The DNC put together a lovely video featuring Americans expressing their thanks to President Obama, on his final Thanksgiving in office. If you are anything like me, you are having all kinds of feelings about that video, but chief among them is gratitude for a president who has worked so hard to better the lives […]

Donald Trump and his aides have long promised that he would be more civil on Twitter as he moves into his role as president. Yet his tweeted response to the death of former Cuban president Fidel Castro is a failure to keep that promise — and a failure of his first major diplomatic test: Fidel […]

Throughout his time his in office, President Obama has attacked the issue of mass incarceration from many angles, and has successfully reduced the rates after nearly five decades of rising numbers: [media-credit name=”The Sentencing Project” link=”http://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/” align=”aligncenter” width=”617″][/media-credit] How did Obama accomplish this, and what will happen to the policies that have achieved this success […]

Amidst an onslaught of troubling news, it was a welcome sight to see President Obama awarding comedian Ellen DeGeneres the Presidential Medal of Freedom, speaking admiringly of her courage in risking her career to come out and of her special gift for connecting people. “It’s easy to forget now, when we’ve come so far, where […]

From Gallup: Gallup has asked Americans to rate political figures using the current favorable/unfavorable format since 1992. The last three presidents-elect had much higher favorable ratings at comparable time periods than Trump currently does. Then President-elect Barack Obama had the highest favorable rating, 68%, in November 2008. Fifty-nine percent of Americans viewed George W. Bush […]

President-elect Donald Trump won his electoral victory by virtue of razor-thin leads in a handful of states, with just over 112,000 votes separating him from Hillary Clinton in the three key states that gave him the presidency. Meanwhile, Clinton’s popular vote lead is expected to exceed two million, and currently sits at over 1.5 million. In […]

In the aftermath of the 2012 election, Karl Rove took to the Wall Street Journal to warn Republicans that “more white votes alone” would not be enough to ensure future victories for the GOP. It does not appear that they got the message. Latino Decisions, the research firm that specializes in Latino political opinion and is known […]

When the First Lady uttered that now famous phrase, “when they go low, we go high,” it was not some empty campaign slogan. It came from her core. At the time, I wrote about how my Harvard Law School classmate Michelle Obama so perfectly articulated “why America is the greatest nation on earth, full of promise […]

Obama spoke about the fearsome responsibility of taking control of the nuclear codes on the day he took office. He made a powerful case that Donald Trump lacks the character to handle that responsibility. The crowd was fired up and at times engaged in a call and response with the president. Watch:

During the most intense period of the Democratic primaries, I wrote about Bernie Sanders’ laudable willingness to address sexism head on. Here is what he said early in the campaign: “I think for a variety of reasons, Hillary Clinton has been under all kinds of attack for many, many years. In fact, I can’t think of […]

For most of the 2016 election cycle, the national media have painted young voters as cynical, dissatisfied with both choices, and unable to find inspiration in Hillary Clinton — a narrative they have perpetuated by not giving airtime to Clinton’s actual supporters. But a new poll from the Harvard Institute of Politics shatters this myth. The poll […]

If you really want to understand what drives U.S. politics, consider the Republican Party’s prime targets: Planned Parenthood, the Clinton Foundation, Obamacare, refugees, migrants, people of color, women, the queer community, disabled people, etc. And then consider that the Democratic Party coalition is built around the party leadership’s defense of these populations and the policies […]

At a rally in Sanford, FL, Donald Trump once again attacked Hillary Clinton and President Obama over the Affordable Care Act. He specifically referenced reports of double-digit premium increases, in order to garner support for repealing the law from voters worried about their own health care costs. As with so many subjects, Trump played fast […]

Health care is a personal issue for every American. For me, it has always been doubly so because I came to journalism after a career as a health insurance consultant. So I was thrilled with President Obama’s speech on the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, in which he acknowledged some of the flaws in the […]

President Barack Obama has a very strong record on LGBTQ issues. With the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the striking down of the Defense of Marriage Act, marriage equality becoming legal nationwide, the signing of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and new regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services affirming full coverage for […]

President Obama is relishing his role as campaigner-in-chief, and at a Hillary Clinton rally in Miami on Thursday, he showed why he is so good at it. Many people have spent the last year trying to make the point that Donald Trump is the distillation of, not a departure from, Republican politics. But no one has […]

Trump’s premature sore loser tantrum is an embarrassment to American democracy. President Obama rightfully called him out for it during a joint news conference with Italy’s Prime Minister. I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place. […]

Donald Trump repeated some demonstrably false statements about Obamacare in the most recent debate. He asserted that health care costs were going up “by numbers that are astronomical — 68 percent, 71 percent.” They are not: Premium increases range from 9 to 25 percent. Both he and Hillary Clinton agreed that premium increases are too […]

President Barack Obama was speaking at a rally for Hillary Clinton Friday in Cleveland, Ohio, when a heckler disrupted him a few minutes into his speech. Obama was as unflappable as ever, responding to the man by encouraging chants of “Hillary! Hillary!” and cracking a few lighthearted jokes. Obama to heckler at Clinton rally: "Go […]

It seems Donald Trump is fond of disrespecting, objectifying and weaponizing a woman’s anatomy: "@RunningDeep67: @UniqueCaptures Too strong? Point out a time in America's history where it was good to have a PUSSY in the White House!" — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2015 This kind of language is beneath the office of the presidency.

Donald Trump, during remarks before an audience of veterans: “When people come back from war and combat and they see maybe what the people in this room have seen many times over, and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it.” Compare this to President Obama’s response to a […]

During Tuesday’s Senate session, Sen. Cory Booker took to the floor to fight for the nominations of Judge Julien Neals to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, and of Judge Edward L. Stanton III to the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, both of whom were […]

To Donald Trump, everything is a game. Asked about his position on President Obama’s country of birth, he promised a statement later in the day, saying this: “We have to keep the suspense going.” Asked by @MariaBartiromo if @BarackObama was born in the US, Trump says he will make statement today: "We have to keep the […]

This is what Hillary Clinton means when she refers to an “implacable wall of hostility” to Obama’s agenda from the Republicans: During a press briefing on Capitol Hill, Vice President Joe Biden bluntly admonished Republicans to yield on their unprecedented inaction on Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination: "Give Merrick Garland a vote.Don't set this dangerous […]

FACT: The most prominent and accomplished people in America vouch for Hillary Clinton’s honesty and integrity, from Barack and Michelle Obama to Warren Buffett, Jimmy Carter, Elizabeth Warren, and Joe Biden. FACT: The most respected activists and progressive leaders in the country support Hillary Clinton, from John Lewis to Dolores Huerta, Lilly Ledbetter, Bernie Sanders and the […]

If there’s one message I want to deliver to everybody: If you don’t vote, that’s a vote for Trump. If you don’t vote, that’s a vote for Trump. If you vote for a third-party candidate who’s got no chance to win, that’s a vote for Trump. In addition to what the President is saying here, […]

At a DNC fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, President Obama said: There’s a reason why we haven’t had a woman president; that we as a society still grapple with what it means to see powerful women. And it still troubles us in a lot of ways, unfairly, and that expresses itself in all sorts of ways. […]

This is astonishing by any standards. Mike Pence defends Donald Trump's praise of Vladimir Putin: 'Inarguable' that Putin is a stronger leader than Obama https://t.co/dmjkTvpaMA — Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) September 9, 2016 Trump’s ghostwriter: Trump reveres Putin. He wants Putin's power. He wants to be a dictator. Every American — every American — should […]

Humans have an uncanny ability to deny the obvious, even when the obvious is an existential threat. In the case of the 2016 election, we are looking at the potential end of the American experiment. That is a sentiment expressed by a range of scholars and public figures across the political spectrum. On May 18, […]

President Obama made a powerful case for Hillary Clinton, tearing into the double standard she faces: I sure do get frustrated with the way this campaign is covered. I’m just telling the truth. Guys in the back [reporters], I’m just telling you the truth about how I feel about this. Do you mind if I just vent for a second? […]