Sorry, Pundits: Obama Is Not a Superhero
We've been hearing a lot about the so-called "Green Lantern Theory of Presidential Power" lately. What does it mean?
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Three big scandals. Two Marine umbrellas. And a non-salute en route to Memorial Day. Plus more visual evidence from 12 days of scandal town.
We've been hearing a lot about the so-called "Green Lantern Theory of Presidential Power" lately. What does it mean?
The NRA just had an amazing victory in defeating a bill to require universal background checks on gun purchases — something it endorsed 15 years ago — and yet the speakers at its 142nd annual convention in Houston sounded awfully bitter. Here's how Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, and more defended freedom against those sissies in the White House.
If you would like to be a gun owner, you will need the following things as of next week: a 3D-printer, Internet access, and a nail. Defense Distributed, the libertarian group focused on creating shareable 3D firearm models, now has a working prototype.
Congressional Republicans have had little luck convincing anyone other than Fox News and its viewers that there's something scandalous about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazie. But to keep the story's momentum going a feedback loop has emerged in which Fox reports something, the House holds hearings on it, and then Fox reports on those hearings.
It may be mere coincidence, but after The Atlantic Wire reported that the Twitter account @barackobama is no longer controlled by the Obama administration or the White House, the account began tweeting far less frequently — and the @whitehouse account began tweeting much more frequently.
There will be an aspect of the NRA's convention — which opens today with an all-star list of speakers — that feels like a victory celebration. But after steamrolling over an ineffectual Organizing For Action, the NRA may have met its toughest opponent: Public Policy Polling.
Rubio's op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal says that while he'll listen to upset voters about immigration reform, there's only so much criticism from professional conservatives he'll put up with. There's plenty to go around.
In taking on the backlog of benefits claims at the VA, Jon Stewart's team engaged in the "greatest paper hunt of all time."
In a desperate attempt at virality, or perhaps simply to make their boss look cool by comparison, Sen. Mitch McConnell's campaign team has created a Tumblr in which McConnell fans send in their own photos of themselves drinking alone.
She promised to stay in the business world then, but here's how President Obama's kiss-worthy new Cabinet member-to-be now stacks up against his temporary worst enemy. Just count the dollar signs.
The NRA has remained quiet while legislation to nullify federal gun laws has been introduced in dozens of states.
Rove writes today that Republicans have an "outside chance" of winning a majority in the Senate in 2014, as long as they don't nominate awful candidates who "self-destruct" like Akin and Richard Mourdock did last year. Here's an analysis of some of the most promising seats for the GOP to pick up, with an analysis of their Akin potential.
A once-in-a-generation new health insurance study has health care wonks lining up to declare it an indictment or defense of the future of Obamacare. Who should you believe?
Unlike his predecessor as speaker, the Ohio Republican has not yet become a standard attack line for Democrats in races nationwide, leaving some to wonder how the most powerful elected leader in the Republican Party has escaped unscathed.
As several politicians and pundits using the Boston bombing as a cautionary tale about immigration, public support for immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants has dropped 7 percentage points in less than a month, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.
There are more indicators that last month's Senate vote on expanding background checks was something of a dress rehearsal. Another vote appears to be brewing. Americans support the idea — as, apparently, do some Senators who opposed it last time.
After exploring the various insults lobbed by Cruz toward his fellow Senators, and then the insults thrown by everyone else toward the junior Senator from Texas ("wacko bird"), Stewart explained why, exactly, Cruz has been called "the most hated man in the Senate."
President Obama is considering Chicago mogul and longtime friend Penny Pritzker as his nominee for Commerce secretary, with an announcement expected today. Here's what you need to know about her.
The Los Angeles Times announced late Wednesday that it would join the Associated Press in dropping the phrase "illegal immigrant" from its style guide.
Reproductive rights groups will be disappointed to hear that the Justice Department is appealing a federal judge's recent ruling to make the morning-after pill available over-the-counter to all ages.
Tom Wheeler is set to become America's next top telecom regulator, and the fear among critics is that Wheeler's ties to big business could threaten consumers. But in fact, the battle lines on Wheeler's confirmation process aren't hardening in a predictable way at all.
The conventional wisdom going into the midterm elections is that Obama fatigue puts Democrats in major trouble, but the historical evidence says otherwise.
One way to understand how hard it is for Republicans to agree amongst themselves on immigration reform is to look at what's controversial in the Senate — and compare all of that to what's controversial in the House. Because they are very, very different things.
The junior Senator from Texas is a man who clearly has tremendous confidence in his own abilities — he's publicly scolded fellow senators, he read Shakespeare during an anti-drone filibuster, and now he's reportedly thinking about a run for president. This has not made him many friends inside the Senate, but it has won him many, many fans outside of it.
Even though the administration has said that a "red line" would involve chemical weapons, there remain a lot of questions about the Assad regime. "For instance, did he use them in a boat? Did he use them with a goat? Did he use them in a house? Did he use them with a mouse?"
Families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting are making good on their promise to keep the issue of gun control alive even after the failure of new legislation in Congress.
On Tuesday evening, longtime congressman Ed Markey handily won the Democratic primary for a special election that'll decide who fills Secretary of State John Kerry's former Senate seat.
On Tuesday afternoon the Food and Drug Administration issued a press release about the approval of Plan B One-Step, a brand-name emergency contraceptive. Here's what that means.
Obama's approval ratings track much more closely with Bush's than Clinton's, and if he repeats the pattern he saw during his first term — a slow drop followed by a recovery — Obama could see fairly low popularity, right around the time of midterm elections.
Of the Senator's latest expert suggestions — that the Boston bombings and Benghazi showed a national security weakness — President Obama said, "No, Mr. Graham is not right on this issue, although I'm sure it generated some headlines." Wrong. What it generated was cable news hits for Graham. And the No. 1 thing Lindsey Graham is an expert on... is getting on TV.
An enormous new billboard in South Carolina features the serial philanderer just a week ahead of his special election. But the CEO of the extramarital "dating" site tells The Atlantic Wire that a Sanford victory would be a move toward cultural acceptance of cheating — or at least would help the site buy some Super Bowl ads.
At his press conference Tuesday, President Obama said that most Americans are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act, even if they don't know it. He's definitely right about the not knowing it part.
In January, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, ascended to the powerful chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee. Six weeks later, campaign finance filings and interviews show, Hensarling was joined by representatives of the banking industry for a ski vacation fundraiser at a posh Park City, Utah, resort.
Arizona cities are going into the gun-selling business. Under a new law, no weapon collected during a buyback program can be destroyed. This is not usually how such programs work.
Jon Stewart turned to Urban Dictionary to help him tell the story of how Congress jumped to action when federal budget cuts were getting in the way of their travel plans.
Not only is Weiner bragging about cashing in, he's bragging about how easy it was to cash in.
Why hasn't the American public risen up in fury at Republicans over the sequester's annoyances and inconveniences, as President Obama had clearly hoped? Because the annoying things about the sequester perfectly play into the Republican talking point that government is dumb and wasteful and run by people with no common sense.
Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford and sister of famous comedian Elizabeth Colbert Busch faced off in a brutal debate Monday night. But with just over a week left before the election, brutal is what it takes.
Fox News reports that "at least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency" have retained lawyers after being threatened by the Obama administration.
Six former members of Congress will hold a faux hearing this week on whether the American government has covered up evidence of the existence of aliens. This could have been fantastic, because aliens are cool, and because science says the idea of life on other planets is not crazy. But it should have come from people who actually care about science.
At the White House Correspondents' Dinner, President Obama joked: "Some folks still don't think I spend enough time with Congress. 'Why don't you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?' they ask… Really? Why don't you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?" It got a laugh. Today, McConnell has a snappy comeback.
No one is getting off the island during the Guantanamo hunger strike, where there aren't review boards. And did we mention the latest on drones and financing Afghan warlords? Here are a few core democratic principles the CIA is glossing over these days.
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia hasn't given up on passing an expansion of background checks on gun sales. With polls showing senators taking a hit for opposing the measure, the gight is on to convince their constituents they did the right thing.
It wasn't easy dethroning Mitch McConnell as America's least favorite Senator, but Flake has done that in just three short months, a new poll out Monday reveals — and his fall from rising-star grace is not quite the head-scratcher you might think.
The Democrat is airing a radio ad accusing Mark Sanford of voter suppression ahead of the only debate pitting Colbert Busch against Mark Sanford on Monday night.
Answers to a Politico story today amount to a polite way of noting that since Obama's election, the national conversation about race hasn't always been enlightening. But while racism among some people, particularly in the South, plays a role, there are other barriers keeping black politicians from winning statewide.
Anonymous government sources revealed on Sunday night that Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx will soon be nominated to replace Ray LaHood as the new Transportation Secretary.
Sen. Joe Manchin wants to bring that ol' background check bill back to the Senate floor, he revealed on Fox News Sunday.
It's generally understood that in the Fox News and Glenn Beck breakup, Fox was the dumper and Beck the dumpee. But, in most breakups where the couple shares a social circle, neither party wants a reputation as the dumpee. Beck says he's the one who wanted to leave — because the network was so depressing so amazing.
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