Gwen's Take

Swearing off Resolutions…Kind Of

Posted: January 3, 2013 at 4:56 pm

The 113th Congress was sworn into office on January 3, 2013 (Photo: CNN).

I have never been much for making promises that I know will be impossible to keep. But if you read this blog regularly, you will know that I am more of an optimist than anyone who covers Washington has any right to be.

Thanks for Watching

Posted: December 27, 2012 at 4:21 pm

Working a holiday week means having no more excuses. So my desk, which had turned into the place where election-year research goes to die, needed my attention.

If I never replied to your invitation, answered your complimentary or critical note, or finished your book, this is why. My desk bore witness to the chaos brought on by a year of election coverage.

Sandy Hook and the Politics of Pain

Posted: December 20, 2012 at 6:38 pm

I think it's fair to say we have all been crying for a week.

Watching the faces of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting scroll by, in silence, at the end of the PBS NewsHour on Monday night was excruciating.

I tried to escape by Christmas shopping. Cashiers asked me what the shooter's mother was thinking.

If Women Ruled the World

Posted: December 13, 2012 at 8:13 pm

Diane Sawyer interviewed female senators that make up the 20 record-breaking women in the 113th congress. The interview will air in early 2013  [Photo: ABC News].

Maine Republican Susan Collins and 18 other members of the United States Senate gathered for a kind of celebratory interview the other day.

What You Didn't Know About Election 2012

Posted: December 6, 2012 at 7:00 pm

I consider myself a voracious consumer of information. This was true during the 2012 presidential campaign, and it remains true today.

This week, one month after the end of a close election, we learned that, in Ohio, President Obama beat Mitt Romney by 63,000 votes more than the preliminary count showed. The margin, which was supposed to be painfully narrow, grew to 166,214.