The New Republic

WASHINGTON—President Obama decided this week to raise the stakes in this fall's election by making the choice about something instead of nothing but anger. READ MORE >>

Washington—Watching the great civil rights march on television in August 1963, I couldn't help but notice that hundreds carried signs with a strange legend at the top: "UAW Says." UAW was saying "Segregation Disunites the United States," and many other things insisting on equality. This "UAW" was a very odd word to my 11-year-old self and I asked my dad who or what "U-awe," as I pronounced it, was. The letters, he explained, stood for the United Auto Workers union. READ MORE >>

Washington—By insisting Tuesday evening that "it's time to turn the page," President Obama was talking about more than the Iraq War, and doing much more than reviving one of his most effective slogans from the 2008 campaign. He was also trying to turn the page on a period in which he has found himself on the defensive, his party in a perilous position for November's elections, and his reputation for political mastery in doubt. READ MORE >>

Washington—President Obama's address to the nation on Iraq this week underscores the agony of his presidency, and its core political problem. Seen from the inside, the administration is an astonishing success. Obama has kept his principal promises and can take credit for achievements that eluded his Democratic predecessors. READ MORE >>

Washington—Republicans are in the midst of an insurrection. Democrats are not. This vast gulf between the situations of the two parties—not some grand revolt against "the establishment" or "incumbents"—explains the year's primary results, including Tuesday's jarring outcomes in Florida and Alaska. READ MORE >>

Washington—In an election, a solid "no" usually beats an uneasy "yes, but." That's the heart of the problem Democrats and President Obama face this fall. READ MORE >>

Washington—When it comes to the role and functioning of the United States Senate, my rather dyspeptic views could not be more at odds with those of Chris Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who is retiring at the end of the year.  I've reached the point where I'd abolish the Senate if I could. It is more profoundly undemocratic than it was when the Founders created it and less genuinely deliberative—problems compounded by a Republican minority's strategy of delay and obstruction. READ MORE >>

Washington—Rather than shout, I'll just ask the question in a civil way: Dear Republicans, do you really want to endanger your party's greatest political legacy by turning the 14th Amendment to our Constitution into an excuse for election-year ugliness? READ MORE >>

Washington—Who could have imagined that the bailout of the auto industry, one of the single most unpopular moves by the Obama administration, would become one of its best talking points? READ MORE >>

Washington–Can a nation remain a superpower if its internal politics are incorrigibly stupid? Start with taxes. In every other serious democracy, conservative political parties feel at least some obligation to match their tax policies with their spending plans. David Cameron, the new Conservative prime minister in Britain, is a leading example.  READ MORE >>