Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee is switching parties to become a Democrat. Why? Because President Obama is enjoying decent approval ratings, and Rhode Island is a Democratic state. We plotted the timing of politicians' party switching along the president's Gallup polls — and found that White House approval is a pretty good guide for when these guys will jump ship.
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill won't go to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this September, joining several other red state Democrats, Talking Points Memo's Pema Levy reports Tuesday.
Hillary Clinton is more popular than ever, and maybe that's because no one knows what she does.
The Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's controversial immigration law was confusing for the press, who couldn't decide whether it was a major defeat for President Obama or a victory for the federal government. But Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer was not conflicted at all.
The Obama campaign is hoping the idea that the Republican Party is a party for "old, straight, white men" will catch on outside college dorm rooms, and President Obama has made a series of policy decisions to spread the perception.
The Obama campaign hopes to turn Mitt Romney into the John Kerry of 2012 by November. In the meantime, it's turning John Kerry into Mitt Romney, asking the senator to stand in for Romney during President Obama's debate prep.
Stephen Colbert discussed The Atlantic Wire's post, "Is Legalizing Weed Obama's Secret Weapon?," on Thursday's show, wondering whether marijuana initiatives on several state ballots could swing a close election for the president.
For good or bad, a recently published email exchange between the White House and Big Pharma during the height of the 2009 health care reform debate, is one of the most important documents from that epic legislative struggle.
The latest nugget in conservatives' "vetting" of President Obama is the revelation by the National Review's Stanley Kurtz that in 1996, a pro-union third party called the New Party named Barack Obama as a member in meeting minutes.
There are four ways to interpret what President Obama meant Wednesday when he said that his wife "doesn't go all the way down" at last night's fundraiser at the home of Glee creator Ryan Murphy.
For the second time in less than a month, Bill Clinton has undercut President Obama's re-election campaign by pushing policies that directly contradict Obama's stated positions.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's threat to let steep cuts hit the Pentagon seems to be working, as some staunchly anti-tax Republican Senators appear to be warming to revenue increases.
George W. Bush is visiting the White House today and the Washington press is obsessed with how awkward the occasion will be given that President Obama routinely trashes the Bush administration. But it doesn't have to be that way!
Apparently changing your party affiliation and making big, swirling political moves can all be done through a blog post.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker's gaffe -- when he said attacks on Mitt Romney's Bain Capital record were "nauseating" -- was probably not a gaffe at all. Let's assess how it all turned out.
Washington's never-ending gender wars will not extend to the country's Nuclear Regulatory Commission thanks to the nomination of George Mason University professor Allison Macfarlane as chairman today.
Ever since the Republican took over the House in 2010, Congressional Democrats have been out-maneuvered in almost every way. But now that's beginning to change as the Senate's top Democrat rallies his troops behind a plan to tame Republican maximalism.
President Obama easily won the Kentucky Democratic Primary last night, but the vote was much closer than it should have been considering he was running unopposed.
When Arkansas Democrats issue their protest vote against President Obama's liberal agenda -- and polls show a significant number will -- they'll be voting for a guy who calls himself a "progressive," who is campaigning against Wall Street and the Pentagon and who ran some kind of ad against Newt Gingrich defending the Palestinian people.
This has been a very good couple days for Cory Booker. After the Democrat equated President Obama's attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital with Republican attacks on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- both are "nauseating," Booker said -- he has accomplished four things.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker's appearance on Meet the Press in which he condemned attacks on Mitt Romney's career at Bain Capital as "nauseating" and urging Democrats to "Stop attacking private equity" went great -- for Cory Booker.
One of the most annoying parts of running for president for guys like Mitt Romney and Barack Obama -- men who are not natural back-slappers like Bill Clinton -- is that they have to pretend to be interested in all the terrible ideas offered by the rich guys who donate tons of money to their campaigns.
Every time Mitt Romney has run for office, his Democratic opponent has made a big deal about his career at Bain Capital.
Today, as Facebook co-founder and United States citizenship-renouncer Eduardo Saverin becomes an even bigger billionaire, he's also become a hero of the conservative media establishment.
Today in Ad Watch: Mitt Romney fantasizes about President Romney, President Obama loves higher-ed because he loved his mom, Karl Rove's Super PAC gets into the Nebraska Senate race, and Democrats gloat over the negative coverage of Romney's business career.
President Obama has had a bad streak in polls after doing pretty well against Mitt Romney in April, and Republicans are looking strong in Wisconsin and Nebraska.
In today's Ad Watch: The Republican National Committee says Obama forgot the recession, while Obama says you guys just don't know how far we've come. Plus, the worst political ad all year.
What President Obama's endorsement of gay marriage didn't do: Allow a single new gay couple to get married. What it did do: Inspire waves of campaign donations, attack ads, and a symbolic but ultimately meaningless congressional vote.
This year the Democratic presidential primaries are only interesting when President Obama doesn't do well in them.
Big liberal donors are meeting in Miami to strategize how to live up to a couple classic liberal cliches -- instead of trying to compete with the conservative Super PACs (and their ads) that helped Republicans retake the House in 2010 and helped Mitt Romney win the primary, they're going to pour their money into wholesome community-focused get-out-the-vote groups.
There are many parts of the country where the local culture makes people unafraid to be quoted saying something racist, but not many of these places are interesting during the general election -- as in, not many of them are in swing states.
If President Obama and Democrats want to portray themselves as on Team Woman, why are they making us feel as much anxiety as any insecurity-inducing women's magazine?
The former president (and husband of the secretary of state) is already telling Obama how to run his re-election campaign, now he's telling the president how to govern.
President Obama's message to reluctant Wall Street donors is simple: Vote for me because I will win, and you want to be on the side of a winner.
The general election has begun! And so has the onslaught of campaign ads. Which ones succeed? Which fail? In Ad Watch, we review them as they come out. Today: President Obama defends his jobs record by highlighting Mitt Romney's financial records.
Who was classier when bragging about taking out bad guys: George Bush or Barack Obama?
Joe Biden's best line in the 2008 Democratic primary was that Rudy Giuliani's entire campaign was "a noun, a verb, and bin Laden." In the vice president's foreign policy speech Thursday, he said "bin Laden" 12 times.
The general election has begun! And so has the onslaught of campaign ads. In today's Ad Watch: Bill Clinton makes the case that only President Obama can make tough national security decisions, while Karl Rove makes the case that Obama's an empty suit.
Mitt Romney and President Obama are pretty close in national polls, but what really matters is who's winning in the right states. Here's our guide to today's polls and why they matter.
President Obama's campaign announced it would formally beginning its reelection campaign at a one-day tour of two swing state colleges the day after he ended his official, taxpayer-funded two-day tour of three swing state colleges.
They're as young as they are ruthless and they're the warriors who wage Washington's political battles.
President Obama will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC on Tuesday, and we can probably blame this on a 1992 memo from a Bill Clinton campaign staffer on the necessity of doing "UnPresidential" stuff to get voters to like the candidate.
The New York Times has been going easy on President Obama, according to the newspaper's public editor, but studies show the rest of the mainstream media isn't following suit.
Although Sen. Obama campaigned against George W. Bush's expansion of executive power in 2008, President Obama has studied Bush for ways to do just that as he battles House Republicans to pass economic legislation, The New York Times' Charlie Savage reports.
Mitt Romney enjoyed totally dominating the other Republican candidates during the primary, but he's the relative pauper of the general election.
How is Mitt Romney doing against President Obama now that he's essentially done fighting the Republican primary? We're not sure. Two general election polls were released Monday showing very different results. Here'sour guide to today's polls and which ones matter.
Sixty-four-year-old Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was spotted downing beers and dancing in Colombia Sunday night, and people love her even more for it.
She's been a called everything from an "angry perm," to a "hair hero" and now, the Democrats' chief soundbite peddler, Debbie Wasserman Schultz has a new look.
Hilary Rosen has had a lot of jobs: a Napster-killing lobbyist, the Huffington Post's political director, Democratic talking head on CNN, and, on Wednesday night, she became conservatives' current Enemy No. 1.
Remember those crazy days when Mitt Romney was struggling to defend himself as conservative enough against Rick Santorum in the Republican presidential primary? When was that? Oh yes, yesterday.
Have a story we missed? A link we have to click? A sharp opinion about the news? Instead of waiting for us to post it, tell us on the Open Wire.
Submit your news and ideas | See all reader postsThe Atlantic Wire is your authoritative guide to the news and ideas that matter most right now. Our team tracks newsmakers and opinions across the entire media spectrum: newspapers, web sites, television, radio and magazines.
But we do more than just collect information. By synthesizing, analyzing and summarizing what’s out there, and adding new information when we can, we are a news engine that gives you a quick and valuable account of the issues of the day.
Have a hot tip? A story we missed? Tell us on the Open Wire
How to send us editorial or technical feedback
Get Five Best Columns in your inbox each morning (preview)
