In 2008, John McCain, straight-talking principled maverick that he was, got into a Republican primary and saw that a position in favor of comprehensive immigration reform was causing him problems, so he disavowed the reform bill he had co-authored not long before, going so far as to say that if it came up again in […]
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Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Why Media Coverage of Campaign 2016 Will Be As Bad As Ever
View image | gettyimages.com Let’s spare a bit of sympathy for the reporters who found themselves running after Hillary Clinton’s van last week in the hopes that they might get a few seconds of video of her stepping out of it and into whatever momentous event she was arriving at. I’m sure that as they […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Photo of the Day, Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far, Far Away Edition
Flickr/Betsy Weber I’m not even going to bother linking to the new trailer for the new Star Wars movie, because it’s been out since yesterday, and if you haven’t watched it already there’s obviously something wrong with you. I’ll just give you this picture of cookies.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Two More Candidates to Begin Doomed Runs for Presidency
What leads a man to look in the mirror and say, “I could be president of the United States”? Anybody can say they should be president, of course-after all, aren’t all your ideas the right ones?-but it takes a remarkably optimistic spirit to think that you can do what it takes to make it to […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Jeb Bush Was Born On Third Base. Does He Think He Hit a Triple?
View image | gettyimages.com Jeb Bush, you may or may not be aware, spent much of his adult life as a “businessman.” I put that word in quotes because from what we’ve learned so far Bush doesn’t seem to have risen in the business world the way we normally think of people doing, by creating […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Cold Day In Hades Edition
View image | gettyimages.com A bunch of politicians at a press conference, you say? Nay, this is something far more momentous. This is Democrats and Republicans at a ceremony signing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, better known as the “doc fix” bill, or more properly, the bill that ends the annual […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Real Reason Social Security Is the Third Rail of American Politics
View image | gettyimages.com Chris Christie still harbors hopes of becoming the Republican nominee for president, and in search of a way to convince conservatives that he’s one of them-and reinforce the idea that he’s a bold truth-teller who doesn’t care whose feathers he ruffles, and you might not agree with him but you’ll always […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Hillary Clinton’s Evolution On Marriage Equality Shows How Change Happens, and Why Parties Matter
Over the last few days, Chris Geidner of Buzzfeed has been documenting Hillary Clinton’s evolution on the issue of same-sex marriage, an evolution that may now finally be complete. First Geidner posted some interesting documents from the 1990s showing Clinton and her husband explaining their opposition to marriage rights, then he got the Clinton campaign […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Theater of Protest Edition
View image | gettyimages.com I happen to think that most protests of this type range somewhere between useless and counterproductive. But I still love this photo, because it’s so dynamic-the flying paper, the confetti, the movement of European Central Bank president Mario Draghi (that’s him on the left looking like he’s ready to catch a […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Where the Candidates Stand On Taxes
View image | gettyimages.com Tax day is a good time to wonder just what sort of changes to the tax code we might expect when we get a new president 21 months from now. Most of them haven’t produced lengthy position papers yet, but we can get at least a preliminary idea of where they’d […]
