GWEN'S TAKE

Gwen's Take: The Politics of Panic

By Gwen Ifill

It felt as if everyone was rushing to the ramparts this week. From Times Square to the Gulf Coast to Greece and Wall Street, the world has seemed positively out of breath. Part of the reason, of…

Gwen's Take: 'Washington Rhetoric: The Decoder'

By Gwen Ifill

Emotion. Fear. Guilt. Racism. These drivers, according to former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, are the four horsemen of a rhetorical apocalypse that stops things from getting done in Washington. "Those are the four things I find in my time…

Gwen's Take: Debating the Debate

By Gwen Ifill

I got a lot of mail this week, almost all of it online, and much of it angry. The reason? I tried to tell both sides of a story. The occasion was our PBS NewsHour "Spotlight Series" in Tampa, Florida.

Gwen's Take: Looking Anew at the Rise of President Obama

By Gwen Ifill

When The Washington Post asked me to review David Remnick's new book "The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama," I quickly said yes. As someone who spends my days trying to peer inside, through and around national…

Gwen's Take: Translating the History of Health Reform

By Gwen Ifill

I have a little hobby as a journalist. I love to listen to how people use words. That sounds simpler than it is. It requires the listener to be skeptical rather than cynical, yet to cheerfully expose the meaning behind…

Gwen's Take: Health Care Deadlines, Schmedlines...

By Gwen Ifill

"If you don't set deadlines in this town, things don't happen.The default position is inertia."- President Barack Obama July 22, 2009We enter another weekend with yet another health care deadline hanging low on Washington's horizon. It will…

Gwen's Take: Washington Press Corps Being Distracted by 'Squirrels!'

By Gwen Ifill

I loved the movie "Up." I would have given it my Oscar party vote for Best Picture if I hadn't seen (and loved) "The Hurt Locker." But the part of "Up" that makes me laugh out loud every…