I’m betting nobody yells “You Lie!” at the president tomorrow night. Civility is the word of the day, at least for a little while. Obama, bowing to the new reality of a divided Congress and a weakened Democratic Party, will present a centrist address, and both parties will make a show of togetherness for the [...]

Well, Obama was right after all. He kept reaching out to Republicans, no matter how intransigent and belligerent they were, in the belief that eventually Democrats and Republicans would find it in their best interests to come to an agreement. And finally, they did.

We now have two commissions recommending ways to trim the deficit. The one the president appointed made its preferred approach known last week, and now an independent commission has come up with an even stronger approach. Given the current state of affairs in washington, both approaches are dead on arrival. The GOP will have nothing [...]

I wonder if the sour, off-key comments by House Speaker-to-be John Boehner and still Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after the election might have given the voters who placed renewed confidence in the Republican Party buyer’s remorse. Boehner gave no indication whatsoever that he was willing to work with Democrats, and McConnell repeated his claim [...]

Yesterday’s midterm election was nothing short of a catastrophe for the Democratic party. The combination of the worst economy since the Great Depression, a  jobless rate stuck at 10%, a president and a majority party unable to make a coherent case for their agenda or to articulate their vision, and the surprising uprising of the [...]

Well, Obama promised change. I don’t think this election is quite what he had in mind. It’s hard to read the polls as anything but a repudiation of the Democrats now in power. Republicans will read this as a rejection of Obama’s agenda. Democrats will read it as a rejection of Obama’s failure to execute [...]

Even if Republicans take back both houses of Congress this year, they should not cheer too loudly. They were soundly repudiated just two short years ago (how soon we forget), as the Democrats will be this time around. What does this tell us? It tells me that Congress, ever more beholden to special interests and [...]

I’m as perplexed as anyone by the lack of focus among Democrats running for office this election. It starts at the top, with a White House that has been unable to produce a coherent election message. It ought to be easy, especially for as gifted an orator as Obama, but he’s been bizarrely unable to [...]

Last night President Obama formally announced the withdrawal of all combat troops from Iraq, bringing that sorry adventure closer its end, whatever that may be. Perhaps the fledgling Democracy, against formidable odds, will take root and flourish. Perhaps not. Al Qaeda and other disaffected parties may well be able to undermine the struggling government and [...]

The New York Times has been running leaked information about the war in Afghanistan, and–surprise!–it’s not going as well as the administration would like you to believe. What a shock. The administration was quick to point out that none of the information contained in the leaks was exactly new, which is true. Critics of publishing [...]