View image | gettyimages.com That would be one Hillary R. Clinton, sharing a cup of nourishing coffee with some folks from Le Claire, Iowa. If you’ve ever been to one of these spectacles, you have to admire the ordinary people who find themselves chatting with a candidate as a surly scrum of photographers jostles each […]
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Posted inLaw and Justice
It Turns Out People Can Be Persuasive When They’re High
I’m fairly certain she’s a “yes” on legalization. (Flickr/Jonathan Piccolo) The Pew Research Center has a new poll out on marijuana legalization, and in many ways it’s about what you’d expect if you’ve been paying attention to public opinion on this topic lately. Overall support for legalization is at 53 percent, and young people are […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Can Republicans Make Hillary Clinton the Mitt Romney of 2016?
View image | gettyimages.com Republicans have lots of time to come up with a central theme with which they can attack Hillary Clinton, and right now there are a bunch of GOP pollsters scrolling through real estate listings for the lake houses they’re going to buy with all the money they’ll make from running polls […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Springtime Edition
View image | gettyimages.com The cherry blossoms are blooming here in Washington, which means there’s an intoxicating smell in the air and young people’s hearts turn to thoughts of love. Unfortunately, the Washington spring only lasts about a week and a half, after which we segue into the unspeakably hot and humid summer. Contrary to […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Need to “Distance” Herself from Barack Obama
View image | gettyimages.com For a number of reasons, it has proven extremely difficult in recent history for a presidential candidate to win after eight years in which his party controlled the White House. Only one candidate has done it since 1948-George H.W. Bush in 1988. This fact would make a Hillary Clinton victory next […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Hillary Clinton Is Just As Polarizing As Every Other Major Political Figure — No More, No Less
I’m guessing that you may have heard that Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the White House Sunday in this video. Before that even happened, you may also have heard that lots of people don’t like Hillary Clinton. In the coming months, each new poll showing substantial disapproval, dislike, or disquiet with the prospect of […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Consumer Mania Edition
View image | gettyimages.com These young people in Tokyo are dispassionately assessing the new offerings from the Apple corporation. Will they buy an Apple Watch? Perhaps they will, but only after a long, thoughtful process of consideration in which they are assured that the product will be of sufficient benefit to justify its high price.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Republican Candidates Troop to Festival of Paranoia and Fear-Mongering
View image | gettyimages.com The National Rifle Association starts its annual convention today, and there will be plenty of time spent bashing both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, not least because the speakers include Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum, and […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Remarkable Persistence of Crackpot Economics in the GOP
The most horrifying article you can read today is not about Ayatollah Khamenei’s troubling comments on the Iran nuclear deal, it’s this piece from Jim Tankersley of The Washington Post about how all the GOP presidential candidates are lining up to receive the wisdom of Arthur Laffer as they formulate their economic plans. This is […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Step One, Acknowledge Climate Change. Step Two, Recognize It’s Our Fault.
View image | gettyimages.com Posted by guest-blogger Amanda Teuscher The past couple weeks have been a bit of a mixed bag in the debate about climate change and environmental policy. On April 1, Governor Jerry Brown imposed water restrictions on California for the first time-a 25 percent usage reduction meant to alleviate the state’s historic […]
