Politico

“It suggests on some level [Podesta] understood the source of the conservative institutions’ success,” says Steven Teles, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University, “which was continuity of leadership.” LINK

Not only was Google’s Schmidt on the campaign trail and on Obama’s economic advisory committee, but he also assumed the role of chairman of the influential New America Foundation early this year.

Nelson Rising, chairman of Tom Bradley's 1982 campaign for California governor, still remembers the phone call. Bradley called him shortly after 4 a.m. on a long Election Night, when it was clear Bradley had lost to Republican George Deukmejian. "You were right," Bradley told Rising a bit wearily. With those words, Bradley, the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, acknowledged that a political mistake had cost him the governorship. And, despite all the theories that the election produced a "Bradley effect" that could… more

A better way forward is a different way forward. The Axis of Arrogance--the Wall Street-Washington bipartisan alliance--seems determined simply to bludgeon the American people into supporting the bailout. President Bush was at it again, just this morning in the White House, bludgeoning away once again. What’s that old adage? If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, banging your head against the wall even again.

It’s a rare time in history that the elites are actively badmouthing the economy in order to win a policy dispute. But… more

...A recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll showed that 35 percent of voters said they had concerns about Obama’s patriotism. Only nine percent said they were worried about McCain’s. Eric Liu, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton who co-founded the True Patriot Network with Hanauer, said Obama has not been forceful enough in conveying a message on patriotism. “It is not something that Obama has particularly, persistently, or effectively, really done,” Liu said. “What’s encouraging to us is… more

...In 1972, McGovern eloquently declared that now was the time for America to “come home.” His tag line in support of change was used to portray him and other Democrats as isolationist liberals for years thereafter.

By the same token, Mondale in 1984 promised change when he vowed to level with Americans and declared forthrightly that he would raise their taxes should he win the White House. Mondale’s words were “disastrous,” as author Michael A. Cohen argued, because they “served… more

...The issue undoubtedly “adds to the general mood of distress,” said the New America Foundation’s Michael Lind. And that hurts the Bush administration and, by implication, McCain.

But, he said, “it’s not like Enron. There’s no single villain to pin this on.... Everyone loved the jump in homeownership attributable in part to mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

“You can compare it to a financial 9/11. There was a truce after 9/11,” he said. “There was a bipartisan truce. It seems to me… more

In fall 2005, the Republican Party experienced a long, sleepless night. Concerned with Iraq, confounded by Katrina and cast into despair by Harriet Miers, party activists worried about the party’s future.

During this dusk, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam took to the pages of The Weekly Standard to urge Republicans to embrace the first light of a new era. How? By winning back working-class voters, or “Sam’s Club Republicans,” to use Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s phrase. In Washington, the article was… more

As Congress prepares to consider the annual Department of Defense authorization bill and other military spending legislation totaling more than $700 billion, the need for more aggressive scrutiny is abundantly clear. At a time when we have a $9.3 trillion national debt and large unmet social needs, oversight of these enormous and ever-increasing sums has failed to keep up.

The Pentagon’s procurement and budgeting processes are rife with problems. For example, the Government Accountability Office has identified $295 billion in cost… more

After months of bruising political battles, the matchup for the November election is now almost set. It’s clear that one of the two presumptive nominees has been badly hurt by his party’s nominating fight. Barack Obama?

No. John McCain.

Certainly, Obama has faced the tougher primary battle. But in adversity has come opportunity. The presumptive Democratic nominee has been able to confront difficult questions about his candidacy that would normally arise during the general election. And he was able to test out… more