Robert Shrum
Robert Shrum
The GOP dumps the Gipper
Mired in anger and vituperation, seemingly hell-bent on becoming a small-tent faction rather than a big-tent governing party, Republicans have betrayed the leader they ritually canonize. The GOP is now the party of malaise.
A midterm message in Virginia and New Jersey
One Democratic candidate has distanced himself from his party's and his president's signature issue. Another has embraced it. Who's better off?
Obama and the GOP: 2008 debate foretold all
The last of Barack Obama's 2008 debates with John McCain previewed the kind of president he has become. It also painted a vividly distinct portrait of the current GOP.
Afghanistan could decide this presidency
Despite the false hopes of Republicans, Obama will prevail on health care and preside over a growing economy. The fateful test is Afghanistan.
Does the GOP stand for anything?
Republicans have concluded that by opposing everything, they can end up winning in 2010 and 2012. But can a party with no platform succeed?
After health care, the deluge
Later this fall, President Obama will sign into law a landmark health-reform bill. Then the hard part begins.
Looking Back: How health reform passed
Things may look bleak for President Obama in the first week of September. They'll look a lot different a few months from now.
Krugman and Douthat both wrong on Kennedy
The Op-Ed page of The New York Times published two columns on Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on the same day. From Paul Krugman on the Left, and Ross Douthat on the Right, we got two fistfuls of error.
The doomsayers are wrong about Obama, again
The press, Republicans, and frustrated progressives think Obama is struggling and his health plan "on the precipice of defeat." That just proves that those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat their own mistakes.
Smear Britannia: Conservatives open a new front on health care
In their effort to destroy health-care reform in the U.S., conservatives have been heaping lies upon government-run health care in the U.K. Britons would never surrender their National Health System. Once Democrats pass reform here, Americans won't retreat either.
The GOP decline starts Phase Two
Republicans seem to be enjoying their August delirium and perhaps they should. For them, it only gets worse from here as the economy improves and Democrats ride growth—and their enactment of health-care reform—into the midterm elections.
The lies of August
The stakes are high and Republicans are stooping low. But if health reform falters as a result of GOP demagoguery, Democrats may face a reconstituted Gingrich coalition in 2010.
Race-baiting the President
Rubert Murdoch, Matt Drudge, and their followers sought to use the Gates imbroglio as a racial rallying cry against Obama. With health-care reform on the line, defusing the hysteria was worth a beer.
Palin won't be GOP nominee in 2012
She pulls at the heartstrings of the Republican base, but in addition to all the peculiar problems of her own design, Sarah Palin has one obstacle she cannot overcome: Republicans like to choose the next in line—and she isn't.
Republican risks and Democratic wobbles
The Republican Party, in a time of imminent irrelevance, pounced on the 9.5 percent jobless number, hoping to benefit. Bad move.
Noonan's fake history lesson for Obama
In a recent Wall Street Journal column, Peggy Noonan counseled our ever-ambitious President to focus on leaving a legacy that can be reduced to one sentence—a specious notion borrowed from former Republican Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce. Luckily, Obama knows greatness doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker.
Obama's two pressing problems
On health-care reform, the president must move quickly to secure victory. He doesn't have as much time as he thinks on gay rights, either.
A Tale of Two Clintons
The defeat of former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race has been called the end of the Clinton era. But for which Clinton?
Obama the Transformer
This president is breaking the mold—revolutionizing policies and perspectives in Washington and around the world.
The race-based GOP
Republican attacks on Sonia Sotomayor are poisoning "the soul of what used to be the Party of Lincoln"
