Tim Fernholz

Today is the official launch of The Progressive Realist, a “metablog” of foreign policy commentary from across the left side of the political spectrum, all in the service of exploring what a post-Bush foreign policy should look like. Robert Wright, who is heading up the project, articulated the progressive realist vision back in 2006: Progressive […]

The first in what no doubt will be a series of attempts to put Obama’s slap-in-the-face moments in perspective. I’m told being contrarian is good for your career. Reports indicate that Barack Obama has asked congressional Democrats to remove a provision from the stimulus package that would fund contraceptive programs through medicaid. Nicholas Beaudrot explains […]

… in his first formal television interview, with Al Arabiya. Marc Lynch, king of public diplomacy, tells us I do think that this is an extremely significant gambit which signals his commitment to real public diplomacy, his engagement with Middle East issues (repudiating all the pundits expecting him to neglect foreign policy), and his ability […]

Despite rumors to the contrary, there was no Congressional Budget Office report on the economic stimulus legislation until yesterday, when the CBO released this — pleased to see new CBO Director Doug Elmendorf continue Peter Orzag’s blogging ways. Read the whole thing, but consider that the projections for direct spending — the infrastructure investment part […]

One bummer about getting most of your news consumption on the Web is missing out on those gem articles you notice paging your way through the physical newspaper. Such was the case last night, when I ran across a copy of the Sunday Post’s Outlook section at a friend’s house, and in particular this article […]

Marc Ambinder has been having a good back-and-forth between Republican pollster Mike Murphy and labor pollster Guy Molyneux on the Employee Free Choice Act. The discussion is revealing of how structuring a poll can influence response, and how it’s not really worthwhile to write about polls without seeing their actual questions and the cross-tabs. It […]

When Howard Dean campaigned for president in 2003, he had an “A” rating from the NRA and was considered a fiscal conservative who promised balanced budgets. — Tim Fernholz

After writing this morning’s post on the subject, I’ve been calling around the Hill to figure out what’s going on with the Congressional Budget Office report. Republicans say it proves infrastructure investment won’t help the economy in the short term. What’s become clear is, first and most important, there was no CBO “report,” a definition […]

Marc Ambinder and Jeffrey Goldberg wonder aloud (ablog?): Jeffrey Goldberg just wandered into my office and observed that, at first blush, President Barack Obama’s reckoning of the last month’s worth of Middle East history would be the exact same reckoning that George W. Bush would have had. In other words — there’s nothing that Obama […]

Though I don’t have much to add to my colleagues on the issue of Kirsten Gillibrand, I will note one interesting thing about Caroline Kennedy’s exit. Weeks ago, a savvy source suggested I look into this portion of the big Times interview with Kennedy. CK:… so I don’t have large staff — DH: Do you […]