Princeton’s Julian Zelizer offers some historical context at CNN: Those who are worried should find some solace in the fact that contemporary presidents have been able to come back from difficult moments like these. Challenging first terms don’t inevitably put...
Joe Biden
Biden-Cheney in 2024?
Tom Friedman floats the idea in his New York Times column. His model is Israel. Here is a taste: Could this play come to Broadway? I asked Steven Levitsky, a political scientist and co-author of “How Democracies Die,” after he presented some...
Is the Build Back Better Act dead?
Former Obama adviser David Axelrod does not think so. He asks us to remember the Affordable Care Act. Here is a taste of his New York Times op-ed: No historical parallel is perfect, but the near-death and revival of the...
Should Joe Biden run again?
Over at The New York Times, Bret Stephens thinks Biden will be too old (86 at the end of his second term) to serve a second term. I really don’t have a strong opinion about this, but I do hope...
Did Trump try to kill Biden?
The title of Tim Miller’s piece at The Bulwark is provocative, but worth considering. Here is a taste: Of all the insane moments from 2020, this one still stands out: The former president of the United States knowingly and intentionally...
Did you pay more for your turkey this year? Don’t blame Biden
Blame corporate America. Here is Faiz Shakir at The New Republic: The prices of everyday goods are going up, and everyone from members of Congress to talking heads on cable news have their own diagnoses as to why it’s happening....
Kamala Harris becomes the first woman in U.S. history to have presidential power
She had it for eighty-five minutes today. Here is the BBC: Ms Harris, 57, was in control for 85 minutes, while Mr Biden was placed under anaesthesia for a routine colonoscopy on Friday. Mr Biden’s doctor released a statement after...
Former Liberty University fellow and Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis helped plan the attempted undoing of the 2020 election
Ellis was a former fellow at Liberty University’s Falkirk Center (now Standing for Freedom Center). Here is a taste of Libby Cathey’s piece at ABC News: In a memo not made public until now, then-White House Chief of Staff Mark...
Joe Biden told Pope Francis a story about Satchel Paige
Check out Carmen M. Nanko-Fernández‘s great piece at Commonweal on the importance of story-telling. Here is a taste: Lost in threads of contested interpretations on social media was the fact that Biden was speaking to Pope Francis in one of...
David Brooks on why we need to spend $ 4 trillion
Here is a taste of his New York Times column: The Democratic spending bills are economic packages that serve moral and cultural purposes. They should be measured by their cultural impact, not merely by some wonky analysis. In real, tangible...
Joe Manchin takes his stand on the Hyde Amendment
West Virginia’s Democratic Senator Joe Manchin believes that the United States government should not be in the business of funding abortions. Manchin has made it clear that he will not support Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” plan because...
There is no moral or constitutional equivalence between the presidencies of Joe Biden and Donald Trump
What happens when party loyalty and a cult of personality trumps our loyalty to the checks and balances built into the United States Constitution? We have a Constitutional crisis like the one we are currently experiencing. Here is Robert Kagan...
Biden wins Arizona…again.
According to “Cyber Ninjas,” the Florida firm hired by Trump supporters to conduct the Maricopa County audit, Joe Biden won the state by ninety-nine more votes than we originally thought he did. Here is The Washington Post; A Republican-commissioned review...
Joe Manchin’s massive ego
Here is Will Bunch’s piece at The Philadelphia Inquirer on the West Virginia Senator who, along with Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, is standing in the way of Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “social infrastructure” bill. As the summer of 2021 comes to...
What happens when an entire political party “takes leave of reality”
I’ll just let Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank explain. Here is a taste of his piece, “This is how a Republican lie is born“: This is what happens when an entire political party takes leave of reality. On Tuesday morning,...
Josh Hawley, the most ambitious man in the Senate, pulls another political stunt
Josh Hawley, the evangelical Christian Senator from Missouri, has really made a name for himself in 2021. In January, he fed the conspiracy theories about the illegitimacy of the 2020 presidential election by refusing to vote to certify the results....
“Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their opinions.” The latest from megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs
If you want to see just about everything that is wrong with American evangelicalism today watch this clip (below) from Jack Hibbs‘s Sunday sermon at Calvary Chapel-Chino Hills. Hibbs is not leading a Sunday morning worship service here, he is...
Joe Biden: Please stop using the Bible in political speeches
After a busy first week of classes I am finally getting around to this story. In the past I have been very critical of politicians who use the Bible to advance political ends. In the last administration I was particularly...
Rothkopf: “Biden deserves credit, not blame for Afghanistan”
David Rothkopf‘s piece at The Atlantic is helpful. He argues that “Americans should feel proud of what the U.S. government and military have accomplished in these past two weeks.” A taste: They all conveniently forgot that they were responsible for...
Kazin: Biden must tell the truth about Afghanistan to save his presidency
Georgetown University historian and Current contributor Michael Kazin compares Biden to LBJ. Here is a taste of his piece at The New York Times: For days now, the news media has likened the chaotic end of our misadventure in Afghanistan, and the...