By Michael WinshipNovember 18, 2008QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand – You might think it hard to think about politics when you’re in a place as extraordinary as this on New Zealand’s South Island.Read on.

Continue reading " A View of Obama from Middle Earth "

By Brian BargerNovember 18, 2008American automakers are sinking fast in a quagmire of their own making.Read on.

Continue reading " Detroit-Washington Shotgun Wedding "

By Brent BudowskyNovember 18, 2008President-elect Obama will take office with a mission similar to Franklin Roosevelt’s: establishing both a war Cabinet and an emergency economic Cabinet.Read on.

Continue reading " An FDR War Cabinet "

By Robert ParryNovember 17, 2008After a masterful campaign, Barack Obama seems headed toward some fateful mistakes as he assembles his administration by heeding the advice of Washington’s Democratic insider community, a collective group that repre…

Continue reading " Obama Risks Clinton-Era Mistakes "

By Robert ParryNovember 16, 2008In his trademark goofy way, George W. Bush explained why he supported a bailout of the U.S. financial markets, saying he was “a free-market person, until you’re told that if you don’t take decisive measures then it’s…

Continue reading " Predictable Disaster of George W. Bush "

By Jason LeopoldNovember 13, 2008Most of the attention on whether Joe Lieberman should be ousted from his Senate committee chairmanship has focused on his disloyalty to Democrats and his control of homeland security issues, but there’s also the qu…

Continue reading " Lieberman’s Weak Record on Oversight "

By Robert ParryNovember 13, 2008Press reports say Barack Obama may retain George W. Bush’s Defense Secretary Robert Gates as a gesture to war-time continuity, bipartisanship and respect for the Washington insider community, which has embraced Gates…

Continue reading " The Danger of Keeping Robert Gates "

By Robert ParryNovember 11, 2008Barack Obama seeks a new era of bipartisanship, but he should take heed of what happened to the last Democrat in the White House – Bill Clinton – in 1993 when he sought to appease Republicans by shelving pending in…

Continue reading " Obama: Beware the Lesson of ‘93 "

By Robert ParryNovember 9, 2008Amid the global euphoria surrounding Barack Obama’s victory – and the hopeful talk about a new bipartisanship in Washington – the Democrats are forgetting a powerful truth: modern Republicans are tied inextricably…

Continue reading " Can the Republicans Change? "

By Michael WinshipNovember 7, 2008Whether you’re Democrat, Republican or Mugwump, you look at Tuesday night’s remarkable election results and the nationwide reaction and can’t help but wonder at how far our young country has come – and, at th…

Continue reading " Obama Shows the Future, the Past "

By Ray McGovernNovember 7, 2008After a week lecturing at Kansas State University and then in Kansas City, Missouri, I could not shake the feeling that what Kansas and Missouri need most is the equivalent of Radio Free Europe, which was so effective …

Continue reading " President-elect’s Queries for Briefers "

By Jason LeopoldNovember 7, 2008President-elect Barack Obama, in one of the first policy statements of his transition, demanded that the Bush administration either submit the proposed U.S.-Iraq “status-of-forces agreement” to Congress or leave a…

Continue reading " Obama Demands Iraq War Changes "

By Robert ParryNovember 5, 2008Around midnight, when the election outcome was clear, thousands of young people walked and skipped and ran to the north gates of the White House, celebrating not just the election of Barack Obama but the repudiation of…

Continue reading " At the White House, an Obama Party "

By Robert ParryNovember 5, 2008Around midnight, when the election outcome was clear, thousands of young people walked and skipped and ran to the north gates of the White House, celebrating not just the election of Barack Obama but the repudiation of…

Continue reading " At the White House, an Obama Party "

By Jason LeopoldNovember 4, 2008Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin got the favorable ruling she hoped for when she referred the “Troopergate” controversy to the state personnel board whose three members are gubernatorial appointees. Their investigator rejec…

Continue reading " Palin Gets Positive ‘Troopergate’ Ruling "

By Brian BargerNovember 3, 2008Visitors are greeted at the edge of Virginia’s Caroline County with a giant billboard proclaiming it “McCain Country.” It’s also become a call-to-canvassing priority for the Obama campaign, which sees this as a …

Continue reading " Fear and Racism on the Campaign Trail "

By Robert ParryNovember 2, 2008Sarah Palin may be wrong about the existence of a “real” America where people are decent and patriotic – and a “fake” America where they’re not. But John McCain’s election chances now appear to hinge on th…

Continue reading " McCain’s ‘Real-ly Stupid’ America "

By Bill Moyers and Michael WinshipNovember 1, 2008Our Manhattan offices are in a building that also houses the New York City Board of Elections. So this is the season when we hear above our heads the sounds of heavy objects rolling across the floor i…

Continue reading " Sounds of Voting and Check-Writing "

By Jason LeopoldOctober 31, 2008Despite pressure from Ohio Republicans and President George W. Bush, the Justice Department has declined to intervene in a voter dispute in Ohio that could have purged at least 200,000 voters from registration rolls.Re…

Continue reading " Justice Department Balks on Ohio Vote "

By Jason LeopoldOctober 31, 2008Sarah Palin faces another likely setback in an investigation into whether she entangled her duties as Alaska governor in a family feud with her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper, according to a senior state legislator…

Continue reading " More ‘Troopergate’ Problems for Palin "