I just completed the first of three weeks in Washington running my annual program for Villanova, and while the humidity was refreshingly low, the political barometric pressure was intense. Despite what they are saying in front of cameras, Democrats are out of patience with the unprecedented obstruction they have been facing from the Trump administration and the desire to move … Read More

The 2020 election will play out in 10 states: five in the rustbelt and five in the sunbelt. Three are “blue wall” states that Donald Trump narrowly won and will need to win again. The other seven states are various shades of red and trending in different directions. As Democrats begin the long process of narrowing twenty-odd candidates to one, … Read More

Now that Joe Biden has entered the 2020 presidential contest — ending the least suspenseful build-up to a campaign launch in recent memory — we might take this opportunity to look at how his candidacy will serve as a lightening rod for the Democratic electorate as it begins the process of sorting out how to run against Donald Trump. Biden … Read More

I’m watching the blossoms on the trees outside my window. They will soon turn into young leaves, which will mature, turn color, and fall to the ground. Much later the process will repeat itself. Only then will we reach Election Day 2020, some eighteen months from now. Welcome to the silly season of presidential politics, when the election is so … Read More

House leaders can no longer avoid the impeachment question by saying we need to wait for the Mueller report. The report is here, and it describes in extensive detail a lawless, out of control president whose collusive entanglements with Russia and relentless efforts to obstruct anyone who might reveal them render him unfit for office. What it does not do … Read More

Who is Bill Weld? If you aren’t a Libertarian or from Massachusetts, you may not know the former two-term Republican governor and 2016 Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee. Yesterday he announced his intention to oppose Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination, a move easily dismissed as quixotic given the overwhelming support Trump enjoys in his party. And it probably … Read More

It’s been a month since I posted about the second act of the three-act play that is the Trump presidency, which I suggested would be marked by conflict and accountability. Actually, I said that conflict is inevitable and accountability is possible, and in the intervening weeks we’ve started to see what that looks like. Let’s focus on two examples: the … Read More

Michael Cohen’s riveting testimony last week opened Act II of the three-act immorality play that is the Trump administration. Nearly four months after the country handed Democrats control of the House of Representatives, and with it the power to set the House agenda and compel testimony and documents from Trumpland, we had our first glimpse of what it looks like … Read More

“Let’s tell the truth. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes and so will I. He won’t tell you. I just did.” — Walter Mondale, 1984 Presidential Acceptance Speech “The era of big government is over.” — Bill Clinton, 1996 State of the Union Address An epic battle is coming and it doesn’t involve building a wall. We are at a paradigm-challenging … Read More