Bill Clinton had two years on "offense," when he tried to push an ambitious domestic agenda, followed by six years on "defense," after his party lost control of Congress in 1994. Barack Obama, despite his determined posture in his State of the Union address, seems to have gotten just...

1. Work (in a bipartisan way, of course) with the National Rifle Association to arm America's 50 million uninsured and give them a ticket to Washington.
2. Require every senior Wall Street banker to personally cover 1000 uninsured families (cost: just13 million a year!)
3. If Conan can be paid $30 million not...

Given:

• Massachusetts' bipartisan health care reform a few years ago is the model for what Obama and the Democrats have been on the verge of passing in Washington.
• Scott Brown supported the bipartisan Massachusetts health care reform (which has given the state near-universal coverage)
• Scott Brown opposes the Democrats' health...

The Big Point being lost in all the back and forth over the stimulus plan's flaws is this: there is no such thing as a perfect stimulus.

First, we don't really know what will work best, and second, no giant bill like this gets through Congress without massive amounts...

Caroline Kennedy is a fine lady, but Nick Kristof has it right on his blog regarding the aristocratization of American politics. My own entry on this demoralizing phenomenon was a column back in March 2001, reprinted below. Nothing's changed.

Forget Soft Money -- Stop the Heirs!

I...

This article originally appeared at The Big Money.

Yes, it takes a breathtaking level of chutzpah for Hank Paulson to bar as "punitive" any caps on Wall Street compensation or clawbacks of ill-gotten gains on the verge of an epic federal bailout. But Democrats would be foolish to fixate...

A classic from the archive (March 1999) brought to mind by Scott McClellan's current choices

As bombs fall in Belgrade and George Stephanopoulus' memoir hits number one on bestseller lists, President Clinton has to be wondering who in the room is taking notes for the next kiss-and-tell. Unfortunately, he's got...