May 25 2012: The Year Demographics Catches up With Politics By Gwen Ifill Christine Mastin, an immigration attorney whose Spanish-speaking grandmother emigrated from Chile to the United States, realizes that most of the Hispanics she knows are surprised she is a Republican. Barack Obama won two-thirds of the Latino vote in 2008, and… Continue reading
May 18 History’s Romance: Why Politics Past Beats Politics Present By Gwen Ifill Is it just my imagination, or have politics and politicians grown smaller? I've been flirting with this conclusion after diving into two enjoyable presidential history books by night while covering 2012 politics by day. The books, Robert Caro's "The Passage… Continue reading
May 11 The Big Straddle: Why Compromise Can Be Hazardous to One’s Political Health "There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos." Jim Hightower, a committed liberal and former Texas agriculture commissioner, liked to say this so much that he finally used it as a title for a… Continue reading
May 04 The Advantages of Incumbency Mitt Romney's May Day plan seemed pretty reasonable for a man who had been systematically and successfully clearing his path to the Republican nomination for more than a year. Republicans had been quietly dinging President Obama throughout the previous weekend… Continue reading
Apr 27 When’s a Campaign Not a Campaign? (See Obama, Gingrich) By Gwen Ifill Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside, it turns out the campaign lull we thought had just begun hasn't occurred at all. We were assured by the Democrats that the president's travels to three battleground states… Continue reading
Apr 20 The Curse of the Political Surrogate: When Silence Should Be Golden By Gwen Ifill It took the 2012 presidential campaign to throw Democrat Hilary Rosen and conservative Ted Nugent into the same sentence. Rosen made more of a splash last week than she ever did in 17 years at the powerful Recording Industry Association… Continue reading
Apr 13 Target Lugar: Mayhem in Indiana INDIANAPOLIS | On the morning after the season's only Indiana Senate primary debate, state Treasurer Richard Mourdock arose early and headed for a Rotary Club in suburban Noblesville. There were fewer than 20 people there, which meant there was plenty… Continue reading
Apr 06 Avoiding the Veepstakes (Not Really) By Gwen Ifill With the Republican primary campaign approaching its end, and more than two weeks before the next voting, there is immense temptation to begin speculating about running mates. I will resist. That seems the respectful thing to do when there are… Continue reading
Mar 30 Tea Leaf Reading at Its Best: Eavesdropping on the Supreme Court By Gwen Ifill I was never tempted to go to law school. But I love to parse language and reasoning, so listening to the audio of this week's Supreme Court health care arguments was -- in its nerdy way -- actually quite enjoyable. Continue reading
Mar 23 Backbone, Consistency and Standing Your Ground 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… Continue reading