Kenneth Baer

There are few times when the public awaits a speech. The State of the Union address, the presidential inauguration, and the acceptance of a party’s presidential nomination are the only regular fixtures on the political speechmaking calendar, and they are relatively rare. But because these addresses are so anticipated — and, in the past, have […]

To hear Democratic strategists and political commentators tell it, the selection of John Edwards as John Kerry’s running mate heralds the dawn of a new Democratic day in the South, with the Carolinas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Virginia suddenly in play this November. After all, as the Washington Post‘s E.J. Dionne, Jr. points out, since 1960 […]

In Washington, the only question on anyone’s mind is: WWJD — What Will John Do? Everyone has a theory about whom John Kerry will pick (or should pick) as his running mate, and journalists are scrambling for any angle on the story that they can find. Last Friday, The Washington Post ran one of the […]

In 1951 the political observer Samuel Lubell, surveying the almost two decades of Democratic rule and the dominance of New Deal liberalism, noted that in the American “political solar system,” the Democratic Party was the sun (the majority party) and the Republican Party was the moon (the minority party). In such a universe, Lubell wrote, […]

John Kerry decided yesterday that he would accept his party’s nomination at the regularly scheduled time — on July 29, the last day of the Democratic convention in Boston. Had Kerry not publicly toyed with postponing his acceptance to maximize his fund raising, this would not have been an issue. But because he’s made it […]

In what may be the largest pro-Israel gathering in the world (Israel included), 5,000 pro-Israel activists from all 50 states will descend on Washington this weekend for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual policy conference and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the pro-Israel lobbying organization. When I traveled with then-Vice President Al […]

Why am I writing this column? I’m not your standard American Prospect material. I’m a New Democrat, and I wrote a book called Reinventing Democrats: The Politics of Liberalism from Reagan to Clinton, the first and only history of the rise of this upstart party faction. Reinventing Democrats didn’t exactly tear up the best-seller list. […]