Blog: TAPPED

THE PASSIONS OF THE OVERCLASS. Allow me to agree with Reihan Salam on this: Daniel Gross’s crusade against the AMT is taking a new shape. Now it’s not just a war on affluent Democrats — it is a a war on “a good chunk of the national Republican base.” In that case, though, isn’t keeping […]

DEFINING JOHN MCCAIN. In yesterday’s LA Times, Jonathan Chait offers up a more convincing and sober-minded version of Jacob Weisberg‘s recent argument that John McCain really isn’t a conservative and he’s just doing a little necessary pandering. My Big Correct Debate-Changing Observation about this is that the disagreements here are less about McCain than they […]

THE “OVERHAUL” CONTINUES. The president’s effort to shake up the White House staff without actually changing anything took another step forward today. When Andy Card resigned, he was replaced by Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten which, in turn, created an opening. That opening, we learn, will be filled by US Trade Representative […]

PSA. TAPPED will be offline today in celebration of Patriots Day. –Alec Oveis

DINING WITH DEAN. From Tuesday�s American Prospect breakfast with Howard Dean: Walter Shapiro: Governor, from where you sit, is the fact that there will be two caucuses between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary a done deal, or is this still open for negotiation, as to whether there will be caucuses and/or whether […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP: THE OUTRAGE GAP. The last thing Democrats need is an electorate on the fence, says Terence Samuel. –The Editors

THE TRUTH ABOUT IRAN MIGHT WORK — BUT WILL DEMS TELL IT? Matt, Ezra, and Garance all give very thoughtful answers to my question below about Iran — no question, arguments about cost and effectiveness should certainly prove more effective this time around. My concern, however, is that some Dems — primarily the presidential contenders […]

MITT ROMNEY CHANNELS JOHN EDWARDS. This is a bit of an old story already, but I think it’s still worth noting for the historical record, since I haven’t seen it noted elsewhere, that John Edwards, not Mitt Romney, was the first presidential candidate to propose making health insurance mandatory. Romney’s just the first to get […]

WHITE REPUBLICANS’ BLACK REPUBLICAN PROBLEM. Here’s an interesting preview of a forthcoming article by a Yale economist demonstrating that “white Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black,” and that there is no noticeable boost in black voter turnout when […]

BUT WHY? The Urban Institute’s C. Eugene Stuerle writes: a postwar boom in the U.S. labor force is just now ending. Since around 1950, the percentage of adults who worked rose almost every year except in recessions. But now the great swell of working boomers is starting to retire, and most of the gain in […]