Paul Waldman

We all know that America has an obesity problem. But guess what – as usual, our brave advertising executives have the answer. First, there’s this ad for Nutella. “As a mom,” our friendly actress says, “I’m a great believer in Nutella, a delicious hazelnut spread I use to get my kids to eat healthy foods.” […]

Language is a many-splendored thing, and we should applaud those who explore its farther reaches in search of the most descriptive, interesting, or ear-pleasing variations to use in their speaking and writing. But sometimes, esoteric language is used to obscure and exclude rather that to enlighten and illuminate. Though I’m not much of a fan […]

The latest high-profile entry into our Washington media universe, Tucker Carlson‘s Daily Caller, launched yesterday. With millions of dollars in venture capital, a staff numbered at 21 (a huge number for an online start-up), and plenty of publicity, the site hopes to be a conservative combination of the Huffington Post and Politico. Out of the […]

Over the weekend, Fox News chief Roger Ailes was profiled in the New York Times, and some people have mocked Ailes’ contention that he might be a terrorist target: As powerful as he is within the News Corporation, Mr. Ailes remains a spectral presence outside the Fox News offices. National security had long been a […]

Is it too early to start speculating about the 2012 GOP presidential primaries? Of course not! The race promises to be a chaotic free-for-all of backbiting and recrimination, flip-flops and opportunistic conversions, feigned outrage and vicious attacks over meaningless non-issues. Throw in the fact that the force within the party with the most energy right […]

Back in early 2007, Mitt Romney faced questions about his religion, and he and his campaign did some pushback, asserting that he was facing a double-standard. He felt he was being asked to be a spokesperson for Mormonism, while other candidates with different religions weren’t being asked to do the same. At the time, I […]

Remember when we all thought John McCain was a steadfastly principled man who didn’t play that nasty political game? Yeah, I know – it seems like so long ago. But let’s take a gander at what he’s saying in a new radio ad. “President Obama is leading an extreme left-wing crusade to bankrupt America,” McCain […]

That’s not a headline I ever thought I’d write. But political controversy, it seems, is the mother of invention. You’ll recall that in exchange for his vote on health-care reform, Sen. Ben Nelson obtained from Harry Reid a provision under which the federal government would pick up the full cost of the bill’s expansion of […]

The social theorist Eric Hoffer once wrote, in a quote that seems to have been punched up in the repeating, something to the effect that every political movement starts out as a cause, turns into a business, and eventually devolves into a racket. It seems that the tea party movement is headed that way with […]