May 27 The Gospel According to Bill Clinton It never gets old listening to Bill Clinton. Like a thoroughbred watching the race from the sidelines, he is always champing at the bit to get back on the track. That became clear once again this week when… Continue reading
May 20 Dog Whistle Politics: You Talking to Me? The past several days have handed me a cluster of excuses to return to one of my favorite topics: what happens when politicians speak in code. Known in some circles as dog-whistle politics - saying one thing intended to be… Continue reading
May 04 Gwen Ifill: Getting the Bin Laden Story By Gwen Ifill My flight from Seattle had just touched down at Reagan Washington National airport late Sunday night when I clicked on my BlackBerry. It immediately began buzzing with an alarming stream of emails and tweets. An hour later, the president… Continue reading
Apr 29 Obama and Palin: The Script’s the Same Imagine how proudly gratified I was this week to scroll through my Twitter feed and discover that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have so much in common. On the day that Donald Trump was touring the New Hampshire seacoast… Continue reading
Apr 22 Confidence, Conviction and Campaign 2012 By Gwen Ifill I once covered a politician who was a very certain man. He remained convinced throughout his public career that he knew best - certainly better than any naysayer, political opponent or reporter. His certainty got things done, but you had… Continue reading
Apr 15 The Bully Pulpit Advantage: Budgets, Deficits and 2012 A few weeks ago, I mused in this space about why anyone would want to be president. This week, I had an epiphany. And so did Rep. Paul Ryan. To understand this, it helps to be a student of… Continue reading
Apr 08 Ideology vs Idiocy: The Shutdown Showdown As the shutdown showdown approached its third or fourth climax late this week, I found myself in Flint, Mich., the former General Motors manufacturing powerhouse, where the unemployment rate still stands at nearly 12 percent and people can be… Continue reading
Apr 01 Iowa, I Hear You Calling By Gwen Ifill AMES, Iowa | I have this little theory that has long served me well. Everything, I believe, is politics. Politics determines whether your children go to school or to jail; whether they eat or starve; whether their futures will improve… Continue reading
Mar 25 Rocks and Hard Places: Why Governing Is So Hard Every four years, as I set off to cover another presidential election cycle, I secretly ask myself: Why do any of these people want to be president? Consider the choices that have faced the current president just within the last… Continue reading
Mar 18 Mixed Signals: When to Send Them, How to Read Them I was sitting behind the wheel on Pennsylvania Avenue Thursday afternoon in the kind of traffic clog that those of us who live in Washington, D.C., have become accustomed to. The clamor of sirens signaled that President Obama's motorcade… Continue reading