President Obama announced today that he will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, raising the stakes for himself and all participating nations.

The initial goal for Copenhagen was to forge a binding treaty. But that ambitious goal has been scaled back. With American climate protection...

When Sen. Joe Lieberman first announced he would filibuster any health care bill with a public option, I noted that he lied, falsely calling the public option an "entitlement program" that would be "trouble ... for the national debt." In fact, the public option is an "option," not an...

The House is expected to vote on comprehensive health care reform Saturday. And conservatives have no excuse for voting against it. Their main concerns have been addressed.

Conservatives have continually complained that committee votes occurred without full cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. They argued we should not...

Today, Sen. Barbara Boxer rammed through the Environment and Public Works Committee her version of clean energy jobs and climate protection legislation without any amendments, in order to circumvent the Republican boycott of the committee proceedings.

There's no way that bill will become law without further changes, but Boxer...

In 2008, Sen. John McCain lost the presidential race in NJ after garnering 1,613,207 votes. In 2009, Chris Christie won the governor's race with 1,140,134 votes. (Barack Obama had 2,215,422 votes while Gov. Jon Corzine received only 1,038,170.)

In 2008, McCain lost VA after getting 1,725,005 votes....

Today's CNN poll, assessing President Obama one year after election day, confirms that America remains a center-left nation. Yet don't expect pundits to tell you that.

For example, poll analysis from the Wall Street Journal's John McKinnon implies that declining approval for Obama's handling of specific issues...

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Cigna) announced today he would filibuster the health care bill because it contains a public option compromise.

Why does he want to do this? I don't know (*cough* -- Aetna -- *cough* *cough*) exactly. But we do know his stated reasons are lies.

Politico reports:

"We're...

Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he would submit a health care reform bill with a national public option that states could choose not to join.

This is how democracy is supposed to work. The highest ranking member of Senate was able to hear the will of America's...

The allegedly centrist Senate Finance health care bill partially pays for reform by taxing expansive insurance plans. The original allegedly left-wing House bill raises revenue with a income surtax on the uber-wealthy. Guess which one is incredibly unpopular with the American middle?

Two polls in two days -- the

Wonk Room's Brad Johnson reported that Sen. Lindsey Graham faced a legion of angry right-wing Teabaggers for working with Sen. John Kerry on carbon cap legislation. And in the video of his SC town hall, despite being called a "traitor" among other things, Graham does not show one...

Just as the Senate Finance Committee is about to pass a health care bill without a public option, the insurance lobby's last-minute hissy fit exposed the weakness of its argument against a public option.

America's Health Insurance Plans, the main insurance lobby organization, released a report projecting a rise...

Last week, I struck a hopeful note after GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham expressed interest in a climate bill compromise that included a carbon cap in exchange for support for some nuclear power and coastal drilling. But my expectations it would really happen remained low.

Today, Graham made a deal...

After all year repeatedly citing Congressional Budget Office estimates and analysis to argue that health care reform would increase the deficit, conservatives this week faced a CBO report that said health care reform would cut the deficit.

So conservatives breathed a sigh of relief...

In July I speculated that Sen. Lamar Alexander might lead some Republicans to back a climate protection bill if Democratic leaders made some concessions regarding nuclear power. The prospect was tantalizing, as I noted then: "The Democratic caucus is not solid enough on climate issues to presume GOP...

Over at The Wonk Room, Igor Volsky, after recalling how conservatives successfully killed health care reform on the Senate floor in 1994, makes the counter-intuitive argument that the public option stands a better chance of passing if Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid leaves it out of the bill...

The new Boxer-Kerry Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act gives progressives a second chance to influence climate legislation, if we learn the right lessons from both the legislative process for the House climate bill and the ongoing health care debate.

Many progressives have varying degrees of frustration with...

The Congressional Budget Office gave Sen. Max Baucus' bill the best scoring yet for a health care bill. But his removal of a public health insurance option in favor of seed money for non-profit co-ops has nothing to do with it.

Baucus' bill costs less in the eyes of the...

ABC News' polling director Gary Langer makes a notable observation about the W. Post/ABC health care polls from today and June: "[Our] June poll found that support for a public option drops dramatically if it would put many private insurers out of business, as critics claim. This poll shows...

After last night's speech, I have no idea what President Obama's legislative strategy is regarding a public health insurance option.

But I know he's made a public option more possible. And I know what needs to happen to get it done.

Some pundits are looking at the...

Last month, Sen. Ted Kennedy wrote in Newsweek: "Quality care shouldn't depend on your financial resources, or the type of job you have, or the medical condition you face. Every American should be able to get the same treatment that U.S. senators are entitled to. This is the cause...