Remember how intimidating the political right used to seem? Liberals used the phrases “echo chamber” and the “message machine money matrix” to describe what to all appearances was a disciplined, vast, and efficient set of well-funded organizations and operatives promoting bad ideas and destroying good ideas and good people. But where is the great echo […]
Mark Schmitt
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The Mystery of the Right
The right’s abrupt decline is one of the most puzzling questions in political history.
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THE EMPTY PARTISANS.
When Americans say – as they do – that they dislike “partisanship” in their politics, it doesn’t seem that they dislike politicians who have clear and coherent views about the direction the country should take. (If they did, would Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama have been elected and popular?) Rather, they are turned off by […]
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The Myth of 100 Days
To a transformational president, each day is a blessed opportunity, none more or less important than another.
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Expert Advice
George W. Bush left us with a staggering set of questions for which political answers are elusive at best.
Posted inFeatures
It’s Time to Rethink the Problem
Everything Americans thought they knew about risk was wrong. Now what? To restore real prosperity, we’ll need to get smarter about what we don’t know.
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Missed Connections
Bush kept choices about taxes separate from questions of services. Progressives have turned the tables.
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The Persuasion Broker
In a city littered with liberal dreams gone awry, one social entrepreneur has been getting it right for almost 50 years.
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AIG’S ACTUAL CLAIM: CONNECTICUT MADE US DO IT.
I just read the white paper that AIG provided to back up its claim, in its letter to Secretary Geithner, that its hands were tied when it came to paying bonuses. I found it sort of amazing that the white paper didn’t cite a single passage from any of the contracts to show that they […]
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THE PARTISAN CASE AGAINST EARMARKS.
Senator Lindsey Graham‘s ability to attack earmarks in the very same breath that he declares “I should have the ability as a United States senator to direct money back to my state as long as it’s transparent and it makes sense” might indicate that he’s a hypocrite, or perhaps not a native English speaker. The […]