Obama's Abortion Sellout?
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Nancy Pelosi sacrificed abortion protections to get health care passed. Peter Beinart argues the tradeoff saves the bill and the party, Amy Siskind says Obama let women down again, and Dana Goldstein asks whether this new wedge issue will tear Dems apart.
The Dems' Smart Abortion Move
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is a professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
House Democrats were right to sacrifice abortion protections to get health care passed. Peter Beinart on why that strategic tradeoff can save the bill-and the party's future.
Why Liberals Kill
Thaddeus Russell has taught history, philosophy, and American Studies at Columbia University, Barnard College, Eugene Lang College, and the New School for Social Research. He is the author of Jimmy Hoffa and the Remaking of the American Working Class (Knopf, 2001) and the forthcoming A Renegade History of the United States (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 2010).
The left may be pressuring President Obama to exit Afghanistan. But their heroes-from FDR to JFK-promoted U.S. involvement in more wars than all modern GOP presidents combined.
A Short History of Health-Care Disasters
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
With Tuesday's vote in the Senate Finance Committee, President Obama's push for health-care reform came closer to final passage than any president's in history. And it's quite a history. The Daily Beast looks at Obama's predecessors, from Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, and how close they got to the finish line.
So What If Obama Fails?
Matthew Yglesias is a Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He is the author of Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.
The "Obama making mistakes" narrative is at fever pitch, but even if his health-care plan falters, Matthew Yglesias says, we shouldn't consider the president a failure. Our system makes reform almost impossible.
Presidential Conspiracies
Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
Obama's "birther" scandal isn't the first wacky theory about a president. From John Adams' royal plot to Mary Lincoln's spy games, Benjamin Sarlin on the nuttiest controversies.
The Daily Beast Recommends
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
This week: a satire of the publishing industry, Joan Baez's re-released memoir, and a thriller that's bigger and better than ever.
Obama's Midwest Blunder
Michael Lind is the editor of New American Contract at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the author of The American Way of Strategy. He has been a staff writer or senior editor at the New Yorker, Harper’s magazine, the New Republic, and the National Interest.
The president doesn't understand how manufacturing or agriculture works. No amount of weatherproofing or education will help bring U.S. industry back, says Michael Lind.
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Lee Siegel has written about culture and politics and is the author of three books: Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination; Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television; and, most recently, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. In 2002, he received a National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is a professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
Gerald Posner is The Daily Beast's Chief Investigative Reporter. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
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