Health care reform was always going to be tough as hell, as difficult as any issue that could ever be tackled. As I learned from the agony of the 1993-94 Clinton attempt at health care reform, this issue is so massive, so complicated, so unwieldy that it is prone to...

I haven't yet had a chance to digest all the numbers from yesterday's election, but what is coming through loud and clear from all the analysis I have seen is that the biggest difference by far between the 2008 election results and the 2009 results is simply that the two...

Rather than being an overwhelming sweep, most elections are a mix of good and bad news for each political party and the progressive and conservative movements in our country, and the 2009 off-year elections certainly fits into that category.

In the category of the expected, both parties had easy...

This is the one year anniversary of Barack Obama's historic and incredibly exciting election as President of the United States. I was proud of our country that day, that after slavery, Jim Crow, the terrible treatment of Native Americans, and the nasty anti-immigrant laws and rhetoric of our history, that...

McClatchy is out with an incredibly important series on Goldman Sachs, the first two parts of which have gone up already, that raises questions about whether Goldman committed securities fraud at a massive level. I am guessing the next three parts of this series are going to be really...

Many people looking at my headline would immediately assume those two concepts -- centrism, and swing voters -- have a direct and exceedingly close tie to each other. And in some ways, in some elections, at some times, they certainly have. But the connection is growing more and more tenuous,...

With the Republicans becoming locked into being the party of No/Hell, No/Not Ever/Nada/Absolutely Not/Never Ever, Democrats are going to need to seriously consider revising the rules of the Senate at the beginning of next term. The gritty reality of the Senate rules minefield is making the passage of health care...

In the midst of the intense health care battle and the angst about the Afghanistan decision, it's important to remember that there have been some pretty good accomplishments so far this year for progressives. We've moved forward quickly on initiatives like the Lily Ledbetter fair pay act, S-CHIP, a good...

Okay, folks, we progressives got what we wanted. A comprehensive health care reform bill with a reasonably strong public option will be going to the floor as part of leadership bills in both the House and the Senate. We don't yet know whether we will get the best version of...

The intensity is ratcheting ever higher as we move toward the final stages of the health care fight. It's been a good week for reformers overall. Pelosi and Reid are both whipping for strong bills, including a very strong public option (in the House) or a respectable public option (in...

Have you seen the latest stories about the profits and bonuses of the biggest banks on Wall Street? Are they going out of their way to try to piss everyone off? Are they intentionally thumbing their nose at democracy to make it clear that they can and will get away...

One thing that every major policy initiative the Obama administration has taken/has been forced to take on (most of them are in the latter category given the stakes) early in their term have in common is their overwhelming complexity. I am glad we have a president with real brains and...

That is the big question everyone is wondering about these days. Most of the traditional media is drooling over the idea of a train wreck, hyping the disagreements and hoping for failure. But the disagreements are also quite real and quite significant. Conservative Democrats don't want a public option, progressives...

As many of you who read my work know, I'm a history buff. I like to look at the lessons of the past and the big-picture for the future. The big-picture includes an understanding of our movement and the conservative movement, which is why I also think it's important to...

At a retreat this last weekend sponsored by the Roosevelt Institute on financial reform issues (I have to take a break from health care every once in a while to keep my sanity), I met a very impressive guy named Bill Black, who as a regulator was a major reason...

The preliminaries are finally over in the battle to finally, finally, finally -- 97 years after Teddy Roosevelt first proposed it -- pass comprehensive health care reform. I think the right sports analogy to use is the extended, exhausting, NBA playoffs: after 82 regular season games, 16 playoff teams play...

Albuquerque, a fairly Democratic town, just elected a Republican mayor because of low Democratic voter turnout. Democrats are in danger in both of the big gubernatorial races coming up in New Jersey and Virginia. The generic congressional polling numbers are in a statistical dead heat, and Democratic base voter enthusiasm...

The insurance industry inadvertently gave health reformers the best argument we ever could have had to pass a public option and the strongest possible regulations on insurers. Declaring that rates will go up dramatically if reform passes, insurers launched a full-scale open assault on the idea of any reform...

As the Senate Finance Committee winds its way toward finally getting a bill out on health care, attention is starting to turn to how Sen. Reid will end up marrying the Finance and HELP Committee bills. He has some really challenging things to think through in terms of how to...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics published a new map this week. Using color codes of black and dark purple, it paints a grim picture of average annual unemployment at the county level all across the United States. It is a frightening picture of the gravest recession since the Great Depression.