New York Times
Ross Douthat is a columnist for the New York Times and the co-author of Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics and Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Middle Class and Save the American Dream. He is a former senior editor for the The Atlantic.
Left, Aequum et Centrum A new Pope, new budgets, new cyber threats... the same big banks.
Republicans Regroup as the Opposition Republicans are pointing fingers at one another, but most agree on one thing: even if John McCain had not lost to Barack Obama , the GOP was in trouble. They were saddled with George Bush and the war in Iraq. They failed to control healthcare costs or monitor the economy. Now the party of Ronald Reagan has no consensus on leadership or a set or principles to hold its factions together. We ask a cross-section of Republican operatives and philosophers, what should happen next?
Should the GOP Find a New Look or Reinforce the Old One? With a week and a day until it's all over, John McCain and Barack Obama are making their closing arguments. Meantime, McCain's advisors have accused Sarah Palin of going "off message" and refusing to take advice. Palin sources say she's trying to "bust free" of political mismanagement. Divisions within a struggling campaign may be shedding light on a broader conflict over the future of the Republican Party . Does the GOP need reform to stay in touch with a changing America or is it time to recommit the Grand Old Party to undiluted conservatism?
The Biden-Palin Debate Last night's vice-presidential debate will be old news by Tuesday, when John McCain and Barack Obama face off again . In the meantime, both national campaigns are breathing sighs of relief after neither Sarah Palin nor Joe Biden made a major mistake. For both sides that's good news of a kind. We hear excerpts and compare performances with expectations.
Obama Claims Historic Victory, Clinton Holds On, McCain Takes Aim Barack Obama made history last night after the final two primaries of the season, becoming the first African American to be a major party's nominee for president. He now has more than the 2,118 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. But his opponent Hillary Clinton showed no signs of backing down last night, prompting speculation among pundits about whether she is pushing too hard for the vice presidential slot. What is at stake for Democrats as Obama reaches out to Clinton and her eighteen million supporters? What kind of general election campaign is ahead for a young visionary senator versus more experienced war hero John McCain ?
Opposites Don't Attract: Presidential candidates appeal to the "working class" and "ordinary people" with the promise of unifying America for the "common good." But that turns out to mean different things in different places, and it's not just a matter of Red States versus Blue. Wealth and mobility have freed Americans to move wherever they want to and they end up with people just like themselves, culturally as well as politically. What might sound obvious turns out to be an index of major change over the past 30 years. Is segregation-by-lifestyle dividing cities and neighborhoods? Whatever happened to "class?" Is political unification possible any more?
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
Will the Senate write a healthcare bill in secret? While Democrats and Republicans argue White House relations with Russia, another question is being decided behind closed doors: who gets help buying health insurance and who doesn't? We hear how the pros and cons are being shrouded in secrecy.
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.