Gwen's Take

Backbone, Consistency and Standing Your Ground

Posted: March 22, 2012 at 1:34 pm

I've spent a fair amount of time this week pondering what it means to stand one's ground.

The term has taken on a new, disturbing meaning as the story of the shooting of an unarmed Florida teenager took on a life of its own. I don't know anyone who's ever loved a boy who was not unnerved by this. Florida's self-defense law, known as “Stand Your Ground,” allows citizens who feel they are in imminent danger to protect themselves -- with a gun, if need be.

Politics By The Numbers: Countdown to Chaos

Posted: March 15, 2012 at 4:35 pm

Almost every Tuesday night this year, political junkies everywhere have gathered by the flickering light of their computer screens. We have pored over exit polls, tallied the minutes until results came in from Vermont to Hawaii and crunched delegate allocations.

Invariably, we wake Wednesday morning at least as confused as we were the day before.

Answering Those Super Tuesday Questions

Posted: March 8, 2012 at 5:22 pm

Remember those five things we asked you to watch Tuesday night? It turns out the voters decided to raise more questions than even we had.

But here are the things we were watching for:

The Road to the White House: Gutting it Out

Posted: March 7, 2012 at 6:16 pm

Michael Dukakis was the first politician I ever heard describe the Presidential campaign as a “marathon, not a sprint.” But he was not the last.

Since the first campaign I covered in 1988, I’ve always been sort of impressed by candidates who – win or lose—just hang in there.

Sometimes it is unfathomable. Hopefuls stay on the trail long after their viability has been expended, as a race for the White House morphs into a campaign to get politics’ ultimate consolation prize -- a speaking role at the party’s nominating convention.

5 Things to Watch For On Super Tuesday

Posted: March 5, 2012 at 5:21 pm

At the end of a long evening of introductions and speeches, President Clinton used to like to say that everything had been said, but everyone had not yet said it.

If you follow politics, you already may have read all the pre-game analysis you can stand in advance of the pivotal Super Tuesday primaries.

What? You say you haven’t? Then, please allow me.