It hasn't been a fun day to be a progressive. The public option is dead. Medicare buy-in is dead. And so is much of our enthusiasm for the future of Health Care Reform. Yet with all of the eulogizing of the public option and arguing about whether or not to...

It's been pretty clear that the members of the Democratic leadership in the Senate are a bunch of amoral cowards who are not only afraid to play hardball, but unwilling to at least pretend to play hardball. As the predictable consequence of this weakness, Sen. Reid has let the health...

We really live in a golden age for race-baiting. Back in the day, there was a spectrum of racism of sorts. You knew something racist fell somewhere between Al Jolson in blackface, zip-a-de-doo-dah racism and the move your wallet to your front pocket because you see a black guy walking...

First of all, let's be clear on one thing. The public option has the same level of support from the Obama administration that it did a month ago. The president has consistently said that he believes a health care reform bill should have a non-profit option to keep insurance companies...

In the grand scheme of things, getting people to complain about taxes on April 15th might be the easiest thing in the world. It's right up there with "eating ice cream on a hot summer day" and "laughing whenever Glenn Beck cries". Bitching about taxes is America's true pastime. So...

Four years and one day ago, after George W. Bush defeated John Kerry by 2 million popular votes and 34 electoral votes, he held a press conference in which he declared :

I feel it is necessary to move an agenda that I told the American people I would move....

I'm having a hard time expressing in words how I feel right now. On the one hand, the election of Barack Obama is one of the great moments in our nation's history. As my mother said last night "Save your papers tomorrow morning to pass on to your children and...

Here's a very cool comic strip from my friend Tom Neely .

Let's give John McCain the benefit of the doubt for a moment. For the sake of argument, let's put aside questions that have been raised regarding his campaign and take as a given that John McCain is an honorable, trustworthy person who always puts his country first and makes strides...

The consensus around the 'sphere seems to be that Obama needs to stop playing defense, define Sarah Palin, and take the fight back to John McCain. These seem like contradictory goals, but here's a suggestion for an ad that might accomplish all three (based on this post from last...

Here's a shocking display of honesty from the conservative blog Powerline :

We conservatives have had a good time ridiculing the Obama phenomenon, especially its messianic feel -- the willingness of its adherents to pour so much hope and belief into such an empty, or at least incomplete, vessel --...

I don't know if the John McCain we've been seeing lately is the real McCain or "Candidate McCain," but either way, John McCain is turning out to be a real jerk. For the candidate whose earlier promise to run a "respectful campaign" has already become a running joke, John...

For all of the vitriol that I've thrown in Hillary Clinton's direction, it's nothing compared to my contempt for John McCain. I don't know if he's been a millionaire in Washington D.C. for so long that it makes him completely tone deaf to the experiences of others or if he's...

I've been as outspoken as anyone over the last week in pointing out Hillary Clinton's dishonesty, but theWall Street Journal's glee over Clinton's emerging reputation as a serial exaggerator is incredibly disturbing :

Hillary Clinton's been all the news this week, after she "misspoke" about Whitewater, Travelgate, missing files, suspicious...

Apparently being caught lying on your resume brings out the venomous side in Sen. Clinton.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a wide-ranging interview today with Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporters and editors, said she would have left her church if her pastor made the sort of inflammatory remarks Sen. Barack Obama's...

Do you want to know how McCain beats Hillary in November? In short, the same way George Bush beat Al Gore (minus the Supreme Court coup). As Rolling Stone explained in 2001 :

Last year, a review conducted by two nonpartisan groups, Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew...

I think Hillary Clinton is absolutely right to suggest that she's been criticized in the press more than any other candidate, but the way I see it, her fame is a two-edged sword. While she gets held to a different standard due to her fame, she wouldn't be where she...

Atrios catches some anti-WGA strike bias on CNBC, a network that prides itself in catering to "business executives and financial professionals that have significant purchasing power". The chyron reads :

WHAT ARE THEY FIGHTING FOR?

4,434 Hollywood guild writers worked full-time last year.

Average salary: $204,000

...

Since the President was so concerned about "socialized medicine" that he vetoed SCHIP expansion, can we assume that his trip to Southern California tomorrow is to deliver a lecture about the evils of socialized firefighting? After all, if the free market is the best way to fight poverty, injury, and...