Barack Obama

Tuesday, May 6th, was the decisive night in the struggle for the Democratic nomination. It provided new insight into the character of the two competitors.

Coming into the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, Hillary Clinton appeared to have the momentum. Her supporters were counting on decisive victories to prolong her...

As a sense of finality settles over the race for the Democratic nomination, we are all left wondering if the wounds inflicted will heal, if the party will once again unify, or if a win in November will slip from our grasp. We know that Barack Obama will attempt to...

It's official! Or almost official. Sort of. Just some t's to cross, etc. Whatever: Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. Congratulations, Senator. You won. Have a sip of champagne, sneak a smoke when your wife's not looking. Then take a deep breath and get ready for the shitstorm.

Look,...

As a historian, I am painfully aware of how overused the term "historic" is. But what we are witnessing right now and throughout this presidential election year is the very definition of the word.

For all intents and purposes, Barack Obama has won the Democratic presidential nomination.

Consider the stunning...

[Update: This article has been updated. I have received permission to credit the person who pointed out this coincidence, in a comment he made to another Huffington Post article, so it has been changed to add Brian Laws' name. I never cite commenters within the text of my articles, as...

"Don't stop believing."

That's the message from former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) one day after her disappointing showings in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

Even though her rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill), is now less than two hundred delegates from...

Sitting there on the set, listening to the endless wrap-ups and explanation of the exit polls, I was on the verge of faking my own death on national TV in order to go talk to myself about the obvious, unspoken equation in the little there is left to this fight...

Now, before I get into this I want to say that party unity is very important. I will vote for and vigorously support this fall whoever gets the Democratic nomination. It will be up to the loser to do his or her best to unite the party and I will...

Cross-posted at OpenLeft

The debate on my blog about whether anything has really changed in the presidential race is interesting, although it doesn't really matter a lot at this point- either way, this thing is now done. My own view is that had Hillary won Indiana big and pulled off...

Barack Obama's triumph on Tuesday night was a victory over a wall that pretends to be a fly on the wall.

For a long time, the nation's body politic has been shoved up against that wall -- known as the news media.

Despite all its cracks and...

Yesterday's headlines and news teasers swore that the Indiana and North Carolina set of primaries could truly change the game for the Democratic presidential nomination, but alas, it looks like the battle continues.

Forget the superdelegates, says actor John Leguizamo. There's a quicker and less painful solution to choosing the...

A senior campaign official and Clinton confidante has told me that there will be a Democratic nominee by June 15. He could not bring himself to say the words "Hillary will drop out by June 15," but that is clearly what he meant. I kept saying, "So, Hillary will drop...

The encouraging lesson from Obama's huge win in North Carolina and near-win in Indiana is that perhaps the fear card no longer trumps all others. The Bush presidencies were fueled by what Jonathan Alter of Newsweek recently called, "underinformed voters," explicitly voting against their own economic interests, often for reasons...

The Democratic campaign grinds on, and it's wearing us all down. Two months ago, there was a rather good-natured rivalry between the Clinton and Obama folks. Many of us in the Obama camp respected Hillary Clinton's policy substance and agreed with most of her policy positions. Many us were sad...