Will Palin Choice Make Guns an Election Issue?

Attack!
Sharon Begley 8/15/2009 12:00:00 AM
If, this fall, proponents of health-care reform conduct a postmortem on how President Obama's signature issue went down to defeat—I'm not saying it will, but stick with me here—they will not be far off if they trace it to this summer's "great phrase face-off." From Obama, we got "bending the cost curve," his hope of slowing the rise in health-care spending. From Sarah Palin: "death panels." From Obama: "the status quo on health care...is threatening the financial stability of families, of businesses, and of government." From GOP strategist Frank Luntz and his clients: some bureaucrat will put himself "between you and your doctor, denying you exactly what you need." From Obama: "If you like your health-care plan, you can keep" it. From GOP Sen. Jon Kyl: "Imagine needing a new hip that will make it easier to get around, but just because you're over 75, the government denies you that surgery." Not to mention Republican Rep. Lamar Smith's assertion that the Democrats' bill "contains gaping loopholes that will allow illegal immigrants to receive taxpayer-funded benefits." And then there was that sign greeting President Obama outside an August town-hall meeting in New Hampshire: Obama lies, grandma dies.
In Bill O'Reilly's Sights
Rick Perlstein 7/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
Last week I was greeted with an uncomfortable curiosity: a brace of hate mail in my inbox, received within a 20-minute span. The first came at 7:26: "You are an uneducated writer! You need to get your fact straight! You are a liberal bastard! You need to get informed!" All arguable propositions, perhaps, but that still left the question: why was this person realizing that precisely now, and why, two minutes later, did "Dr. Anthony" feel moved to inform me, "I've noticed a trend that left-wing extremists tend to be exceedingly ugly & perverse. Living with that ugliness & deviance seems to lead to an aberration of thought as well. I am attempting to formulate the correlation..."
Letters to the Editor
7/18/2009 12:00:00 AM
Beyond the Palin
Rick Perlstein 7/10/2009 12:00:00 AM
The conservative opinion elite is divided—irreconcilably so—about Sarah Palin's decision to quit the Alaska governorship. One faction says good riddance: The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer had already judged her unfit for national office 24 hours before her announcement, and The New York Times's Ross Douthat now refers to her "brief sojourn on the national stage" in the past tense. On the other side, the Post's William Kristol called Palin's quitting a "high-risk move" designed to catapult her to greater public prominence. Taking the longer view, though, the clash is symptomatic of the deepest strategic debate in Republican circles since the disciples of the Reagan revolution captured Congress in 1994.
the dignity index
The Biggest Losers
12/20/2008 12:00:00 AM
When Celebs Take Charge
Sameer Reddy 12/19/2008 12:00:00 AM
The news that Caroline Kennedy is formally seeking to fill Hillary Clinton's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat surprised many, but given the recent celebritization of the political process, it makes perfect sense. Armed with the most iconic moniker in American political life, the logic is that she'll be able to attract attention to the state of New York and meet her own fundraising needs (as well as presumably helping out Gov. David Patterson with his.) The most striking aspect about her increasingly attractive candidacy, however, is that if she ascended to office, the greatest story ever told in American politics would begin a new chapter, as the spark of Camelot came alive once again.