Campaign Desk

Of Death Panels and Rationing

Don Berwick’s messy confirmation

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 14, 2010 at 04:46 PM

For awhile it looked like Don Berwick was the perfect candidate to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services... More

Another Null Result: Obama’s Numbers Stable in Wake of Spill

By Greg Marx   Jun 14, 2010 at 11:58 AM

John Harwood’s Monday contributions to The New York Times’s “Caucus” blog provide a reliably level-headed take on the political news... More

Deficit Still Not Dominant

Some cold water on a Gallup poll that’s making the rounds

By Greg Marx   Jun 11, 2010 at 02:13 PM

My colleague Holly Yeager made a pretty good case the other day that the press is exaggerating the level of... More

Party-Switchers Losing Elections: Not Hard to Explain

By Greg Marx   Jun 10, 2010 at 12:55 PM

A piece in Politico today proffers a few explanations for Blanche Lincoln’s moderately surprising win in Arkansas’s Democratic Senate primary.... More

Sebelius Watch, Part III

Schizophrenia over Medicare Advantage plans

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 10, 2010 at 11:10 AM

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has emerged as the person to watch as the Obama administration scrambles to... More

The End of Men in Politics? Um, No

Some perspective on the “Ladies’ Night” meme

By Greg Marx   Jun 9, 2010 at 06:00 PM

As if to unite Ryan’s irritation with sensational headlines at The Atlantic with Liz’s observation that “Ladies’ Night” seems to... More

Deficit Dominant

By Holly Yeager   Jun 9, 2010 at 03:05 PM

In its story on the Obama administration’s apparent inability to take strong steps to spur the economy and create jobs,... More

Washington Wins! (And Loses, Too!)

The limits of the “anti-Washington” frame for interpreting the elections

By Greg Marx   Jun 9, 2010 at 01:22 PM

Continuing with the theme of insta-narratives from Tuesday’s elections, a co-worker passes on Ron Fournier’s analysis piece for The Associated... More

Pick a Narrative, any Narrative…

By Greg Marx   Jun 9, 2010 at 10:10 AM

So, the results from Super Duper Tuesday are in. What insta-narratives are our leading press outlets constructing? Let’s take a... More

Primaries & The Gang

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 9, 2010 at 09:49 AM

And the feelin's right/Oh, yes it's... ABC News CBS News's Bob Schieffer: "The biggest election day of the year heading... More

More Lessons from Political Science

How understanding the horse race can keep us from obsessing over it

By Greg Marx   Jun 8, 2010 at 03:58 PM

I’m late in flagging it, but Slate’s Chris Beam, riffing of my magazine article on what political journalists can learn... More

Audit D.C. Notes: The Disappearing Watchdog, Dinner—and Dollars—with a Staffer, Tax Help Needed

By Holly Yeager   Jun 8, 2010 at 02:11 PM

Our comrades-in-criticism at the American Journalism Review are out with an important piece about the alarming decline of watchdog reporting... More

Beach Blanket Bingo

Veep’s party revives age-old ethical debate

By The Editors   Jun 8, 2010 at 01:24 PM

One of the classic ethical questions in journalism—how much distance should a reporter keep from his sources and subjects?—is back... More

The Small Business Angle, Part II

The Boston Globe discovers the fine print

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 8, 2010 at 10:53 AM

One of the best stories I’ve seen in the post-health reform media era comes from the Boston Globe. Health reporter... More

Politico Sees Public Unions Under Fire

But adds to the problem it describes

By Holly Yeager   Jun 7, 2010 at 05:11 PM

Politico picks a good moment to write about the way public employee unions have landed in the crosshairs, as politicians... More