Matthew Yglesias

Maybe conservatives are right and liberals really have been driven mad by their hatred of George W. Bush. How else to explain the fact that many progressives have greeted the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts’ decision on same-sex marriages not as a triumph but as a source of despair? Liberals seem to fear that the […]

This week’s New Yorker contains a profile of Wesley Clark with a striking thesis — that the general’s “military career, the justification for his candidacy, may also be a liability.” Author Peter Boyer argues initially that Clark’s plans for a military campaign against Slobodan Milosevic during the 1999 Kosovo conflict were too aggressive; then Boyer […]

Yesterday, National Review Editor Rich Lowry struck back against my earlier critique of his efforts to blame the Clinton administration for the September 11 terrorist attacks. Lowry, you see, has a new book out called Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years, and his magazine’s Web site has been running Legacy-themed articles ever since […]

My recent move from New York City to Washington has brought with it a lot of changes, among them a new morning newspaper. Yesterday, that switch paid off in the form of a magnificent front-page article by Mike Allen and Dana Priest in The Washington Post. The piece confirmed reports that two Bush administration officials […]

In last season’s final episode of The West Wing, President Josiah Bartlet invokes the 25th Amendment and relinquishes power so that the country can be led through crisis — terrorists have kidnapped Bartlet’s daughter — by someone with an objective grasp of the situation. As it happens, however, the office of vice president is temporarily […]

The most obvious precedent for retired Gen. Wesley Clark’s presidential campaign is that of Dwight Eisenhower, the only general in the 20th century to seek the highest office in the land. There was a period of time in the 19th century, however, when generals were a common sight on the campaign trail. Between 1840 and […]

Throughout the Bush recession and the ensuing jobless recovery, the one consistent source of good economic news has been from the housing market. The value of the average home increased 6.48 percent in the 12-month period ending on March 31, and it is up a hefty 38.04 percent over the past five years. This continuing […]

As the weapons-of-mass-destruction rationale for invading Iraq grows more threadbare and the notion that removing Saddam Hussein from power would lead to a quick blossoming of Middle East democracy looks more fanciful by the day, President Bush has taken to casting the ongoing conflict in Iraq as “the central front in the war on terror.” […]