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ObamaCare Worth Getting Angry About

In November, Republicans will face an incumbent whose failed presidency makes Jimmy Carter look worthy of Mount Rushmore. And they will lose unless they focus like a laser on the two intertwined strands of disastrous DNA that define the Obama era: Obamanomics and Obamacare. It is mystifying, then, that the GOP would risk surrendering either of these issues. So overwhelmingly unpopular is Obamacare that in his third State of the Union address, President Obama barely made a passing reference to ...

Bloomberg reloads in push for gun control

NEW YORK — Among the slick, million-dollar ads for the likes of Pepsi and Honda during the Super Bowl this Sunday, viewers in Washington will see a far more modest spot. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will be sitting on a sofa touting an issue most politicians avoid like the plague: gun control. The two mayors, whose local teams face off in the huge game, are making the pitch for Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), ...

Romney: The Last Republican?

Friedrich Nietzsche was right about Mitt Romney. The earth has become small, and on it hops the LastMan, who makes everything small. His species is ineradicable as theflea; the Last Man lives longest.– Nietzsche So it seems it will be Mitt. And good thing he will not beoffering his main rival the second spot on the ticket. “Mitt &Newt” sounds like the name of a comedy act or a network sitcom. Notright for something epic or tragic. Which is to ...

Congress may OK short-term stimulus to avoid problems

By Tom Curry, msnbc.com National Affairs Writer The signs look hopeful for a short-term accord in Congress on extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. But right after Election Day, a lame-duck Congress will face a horrific fiscal train wreck: sharp tax increases, combined with automatic spending cuts – and scanty reserves of political goodwill to help clinch a deal to avert that outcome. A House-Senate conference committee met Thursday to try to push ahead with a full-year payroll tax ...

The Politics of Dignity

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES BLITZER: Senator John McCain has been actively campaigning for Mitt Romney. That’s making him a target of Romney’s main rival, Newt Gingrich. Of course, Senator McCain has been down this road before as the 2008 Republican… more ›› Exactly one year ago today, I stood in front of the Lawyers Syndicate in downtown Cairo and watched as a few thousand protesters suddenly streamed into the area from the north, overwhelmed Egypt’s notoriously violent riot… more ››

Obama proposes $5-10 billion for home refinancing

President Barack Obama talks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House January 31, 2012 in Washington, DC. Obama has recently been discussing his efforts at job creation as the Republican presidential candidates vie in the Florida primary today.

Romney poised to regain frontrunner status

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP – Getty Images Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney supporters attend a campaign rally at Lake Sumter Landing in The Villages, Florida, Jan. 30, 2012. Mitt Romney could reassert his status as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination with a win Tuesday night in Florida, where the former Massachusetts governor has waged a pitched battle against Newt Gingrich.

Populism Elusive for President

JACKSONVILLE, FLA – Florida’s first military governor and America’s seventh president, Andrew Jackson, never lived in this city named to honor his military exploits that forced Spain to cede the territory to the United States. His influence on the city’s political nature is evident, however. The old Jacksonian Democrats are today’s independent voters — opposed to heavy-handed government, supportive of states’ rights. Center-right nationally, they have no problem voting for a Democrat if the timing and issues are right.

Gingrich will not accept debate moderated by press

By NBC’s Jamie Novogrod and msnbc.com’s Michael O’Brien Newt Gingrich threatened Monday to skip any debate as the Republican nominee versus President Obama that is moderated by a member of the media. “As your nominee, I will not accept debates in the fall in which the reporters are the moderators,” Gingrich stated at a rally in Pensacola. “We don’t need to have a second Obama person at the debate.” The threat is in keeping with the scorn with which the ...

China and the Paradox of Prosperity

IN THIS issue we launch a weekly section devoted to China. It is the first time since we began our detailed coverage of the United States in 1942 that we have singled out a country in this way. The principal reason is that China is now an economic superpower and is fast becoming a military force capable of unsettling America. But our interest in China lies also in its politics: it is governed by a system that is out of ...