Analysis: Latest Reports from The Washington Posts 'Post Partisan'

Here are the latest reports from The Washington Posts ‘Post Partisan’.

Terrorism, refugees and migration — an interview with Germany’s interior minister

Thomas de Maizière, the German minister of the interior, is one of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s closest advisers, having served continuously in her cabinet since she took office in 2005. A former chief of staff to the chancellor and defense minister, de Maizière is now in his second, even more challenging, stint as interior minister. In […]

Kurdish factions

One cause for Syria’s torments is that regional powers have used proxy forces to advance their position in the “great game” of influence, without regard for the effects on the Syrian people. An example is the standoff between two Syrian Kurdish militia groups. One, known as the YPG, appears to be tacitly backed by an […]

Trump’s New Mexico setback

The insults Donald Trump hurled at GOP New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez at his rally in Albuquerque, N.Mex., on Tuesday night says a lot about his judgment, his temperament, his wisdom and his utter lack of discipline. What made him think launching into a clumsy diatribe about a fellow Republican — and one who is […]

U.S. should learn from its blunders in Congo

Officials and human rights groups in Washington are strongly considering imposing targeted sanctions on individuals in Congo in the hopes of averting a political crisis in the country. Though elections are supposed to be held in November, President Joseph Kabila will likely try to extend his term in power beyond his constitutional limit of two […]

The long lines at airports are a problem for Hillary Clinton

The long security lines at U.S. airports are another problem for Hillary Clinton. A lot of Americans interact with the Transportation Security Administration, and they expect that agency to function properly. And when there is a problem, they want it fixed. Does anyone think of Clinton as a problem-solver? Answer: No. Can anyone think of […]

Rectifying the injustice in our bathrooms

Commentators are missing the point of the controversy over transgender citizens and their choice of bathrooms. The federal government’s civil rights lawsuit challenging a North Carolina law requiring transgender people to use the bathrooms that align with the genders on their birth certificates directly affects very few people. After all, the percentage of the population […]

Trump shouldn’t wait until the convention to announce his vice president

Over the weekend, The Post’s Dana Milbank wrote that Donald Trump is betting on “mass amnesia” in this election to maintain and grow his support while he changes his position on everything from building the wall to increasing the federal minimum wage. I would argue that amnesia would help but it wouldn’t be enough. Amnesia […]

The rise of national socialism: Why Austria’s revolution is not over

It’s been highly amusing to watch the international press struggle to describe Norbert Hofer, the candidate who has just lost, by a tiny handful of votes, the Austrian presidential election. Hofer bitterly opposes immigration and uses nostalgic language about “pan-German” culture, views which place him in the “far-right” category of European politics. At the same […]

President Obama’s baggage on his voyage to Vietnam
It is being reported that President Obama’s visit to Vietnam will focus more on the future than on the past. If that’s the way the White House wants to play it, this small voice can’t stop it. Consider this: Speaking of the potential for once-foe Vietnam to play a key role in throwing China off […]

The modern populist mutiny

One may have to go all the way back to the founding of the United States to find a time when the established economic and political order was as threatened politically as Wall Street financiers, party leaders and Washington insiders find themselves today. In the years following the Declaration of Independence, the former colonies operated as a […]

Three reasons Bernie Sanders should stay in the race

On CNN yesterday, Hillary Clinton compared Bernie Sanders’s position in the 2016 Democratic primary to her position during her 2008 run against Barack Obama, saying she has “an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates” and implying that it was time for Sanders to follow her 2008 example and drop out. The demands that Sanders exit the […]

One reason Clinton might be more effective attacking Trump than Cruz and Rubio were

Hillary Clinton said Thursday that she would not stoop to Donald Trump’s ad hominem style. Instead, she would argue that he is reckless and “not qualified to be president of the United States.” This is, of course, true. It also reveals one advantage she has that Trump’s vanquished Republican primary rivals did not: She can […]

Two things I learned playing ‘Jeopardy!’ for charity

There are two things I learned during my star-turn as a “celebrity” contestant on “Jeopardy!” One, if you’re obsessed with crossword puzzles, you’ll be fine. Two, that buzzer is a #*&$%! But the best part of the whole experience was playing for charity. And the charity I chose, Sasha Bruce Youthwork, serves some of the […]

Democrats’ divisions could save Republicans

This is big news. The “rift between labor and environmentalists,” as outlined by Jonathan Martin in the New York Times, is a split that has been developing for several years but has finally broken through in Election 2016 in a dramatic fashion. Eight “proud trade unionists and Building Trades leaders” have written a strongly worded […]

An exercise in guilt by association at Harvard

“You may be from a country—as there are many, many Muslim countries—that either have Sharia law or want Sharia law. Those values are not our values.” — Bill Maher, expressing partial agreement with Donald Trump’s position on refugees. “Their fundamental principles are antithetical to our institutional values.” — Rakesh Khurana, dean of Harvard College, explaining […]

People are overestimating the power of Trump’s white supporters

There is a strain of reporting on Donald Trump’s strengths and Hillary Clinton’s weaknesses that is becoming rather irritating. The presumptive Republican nominee’s popularity with white voters is seen as a red flag for his all-but-certain Democratic opponent. Meanwhile, her overwhelming support among African American and Latino voters is practically dismissed. Neither Clinton nor Trump […]

Obama’s civics lesson for Trump and Sanders supporters

Another commencement, another opportunity for President Obama to urge the nation’s graduates to participate fully in the political process. He cannot say it often enough, especially during a presidential campaign when two candidates — one from the left and one from the right — brazenly use the frustrations of the electorate to peddle quick fixes […]

Obama can’t resist talking about Trump

Apparently, Republicans aren’t the only ones made a little crazy by the rise of Trump. As I travel in the United States and overseas, Donald Trump is all anybody wants to talk about. Even President Obama can’t resist, even though he probably should. Just yesterday, The Post’s Greg Jaffe wrote a piece entitled, “Obama assails […]

How Notre Dame honors Joe Biden, John Boehner and political civility

In today’s surreal and vitriolic political environment, where opponents and their ideas are belittled and debased, Notre Dame’s commencement on Sunday will celebrate a miracle, of sorts. The prestigious Catholic university will bestow its highest honor to Vice President Biden and former house speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for their commitment to civility, cross-party dialogue and compromise. […]

The Obama administration’s Bureau of Bathroom Management

There could be no more vivid illustration of why we have Donald Trump as one of the two people who will be our next president than the “Dear Colleague” letter signed by not one but two stereotypical liberal bureaucrats from the Obama administration. They are career lawyer-agitators, both veterans of the American Civil Liberties Union. […]

How the U.S. and Britain help kleptocrats around the world — and how we pay the price as well

In the village of Bramley, Hampshire, an English country estate is undergoing a major renovation. A large crane can be seen from the road, along with wide lawns and the old trees of an elegant park. Beaurepaire Park was pointed out to me a few weeks ago by locals who told me the surprising name […]

What’s behind Ryan’s non-endorsement of Trump?

The breathless coverage of today’s meeting among Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus overstates the significance of one 45-minute meeting for the overall Republican support for the GOP ticket in November. Come Election Day, very few people will remember the maneuverings that took place in Washington […]

Will political norms catch up to Trump?

Donald Trump is like quicksilver: As soon as you grasp him, he’s gone. His candidacy was a joke — until he started winning primaries. His statements on women and minorities would disqualify him — until they didn’t. He’d lose a brokered convention — until he dispatched his last two opponents. He could never beat Hillary […]

The audacity of magical thinking in Trump’s tax plan

One of the chief policy mysteries of Donald Trump’s campaign platform is how he intends to achieve the arithmetically impossible: reduce taxes by trillions of dollars; shield Social Security and Medicare benefits from any cuts; “rebuild” the military and infrastructure; and — depending on what day Trump is talking — start to pay off the national debt, if not […]

Who is Gary Johnson?

All the attention is on the prospect of a Clinton-Trump race, but it is underreported that there may be a Libertarian entrant in this election: Gary Johnson. Who is Gary Johnson? Well, he served as the Republican governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003. He’s not a nut and he’s not manifestly dishonest, and that sets him […]

Eric Fanning and the Army deserve better than this from Congress

An abiding shame of Washington was revealed by the lawsuit filed on May 4 by Nathan Michael Smith. The Army captain argues that the U.S. war against the Islamic State is illegal because Congress did not authorize it. And therein lies the shame. Congress has yet to grant President Obama’s year-old request for a new […]

Is Trump confounding expectations again?

Don’t look now, but Donald Trump may be confounding political expectations again. On Tuesday morning a slew of state and national polls were released that put the presumptive GOP nominee within sights of Hillary Clinton. If today’s surveys hint at a coming trend, then all that talk about Trump’s general election ceiling is as worthless as the […]

Ben Rhodes’s 9/11 epiphany

Thanks to Sunday’s now famous (or infamous) New York Times Magazine profile of deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, we know this key player in President Obama’s foreign policy team claims to have had an epiphany in New York amid the awful events of Sept. 11, 2001: He saw the first tower go down, and after that he walked […]

Loretta Lynch to transgender America: I’ve got your back

“As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we’re threatened,” which is why, President Obama said in his 2015 State of the Union address, “we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender” (LGBT). By merely saying […]

Donald Trump returns to a stupid strategy

During the first year of “Morning Joe,” I rolled into work at 4:30 am to review video we would be airing on the show that day. Since I had already read the major news articles posted online the night before, an hour of prep time before going live at 6:00 am seemed to make sense. […]

Why Paul Ryan might not be able to avoid a down-ballot disaster

In an op-ed for The Post back in March, Republican strategist Whit Ayres neatly spelled out the annihilation that could befall his party’s chances of retaking the White House if Donald Trump were to become its presidential nominee. “Demographic trends make clear that a Republican nominee who hopes to win a majority of the popular vote […]

Confirmed: Sanders is selling a fantasy agenda

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has attracted a passionate following because he is selling his followers a fantasy. And not just any fantasy — but one of epic proportions. A group of respected, nonpartisan experts offered the public a sense of the scale on Monday, releasing the most thorough analysis yet on Sanders’s plan and finding […]

At Howard, Obama had words for those ‘blacker than thou’ and ‘feeling the Bern’

President Obama’s commencement address at Howard University was his characteristic mix of uplift and optimism leavened with reality. And there were two groups that should take his words to heart. I’m thinking specifically of the self-appointed gatekeepers of blackness and the fierce supporters of the presidential bid of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Few groups irk […]

John McCain has it wrong. Trump purposely denigrated his heroism.

“I think it’s important for Donald Trump to express his appreciation for veterans — not John McCain, but veterans who were incarcerated as prisoners of war,” John McCain said over the weekend. “When he said, ‘I don’t like people who were captured,’ then there’s a body of American heroes that I’d like to see him retract […]

Ryan is right to pause on Trump

Why is House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) stiff-arming Donald Trump? In an interview on CNN last week, Ryan said he was not ready to support Trump “at this point.” Ryan’s pause suggests a thoughtfulness that is anathema to the entire Trump phenomenon. Perhaps Ryan believes that if he endorses Trump, he is in some […]

Trump’s poor fundamentals

Super Bowl XXV matched the New York Giants against football’s most explosive offensive machine, Jim Kelly’s Buffalo Bills. The Bills were fearsome on offense and as talented scoring touchdowns as Whitney Houston was singing the Star Spangled Banner during that game’s pre-game ceremonies. Buffalo’s no huddle offense rolled over almost every defense it faced and […]

The media push for Hillary Clinton has begun

In ways both large and small, the pro-Hillary Clinton bias in the media is beginning to emerge as the push to get her elected as president in November gets underway. Some of the early steps are unsteady and a bit clumsy, but you can count on the media to find their stride and become more […]

Donald Trump is creating a new political species

Why have so many been so wrong for so long about Donald Trump? Because he is creating a new political species: a hybrid whose message and persona appeal across a significant slice of Democrats, Republicans and independents. Seismic shifts are often missed in politics. For example, many people didn’t recognize Richard Nixon’s “Southern strategy” and […]

Paul Ryan’s comments on Trump weren’t all that courageous

In the land of the pusillanimous, the ambivalent speaker is king. So House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is being heaped with praise for saying, on the matter of supporting his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, that he is “just not ready to do that at this point,” “not there right now” and “not there yet.” Ryan’s comments, […]

Cheering the Republican rebellion against Trump

Just when I feared there was no decency left in the Republican Party, a few brave souls emerged to stand on principle against Donald Trump, the presumptive presidential nominee. Former presidents George H.W. Bush (41) and George W. Bush (43) will neither attend the party’s convention in July nor make an endorsement in the campaign. Former […]

Why are you still in the race, Bernie?

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s magic-wand campaign has grown tiresome. Despite his win in Indiana and #DropOutHillary trending on Twitter as of this writing, the democratic socialist from Vermont’s chances of becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee are as slim as Karlie Kloss’s dress at Monday’s Met Gala. And yet Sanders is on the campaign trail demanding […]

Democrats don’t know how to run against Trump

Well, it is game on. This will be an election unlike any other in the modern era. Two wildly flawed candidates for president will try to convince voters that the other is the one more unfit for the office. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both have their baggage, but along with his problems, Trump does […]

The ‘Trump effect’ will help authoritarians around the world

It’s too late. Even if Hillary Clinton beats him in November, even if the Republican Party is wiped out in the polls, Donald Trump’s emergence as the Republican presidential candidate has already dealt an enormous blow to the reputation of the American political system, and indeed to the reputation of democracy itself. There will be […]

Donald Trump has humiliated the doubters, and it may not be the last time

I owe my girlfriend a steak dinner. A while ago, before Donald Trump won five East Coast primaries by huge margins, before he followed that up by winning Indiana, which he did Tuesday night, before he beefed up his campaign staff, before he built up a commanding delegate lead, before GOP “leaders” began to make […]

Wringing my hands before slinking toward Trump

It looks as though the 2016 GOP nomination contest is reaching a turning point, and a lot of hand-wringing is underway among many Republicans as they contemplate the inevitable. It’s not premature to start thinking about the dynamics of a Clinton-Trump race, where the most unpopular Democrat will face the most unpopular Republican. Some Republicans say that […]

Don’t flatter Trump; he’s no Barry Goldwater

There are many comparisons between Donald Trump and Barry Goldwater appearing in the media these days. Most of the commentary is meant to suggest that Trump would lose the 2016 general election in a landslide, just as Sen. Barry Goldwater did in 1964. (Goldwater lost to Lyndon B. Johnson, 38.5 percent to 61.1 percent, not to […]

Why Larry Wilmore is not ‘my n – – – – – ‘
President Obama set a life goal for racial humor at the top of his customarily killer performance at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. “I do apologize — I know I was a little late tonight,” Obama said to the 2,700 guests at the Washington Hilton. “I was running on C.P.T., which stands for ‘jokes […]

The Assad supporter who is also a Virginia state senator

American politics produces its share of useful dupes, but Dick Black, a Virginia state senator, may not be quite as useful as the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad supposes. Black, once known mainly as a know-nothing Republican who embarrassed fellow GOP conservatives with his antics in Richmond, has lately undertaken a campaign on behalf of Assad. […]

The predictable reason why anti-LGBT bills become law

The cavalcade of crazy ginned up by folks fearful of equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans was predictable. That far-right conservatives have been wigged out ever since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last June is not surprising. Nor is the move by states to pass so-called religious freedom laws. Nor […]

Don’t be fooled by Trump’s foreign policy speech

If you weren’t already convinced that parody is now the central art form of our era, then Donald Trump’s grand foreign policy speech yesterday was the proof. All of the elements of spoof “foreign policy seriousness” were in place. The introduction from a serious foreign policy figure, Zalmay Khalilzad. The sponsorship by a serious foreign […]

Carly Fiorina: Too little, too late
I have generally been a fan of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and thought the Republican Party should’ve rallied behind him weeks ago. But I’m unimpressed with his selection for vice president. Why would he select such a novice in Carly Fiorina, someone who has proven herself to be a lackluster fundraiser, a mediocre candidate and a underachiever […]

The sad end of ‘Never Trump’

Once upon a time, it looked like Donald Trump might have a ceiling. As more and more GOP rivals dropped out in January, February and March, his share of the vote in national polls remained unchanged around or below 35 percent, and a majority of Republicans voted for other candidates in state after state. But beginning with the […]

No, Donald Trump, beating Hillary Clinton will not be easy for you

Following a five-primary sweep Tuesday night, Donald Trump repeatedly insisted that he would beat Hillary Clinton “so easily,” because she is a crooked politician and a flawed candidate whom people do not like. It is undoubtedly true that Clinton is beatable. By her own admission, she is “not a natural politician.” But that does not […]

Trump’s sweep is another humiliating defeat for media and political elites

Donald Trump’s sweeping victories Tuesday night move the Manhattan billionaire a step closer to winning the Republican nomination for president and to pulling off the most improbable political feat in modern American history. But Trump’s story is about more than a first-time candidate’s stunning rise. It is also about the humiliating defeat suffered by an increasingly isolated […]

Can Donald Trump change his spots?

There is talk from the Trump camp that perhaps his performance to date was an act, that he is in the process of pivoting to an image that is more “presidential.” I haven’t seen any explanation as to what they think that means, but one would assume it means fewer insults and vulgarities and a generally […]

Donald Trump, a political Holden Caulfield

The cynicism of Donald Trump is on full display as he makes his version of a “pivot” to a general election candidate. His new ambassador to the media and the establishment, Paul Manafort, is making the rounds, trying to reassure by his presence (as a long-time lobbyist, political operative, and card-carrying member of the political-industrial complex) […]

Trump’s campaign brings Eastern Europe’s political ‘tactics’ to the U.S.

When democracy arrived in the eastern half of Europe a quarter century ago, imported from the West, it did not come in its purest, most Athenian form. Of course the West loaned the East quite a few constitutional lawyers, as well as lots of idealists who could talk about judicial reform or give advice on […]

Clinton and Sanders need one last debate — on foreign policy

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) complained on “Meet the Press” that the debates he and Hillary Clinton have had were scheduled “when there would be minimal viewing audience.” And Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver was adamant that there would be another debate when I asked him Friday about his candidate’s willingness to debate. “Absolutely, there will […]

Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Get Policy, Part MCMXLIII

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) offers Americans unsophisticated thinking on complex questions. Public health policy is the latest victim of his obtuse reasoning. Sanders and Hillary Clinton have been arguing about soda taxes over the past few days, with the former secretary of state endorsing a Philadelphia measure that would put a 3-cents-per-ounce tax on these […]

Why I asked John Kasich what he hears when he hears ‘Black Lives Matter’

“Black Lives Matter.” The phrase has become a rhetorical Rorschach test. Your interpretation of what you hear when you hear the phrase depends on your life experiences. And that interpretation reveals itself in how one would complete the phrase as a sentence. What I hear is “Black Lives Matter as much as anyone else’s.” Not […]

A transcript of John Kasich’s interview with The Washington Post editorial board
FREDERICK RYAN JR., WASHINGTON POST PUBLISHER: Well, Governor, welcome. Thank you for joining us today. OHIO GOVERNOR JOHN KASICH: Well, it’s an honor for me to be here. RYAN: Delighted to have you here. This is a meeting of the Editorial Board. As discussed with your team, it’s on the record and – KASICH: Everything’s […]

John Kasich can take on Hillary Clinton. Here’s why.

Before the 2016 presidential primary season kicked off, I told Democratic friends that of all the people lining up from the Republican Party, Ohio Gov. John Kasich was the only one who could give Hillary Clinton a serious run for her money. Wednesday morning, Kasich perfectly demonstrated why. In a GOP primary contest defined by […]

A new voice from the opposition in Turkey

Selin Sayek Boke, the spokesperson for Turkey’s largest opposition group, outlined in an interview a broad program her party is crafting to challenge the ruling party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Boke, 44, a former economics professor who took her doctorate from Duke, is one of the new voices in the Republican People’s Party, or […]

John Kasich: The GOP ‘doesn’t like ideas’

The Republican Party is a collection of closed-minded reactionaries that faces electoral catastrophe in November. But don’t take my word for it — take John Kasich’s. “Frankly, my Republican Party doesn’t like ideas,” Kasich said in an interview with The Post’s editorial board Wednesday morning. “They want to be negative against things.” There have been […]

What has the Trump campaign taught us?

After yesterday’s Republican New York primary, I think the football analogy is this: Donald Trump has a 10-point lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter and he has the ball. The game isn’t over, but there is certainly enough film to review and perhaps learn some things about Trump’s overall game plan in the […]

Yes, Sanders and Trump can lose, fair and square

Donald Trump is being outmaneuvered in the race for delegates. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is just plain losing. But that probably won’t be the story you hear from them. Hillary Clinton won the New York Democratic primary by a wide margin Tuesday night. The results will not matter for some passionate Berners. Many will continue […]

New York douses the Bern

As we all expected, Hillary Clinton’s victory over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the New York primary was resounding. What was not expected, to me at least, was how the exit polls reveal how the Empire State became a firewall against “the Bern.” Sanders’s call for a political revolution to create jobs, make the economy […]

Ted Cruz and the revenge of New York values

When Ted Cruz attacked “New York values” during his successful campaign against Donald Trump for Iowa’s caucuses, he knew exactly what he was doing. New York — the place, its people, its outsize role in American culture and, yes, its values — has long played badly in the Republican heartland. Cruz boasted about the effect of his […]

What Clinton should emphasize after her likely win tonight

New York hasn’t had a Democratic primary this interesting since 1980, when Ted Kennedy scored a late upset on his way to eventually losing the nomination to incumbent Jimmy Carter. The Carter people were furious at Kennedy’s challenge and what they viewed as his petty ungraciousness that summer at the Democratic national convention, also held […]

Hillary Clinton’s dodgy answers on Honduras coup

As I have written before, Hillary Clinton has a lot to answer for with regard to her record as Secretary of State under the Obama administration, particularly in Haiti and Honduras, two countries that are still reeling from U.S. intervention into their affairs. At the last Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders brought up the epidemic of […]

The GOP’s VP selection game will be more complicated than ever

For the first time in decades, there are new considerations that will be part of the vice presidential selection process. It looks as though the VP selection could be a big part of winning the nomination and not just window dressing after the fact. Forget what might be useful in the fall general election campaign: The […]

Megyn Kelly’s next act

Megyn Kelly is a star. The Fox News prime-time host runs a successful cable news show, has book publishers throwing millions of dollars her way, co-stars with Donald Trump in this season’s most compelling political soap opera, and is even starting to consider what life might look like after Fox News. Kelly deserves whatever success […]

The good reason George Clooney does something he hates

Much is being made of what actor George Clooney said to “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd about his fundraisers for Hillary Clinton over the weekend. Getting great mileage is what Clooney said about the “obscene amount of money” being hauled in, including $353,000 for a couple to sit with Clinton, Clooney and his wife. […]

Why Bernie Sanders will rue his ‘deep South’ dismissal of black voters

Right there, at the end of the Brooklyn debate, it happened. A whole slice of the United States, home to the bedrock foundation of the Democratic Party, was written off by a candidate for its nomination. But that wasn’t the first time Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or someone from his campaign has done this. It […]

The tragedy of ‘foreign policy elites’

Can our nation survive without taking advantage of the wisdom of self-described “foreign policy elites”? That is the question posed on Page 1 of The Post’s print edition on Saturday, under the headline “Foreign policy elites indecisive on Trump.” The Post’s Karen DeYoung reports that 121 Republican national security experts have signed a petition saying […]

DeRay Mckesson speaks on Black Lives Matter, Baltimore, Bill Clinton and that blue vest
This week, Deray Mckesson, Black Lives Matter activist and Baltimore mayoral candidate, dropped by The Post to speak on his plans for Black Lives Matter, Baltimore and social media, his views on Bill Clinton and race, and exactly why he wears that blue vest all the time. Mckesson rose to national prominence as one of the […]

Sanders’s dull policy thinking shines through again

Even when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is making a good point, his dull sense of the reality of governing — which involves policy details, practical constraints and trade-offs — shines through. The insurgent presidential candidates pressed Hillary Clinton on global warming at Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate. He had some decent things to say about […]

Which party will benefit from the weak Obama economy?

Two headlines that appeared simultaneously last week present a vital question for the 2016 campaign: What is the political legacy of the Obama economy? CNBC reported that the U.S. economy – already weak – took a turn for the worse in the first quarter of 2016. The headline on April 8 declared, “First-quarter economy looks bleaker […]

Five military leaders Republicans could draft for a run for president. (Hint: It worked before.)

Editor’s note: This column has been updated since publication. As the Republican Party heads toward what could be a stalemated convention in Cleveland in July, delegates might recall how the GOP healed itself in 1952 in what was known as the “Winter of Discontent.” The Republicans drafted a military leader, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as their presidential […]

What Hillary Clinton gets right by being boring

One word would describe Hillary Clinton’s Saturday sit-down with the New York Daily News editorial board: Boring! And that’s a good thing. The 80-minute wonkfest with the two-term former senator from the Empire State was notably different from the editorial board meeting with Sen. Bernie Sanders a week earlier. That gathering was gasp-worthy for the Vermont […]

We’ve become a shouting babel of narrow interests

We’re still a long week away from the New York primary, but the pattern of discontinuity from one state’s results to the next seems to be holding. Winning Wisconsin hasn’t given Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) a bump in New York, just as a string of early primary victories couldn’t seal […]

Democrats aren’t good at the political revolution thing — and Sanders won’t be any different

A familiar and self-defeating pattern among Democrats is emerging for a fourth consecutive presidential election cycle. It goes something like this: The favored establishment candidate faces a challenge from the left fueled by grass-roots fervor, money and media attention. Whether that challenger wins the nomination (Barack Obama in 2008) or loses (Howard Dean in 2004), there […]

Don’t cry for us, we aren’t Argentina

During my junior year of college, the history department awarded me with an academic scholarship and invited me to celebrate by having lunch with the head of the department. I was excited about the scholarship but was especially excited to meet with the professor who would be hosting the lunch. It all went very well […]

Why Bill de Blasio’s ‘colored people time’ joke isn’t as bad as you think

Let me see a show of hands. How many of you have never ever in your whole entire life heard the phrase “CP time”? Chances are if you are African American, you definitely have. In fact, you’ve used it at least 1,000 times — in the last month. If you’re white, you have used it, […]

What we need to know about Trump’s wealth and taxes

This week there is renewed interest in Donald Trump’s finances. The Post’s David Fahrenthold and Rosalind Helderman wrote a remarkable piece on his charitable giving – or lack thereof. The Post found that “not a single one” of his 4,844 charitable contributions over the past five years “was actually a personal gift of Trump’s own […]

The increasing vapidity of the U.S.’s foreign policy debate

Foreign policy stalwarts came out Tuesday night to honor Robert Gates at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Brent Scowcroft, John Warner and other titans gathered to celebrate the inaugural awarding of the CSIS’s Zbigniew Brzezinski Prize. While the evening’s events highlighted the debt the United States and the world owe Gates […]

What Paul Ryan’s ‘no’ really means

On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) gave a variation on the “Sherman” statement. That statement has marked the definitive, no-loophole declaration of a non-candidacy for president ever since Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman uttered it in regards to the 1884 presidential election. Since these statements are always parsed for any possible nuance, let me […]

What Paul Ryan’s ‘no’ really means

What we need to know about Trump’s wealth and taxes

The increasing vapidity of the U.S.’s foreign policy debate

Why Bill de Blasio’s ‘colored people time’ joke isn’t as bad as you think

Don’t cry for us, we aren’t Argentina

Democrats aren’t good at the political revolution thing — and Sanders won’t be any different

We’ve become a shouting babel of narrow interests

What Hillary Clinton gets right by being boring

Which party will benefit from the weak Obama economy?

Five military leaders Republicans could draft for a run for president. (Hint: It worked before.)

As the Republican Party heads toward what could be a stalemated convention in Cleveland in July, they might recall how the GOP healed itself in 1952 in what was known as the “Winter of Discontent.” The Republicans drafted a military leader, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as their presidential candidate. The looming showdown between Donald Trump and […]

Why I have mad love for Pope Francis’s ‘Joy of Love’

If the Catholic Church is an enormous battleship slowly navigating humanity’s moral seas for two millennia, then Pope Francis is its new commander trying to narrowly shift its course. “Joy of Love,” the pontiff’s 256-page apostolic exhortation on the family, is not a wholesale course correction. But his tone and words on divorce, family structure […]

The White House’s blame game is just busywork

The charade of Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court actually suits the president. It is another issue where he can preach to the choir and lecture the rest of us. All the while, he is orchestrating a White House-led, Democratic campaign to blame Republicans and pretend something is going to happen. Just yesterday, […]

Bernie Sanders picks a dangerous New York fight with Hillary Clinton

And so the 2016 presidential contest is taking over New York, a city and a state where politics is played with brass knuckles and brickbats. The press is relentless. The pressure is intense. And on a scale of 1 to 10, the likelihood of a candidate slipping up or overreacting is about a 14. Case […]