The New Republic

Our times can lend ordinary words new shadings. It used to be that one thought of a fossil embedded in rock, but especially since the Iraq War, embed calls most immediately to mind a reporter covering military activity. In the same way, evolution these days is no longer about Darwin and finch beaks. Rather, the public figure opting to espouse a previously controversial position now tells us that their views have "evolved." It is, in truth, a weaselly business. READ MORE >>

It’s not unusual for candidates and interest groups to spend millions of dollars to try to change public opinion. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent $12 million advertising buy is a little less conventional: He’s spending millions to convince voters not to change their minds. READ MORE >>

One of the most interesting features of President Obama’s second-term policy agenda is that he doesn’t seem to think he needs one.OK, he got some of his increase in the top tax rate for high earners even before his second term started. He campaigned on it; it’s policy; that counts. And immigration policy reform seems to be a possibility not too far down the line. And of course there’s gun control, even if it looks doubtful that anything of substance will come of it. READ MORE >>

As the Supreme Court contemplates two gay marriage cases this week, supporters of the cause are feeling optimistic. Even if the Court does not establish a Constitutional right to gay marriage, many feel they will continue to gain ground in the court of public opinion. READ MORE >>

On March 13, before heading to Capitol Hill to talk deficit reduction with House Republicans, President Barack Obama, as is his custom before such showdowns, met with his economic team, including National Economic Council head Gene Sperling. The NEC, a Clinton-era innovation, is supposed to serve as an organizing body for the government’s other economic agencies, like Treasury and the budget office. READ MORE >>

One of the things New York will lose when Michael Bloomberg moves on from his perch as mayor is one of the world's greatest poker faces. Most politicians, obligated to make the populace like them, tend to grin and bear their ways through the cheesy photo ops and of-the-people activities. Bloomberg might bear it, but he sure doesn't grin if he doesn't feel like it. READ MORE >>

On Monday, Will Portman wrote a piece for the Yale Daily News on coming out as gay and how his decision inspired his father Rob Portman, the Republican senator from Ohio, to endorse same-sex marriage. A lovely essay, it nonetheless made for strange circumstances. READ MORE >>

The Iraq war is “responsible for liberalism’s current political and cultural ascendance.” That’s Ross Douthat’s provocative argument in his Sunday New York Times column, in which he claims the war energized grassroots progressives, tied cultural conservatism to the Bush administration’s unpopular foreign policy, and ended the conservative base’s acquiescence with centrist “compassionate conservatism,” thereby crushing the Bu READ MORE >>

Mitt Romney’s financial and organization advantages in the 2012 Republican primaries were commanding, but conservatives who opposed him had faint cause for hope: Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich combined for more support than Romney for most of the primary season. If one of them conceded, then the other could consolidate Romney’s conservative opposition. READ MORE >>

On March 20 the Senate de-funded political science grants from the National Science Foundation “except for research projects that the Director of the National Science Foundation certifies as promoting national security or the economic interests of the United States.” Since political science research, like most scientific research, is seldom undertaken to promote national security or the economic interests of the U.S., it seems doubtful there will be many such exceptions. READ MORE >>