Chris Hayes' piece on America's system failure in the Nation on February 3rd is one of the single best posts I've seen in a long time on the long term challenges facing progressive activists in this county. It captures for me that combination of intense discouragement at the problems...

The way Barack Obama ended his State of the Union -"We don't quit. I don't quit". - has already become a rallying cry for Democrats. I have seen that quote now in Democratic Party fundraising emails and call to action emails, have seen numerous Democrats make reference to it in...

One of the toughest decisions to make in politics is figuring out the right time to compromise and the right time to pick a fight and see the fight through. As that great verse from Ecclesiastes says so well, there is a time for every season under heaven. Being willing...

Many of the progressive economists and political leaders I respect the most tend to downplay worries about the federal budget deficit, or say that while we need to worry about it someday, we can't do anything about it until the economy recovers. For example, the great economist James K. Galbraith...

The lesson of that history is that you must not despair, that if you are right, and you persist, things will change. The government will try to deceive the people, and the newspapers and television may do the same, but the truth has a way of coming out. The truth...

Political prognisticators inside the Beltway like to talk about all the reasons Obama's approval ratings are dropping, and what the results of the Massachusetts Senate race and other recent campaigns might mean. Is Obama communicating well enough about the key issues? Did Martha Coakley run a good campaign? Is Obama...

About 6 months ago, I started warning about the potential for a really bad electoral cycle for the Democrats in the 2010 midterms. I feared that by not taking the big banks on more aggressively, not doing more to create jobs in a really bad economic period for job creation,...

In the days and weeks after the 1994 election, working in the Clinton White House was a little surreal. After a 1992 campaign, transition, and first 22 months in office when we were moving at the speed of light, being asked to get a million things done, being driven relentlessly...

Democrats have an absolutely clear path to passing a strong health care reform bill quickly that will re-establish their image for being able to deliver real change, begin to rebuild their bond with their base, and allow them to move on to dealing with jobs and the economy. To fail...

In all the hundreds of thousands of words being written and spoken about the implications of last night's special election in Massachusetts by all the pundits and strategists and drum-beaters for various interest groups, only one thing really matters right now: the character of the leaders of the Democratic party....

Wow.

I have complained many times about how frustrating it is to see Obama not wanting to go with a populist message, especially in regards to going after Wall Street.

Yesterday, in a proposal to impose a major new surtax on the biggest banks, he really went for...

The quote of the week belongs to EJ Dionne in his terrific column today:

If you held a contest to pick the worst thing a politician could be called at this moment, my nominee would be Wall Street Liberal.

That phrase, which seems so bizarre to those of...

Slowly but surely, signs of pushback from progressive leaders and activists are starting to bubble up. Nancy Pelosi and House progressives are refusing to fold in negotiations with the Senate. Between the Pecora Commission hearings starting this week and the new Move Your Money campaign targeting the big banks,...

I was planning to write a piece on banking issues today, but with three surprise retirements of Democratic incumbents in statewide positions yesterday (Dorgan and Dodd in the Senate, Gov. Ritter in Colorado) I have to comment on that situation. Fortunately, the two things are pretty closely linked.

Look, I...

One of the great things about going home (Nebraska and northwest Missouri) for the Christmas vacation, especially in a year like this, is that you get to brag to everyone when you get back about the weather. Freezing rain the day we flew in, 15 inches of snow on Christmas...

This may well be my last post of the year, since I'm leaving for Christmas with the family tomorrow. I always pretend to myself that I might write something over the Christmas holiday, but between playing with the little ones, hanging out with the rest of the family, having dinners...

The divide between progressives on whether to support the health care bill is one of the most striking things I have seen in all my years in politics. The fact that so many good people are on different sides of whether this compromise should be accepted is the true sign...

I find myself gripped in a bitter argument -- with myself -- about the fate of health care reform. It's sort of like watching the schizophrenic Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings saga fight angrily with himself over how to deal with Frodo: "the master is so nice to...

Okay, I know the health care bill is a big disappointment. And climate change is stalled. The big banks aren't being broken up. Who knows when immigration reform is happening? And don't even get me started about the 2nd big escalation into Afghanistan.

Politics sometimes really sucks. But I want...

I am a team player. I believe in compromise and negotiation, and have always been okay with taking half a loaf or even a quarter at times. I have never believed in making the perfect the enemy of the good. And as an aging diabetic, a small businessman with skyrocketing...