When New York State passed a marriage equality bill last week, it was a victory of national, not just statewide proportions. New York is a big state which, while solidly Democrat in recent presidential elections, still has a substantial Republican presence, thus again demonstrating that marriage equality can pass in...

The two latest Republican candidates, or non-candidates, for their party's presidential nomination, Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, and Jon Huntsman, the former Utah Governor and former US Ambassador to China under President Obama, demonstrate that 2012 is shaping up to be a very unusual year for the GOP. The...

Instead of asking whether or not Representative Anthony Weiner should resign, it is more useful to ask if he should stay in Congress. The arguments for Weiner to resign are reasonably clear, including points based on morality, that his behavior is simply too sleazy and disturbing, legality, that the communications...

In recent days most of the energy in the Republican nominating contest has been take up by Sarah Palin's bus tour. Palin, who moves more seamlessly between entertainment and politics than any politician in recent memory, may, like her erstwhile New York City pizza companion, Donald Trump, soon...

A few months ago, Paul Ryan was considered something of a rising star in the Republican Party as he sought to address the federal deficit through serious, non-ideological approaches. Ryan created an image for himself as a thoughtful centrist interested in tough solutions to tough problems. It turns out that...

With Mitch Daniels confirming that he will not run for president, and new polls showing that Mitt Romney is the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2012, there is a real possibility that the 2012 primary will be over before it really starts. There is a small...

Mitt Romney is beginning to emerge as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president in a race that as recently as one month ago was distinguished from most previous Republican nomination campaigns by the absence of such a frontrunner. Among actual candidates, Romney leads most polls and...

During the last few months a very strange political development has occurred. Most of the Republican candidates seeking to unseat President Obama in November have encountered serious trouble raising money. By April of 2007, Hillary Clinton had raised $36 million; and Barack Obama had raised $24 million....

The phrase "game changer" quickly became a cliché during the 2008 campaign, but at first glance that term clearly applies to the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces. Bin Laden's death may, in fact, change the course of the U.S. struggle against Jihadist terror and foreign policy more...

Donald Trump's increasingly bizarre statements and outlandish behavior as he explores a presidential bid make him seem, to many voters, more like the business world's answer to Charlie Sheen rather than as a potential president or leader of any kind. In some respects, the likelihood of a Trump presidency was...

Former President Bill Clinton's oft-quoted remark that, when choosing their candidate for president, "Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line" was a clever and insightful way to describe the nominating process for most of the last few decades -- but it may be changing in 2012. While this maxim...

On Monday morning President Obama announced his reelection bid. Obama will have a tough race against whoever wins the Republican nomination, but it is not difficult to see how with a few breaks, and by avoiding any enormous mistakes, the president can get reelected. It is also clear that Obama...

March 23rd was the one year anniversary of the passage of the health care reform bill. This date came and went with very little fanfare or media attention. The anniversary was overlooked partially because of the import of today's issues including the no fly zone in Libya, the aftermath of...

The race for the Republican nomination for a candidate to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012 will probably be over within fourteen months at the most. Accordingly the race is beginning to take shape. At this time there are probably significantly more candidates exploring the possibility of a campaign, considering...

The stories from Japan about the damage the tsunami has done are tragic. The scale of the devastation is extraordinary; and due to the threat of leaking radiation, may get worse before it gets better. For many Americans, this tsunami feels even more upsetting because the country hardest hit was...

Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA) recently commented that Republicans have "an allergy to science and scientists" during a congressional hearing targeting the EPA. This observation is significant not because of its insight, as Inslee was doing little more than stating the obvious. It is, however, unusual to hear a...

Before there was Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Scott Walker or any of the other current radical conservatives seeking the national spotlight and perhaps the Republican nomination for president, there was Newt Gingrich. The recent boomlet around a potential presidential bid by the aging right wing revolutionary feels like a strange...

In some respects, the biggest surprise about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's efforts to take away public employee unions' right to bargain collectively is why it took so long. Public employee unions are an understandably irresistible target to right wing Republicans. Public employee unions work for the government which, in Republican...

President Obama's latest budget proposals have frustrated many progressives who believe that Obama is cutting programs that are important to progressives while not asking for similar sacrifices from conservatives. Others have argued that spending cuts will prolong the recession and dampen any job generation that...

A few days before the 1988 election between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis, I attended a rally on the University of California campus where I was enrolled in my last year of college. Although it was reasonably clear by then that Bush was going to win the election, we...