And senior administration officials know that its key. So is it so unreasonable […]

As Greg Sargent reports, there is still a chance for Democrats to do the smart thing and hold a separate vote on tax cuts for the middle class: This is encouraging: One of the most powerful labor leaders in the country just said that he’s in direct talks with the White House and Dem leaders […]

Last week, I mentioned START ratification as one of the four progressive goals for the lame-duck session. The commonsense treaty — which would would reinstate ground inspections and reduce each country’s deployed nuclear arsenal by 30 percent — has been on shaky ground for awhile, thanks to GOP opposition. There were signs that the Obama […]

Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell walked back his earlier support for earmarks and joined Jim DeMint in the Tea Party crusade to end legislative pork: Make no mistake. I know the good that has come from the projects I have helped support throughout my state. I don’t apologize for them. But there is simply […]

Via PostBourgie is U.C. Irvine professor Jennifer Lee discussing the “color line” as it moves and shifts in response to the demographic changes of the last few decades: Traditionally, the “color line” has been a simple divide between black and white, with Latinos falling on the side of “black” in most cases. But as Lee […]

When you get a chance, you should read my new piece for the magazine on the huge number of judicial vacancies plaguing the lower courts. The short story is that Obama has made preciously few nominations for judicial vacancies, which has left the lower court system in disarray, with almost two dozen “judicial emergencies” among […]

I’m already tired of President Obama‘s apology tour: But as the president returned home on Sunday to face an even more rigidly divided capital city, Mr. Obama went even further: he blamed himself for the failure to do what he had repeatedly promised: to change the tone. He said his own “obsessive” focus on implementing […]

If you haven’t already, you should head over to The New York Times‘ website to try out their interactive “budget puzzle.” The calculator charges you with closing the budget gaps for 2015 and 2030, using a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. My plan was pretty straightforward; in the reverse of your typical conservative […]

As anyone at TAP can tell you, I’m prone to long, angry rants against various figures and groups in 19th-century American history. Invariably, one of my targets is the original Progressive movement of the early 20th century. For all the good work they did to improve life for workers and their families, it’s also true […]

Earlier this week, the Council of the Great City Schools released a report on the academic performance of African American students. Two things stand out: Black students still measure very poorly on tests of reading and writing, and black students still lag behind their white peers, even after adjusting for income. Here is The New […]