The New Republic

-- Damon Linker wonders about Christopher Hitchens and the veracity of deathbed confessions. -- CBPP's Chuck Marr flags an "ominous warning" on the Bush tax cuts from the Senate last week. READ MORE >>

New York Times political analyst Matt Bai has a story today about right-wingers who favor repealing the 17th Amendment, which requires the direct election of Senators. Toward the end of this story he has the requisite "balanced" shot at liberal electoral reformers: READ MORE >>

Steve Clemons, with whom I worked at the New America Foundation in 1999, has some advice for President Obama: READ MORE >>

At the Atlantic, James Fallows is remembering the passage of a similarly audacious health care program, Medicare, during the 1960s: READ MORE >>

Last week I criticized the White House for backing down when the Chinese insisted on limiting coverage of Obama's townhall meeting in Shanghai. I still think the Chinese were bluffing, and that their bluff could have been called without any fallout. READ MORE >>

James Fallows writes: READ MORE >>

In his big debate preview, James Fallows predicted that McCain would "look and sound old and weak next to Obama." But I'm not sure that contrast -- one of the main ones that was supposed to favor Obama -- is really panning out. He looks pretty perky, and whoever did his makeup deserves an Oscar. When McCain grins, he almost looks like the little kid to Obama's stern daddy. --Eve Fairbanks READ MORE >>

This fall, New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. launched a search for a new conservative columnist. It had been nearly three years since William Safire had retired from his weekly column in 2005, and Sulzberger’s initial replacement, libertarian John Tierney, lasted just 20 months before abandoning his column. READ MORE >>

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On February 27, 2001, George W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress. When the president had last ventured to the Capitol for his inauguration 37 days earlier, he had delivered a homily urging the nation to move past the sting of the Florida recount. This time, he dispensed with the magnanimity and unveiled his agenda, delivering a speech filled with promises to cut taxes, pay down the national debt, study Social Security privatization, and deploy national missile defense.  READ MORE >>