My former professor Tom Patterson has published an edited version of the Mueller report for those who don’t have time to read the whole thing. It’s relatively inexpensive and brief (121 pages), and proceeds are being used to purchase social media ads to bring the findings of the report to a wide audience. You can purchase the book here. 

You can be forgiven for missing it, but this week the House of Representatives officially began an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. Democratic leaders will try to avoid putting labels on what’s happening to protect wary members from Trump districts, but make no mistake: Democrats just fired up the impeachment machinery and we are moving down a path toward what … Read More

During my time in Washington last month, I had the opportunity to ask an informed observer of the political scene if 2020 is shaping up to be a change election, along the lines of 2008, 2010, 2016 and 2018. He equivocated. Given how early it is, I couldn’t blame him. In hindsight, though, I may have asked the wrong question. … Read More

Yes it’s early, but the Biden campaign is on a troublesome trajectory for reasons that stretch beyond how Kamala Harris dominated Biden in the first debate. I wrote recently that Biden’s debate performance undermined his carefully constructed aura of inevitability and damaged his claim that he is the best Democrat to take on Donald Trump. But his troubles run deeper … Read More

Ronald Reagan was unelectable in 1980. Way out of the mainstream, a product of the same conservative movement responsible for the Goldwater debacle sixteen years earlier. Dangerously trigger-happy while the Cold War was still raging. The public will never accept him. Jimmy Carter couldn’t wait to run against him. Bill Clinton was unelectable in 1992. Way too much baggage. He … Read More

So much has been written about this past week’s two-day overhyped marathon Democratic presidential debate that it’s difficult to add anything new or original. We’re already seeing early data that reaffirms initial social media reactions about winners and losers, namely that Elizabeth Warren impressed on Wednesday, Kamala Harris dominated on Thursday, Julián Castro enhanced his profile a lot, Corey Booker … Read More

Something interesting and potentially telling is happening in the Democratic presidential contest. While Joe Biden predictably experiences post-announcement regression in his polling, and while other headline candidates remain flat, Elizabeth Warren is undergoing a steady rise toward the top of an uber-crowded field. Recent polling shows her inching up to second place in some national and key state polls, ahead … Read More

I’m back from my annual three-week Washington program, where each year I have a chance to meet with public officials and take the temperature of politics inside the Beltway. The most striking thing about DC this spring is how the breakdown of political consensus has paralyzed both parties at a time when we most need them to push back against … Read More

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