Our illustrious (cough, cough) White House press corps showed it could get to the bottom of a story with impressively journalistic and probative skills this week. The story that so obviously required multiple questions to President Obama on his trip to Asia? Whether he's eating enough, and whether he's losing weight. Oh, and his gray hair. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Somebody, obviously bored on the excruciatingly long plane ride, decided they'd float the rumor that Obama was s...

There was an absolute prime, Grade-A example of media cluelessness this week which is still unfolding, much to my bemusement, so I thought I'd start by pointing it out. Nothing to perk everyone up like a little well-deserved media-bashing, eh? I speak of the resignation of White House Counsel Robert Bauer. When his resignation was announced, there was a flurry of media speculation as to why he was stepping down. Showing their always-astounding ability to add together two and two... and come ...

I will explain that silly subtitle in a moment, but first we've got to delve even deeper into rampant silliness. If such silliness and unseriousness does not appeal to you, then I strongly suggest you skip down and begin reading with this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award. Consider yourselves warned. This column today celebrates a milestone -- triple digits on the odometer! That's right, as hard as it may seem to believe, this is the one hundredth volume of your weekly Friday...

Happy Samhain, everyone, if that isn't an inherent oxymoron. For those of you who expected (and were, of course, waiting for with bated breath... what the Hell is bated breath, by the way?) Volume 100 of my weekly Friday Talking Points column, I will begin your Hallowe'en weekend by dashing your hopes on the rocks below (bartender!... another one of these... on the rocks, of course), and by telling you you're going to have to wait another week for this auspicious and historical event... because...

When a stage magician makes a flourish, causing a puff of smoke and a flash of light to appear, there's a reason for it. It is called "misdirection." It is meant to dazzle the audience with a shiny object, so that they don't notice what is going on elsewhere on the stage, or perhaps even in the magician's other hand. It is an effective technique, so effective that it is the basis for most stage magic tricks. And there's a huge story that's sucking up a lot of oxygen from the inside-the-Beltw...

I have to admit before I begin that I don't watch cable television "news" during the day, because I consider it largely to be a waste of my valuable time. Which, I have to say, the whole "balloon boy" episode proved beyond any reasonable shadow of a doubt. The cable media apparently went wall-to-wall on the story, breathlessly awaiting a development which would lead into one of their off-the-shelf well-worn storylines. It really didn't matter to them what the outcome was -- "Boy saved! It's ...

In a surprising turn of events today, the Nobel committee awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize to "Not George W. Bush." The chairman of the committee was quoted saying, "Lordy, Lordy, we were so happy to see the United States run by someone who wasn't George W. Bush -- even for eleven days -- that there simply was no other choice than to award 'Not George W. Bush' the prize unanimously." OK, seriously, President Obama's new award should be seen as a giant thumb in the eye to Bush -- the third...

First, let's get rid of the distractions this week. Chicago will not be getting the Olympics in 2016, even after President Obama went over to Copenhagen on a personal charm offensive. While I think Rio is a good choice, personally (come on -- it's not just Rio's first Olympics, or Brazil's first Olympics, it is South America's first Olympics -- this is supposed to be a worldwide event, and yet Africa and South America have never hosted), I also think the cheap shots will be flying from Republi...

"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party." Of course, this really should be (in today's inclusive society): "Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party." But what it really should say is something more like: "Now is the time for all good men and women to pick up the phone and give their party representative an earful about what it actually means to be a member of that party, and that we actually expect them to stand up and vote for what ...

How time flies. This column marks its second anniversary today, by the calendar if not the Volume number. For the second straight year, we only produced 47 columns, but by the calendar we've gone two full years and a few odd days. Actually, now that I think of it, more than just a few odd days. Ahem. For those wishing to see the humble origins of this column, check out , from September 14, 2007 (it was called "Memo To Democrats: Talking Points," and then for a while, "Friday Democratic Talk...

This column (surprisingly, from that title) is devoted almost entirely to President Obama's speech on healthcare reform to a joint session of Congress this week. But before we get to the good and the bad in Obama's speech, we've got to at least mention the Joe Wilson fracas. The title is actually from of a Talking Heads song ("Walk It Down," from the Little Creatures album): I . . . I . . . I . . . I turn up the radio Lies, lies and propaganda I . . . gonna tell you what I need Life, life, w...

There's a scene in an episode of the television show The West Wing where the fictional President Bartlet is meeting with a group of elementary schoolchildren. An adorable little girl gets to ask him the first question, which is: "What is your most favorite part of being president?" Bartlet answers: "I'm doing it right now," and kisses the girl on the forehead. Of course, Bartlet wouldn't have had to face accusations of "President gives Kiss of Death!" from lunatic opponents the next day. Bec...

Republicans, masters of chutzpah that they are, have launched a against "politicizing" Senator Edward Kennedy's funeral with unseemly Democratic ideals. This should be so ridiculous as to endanger Americans' health from side-splitting laughter, but (Democrats being Democrats) it might just work. A quick recent history of political funerals is in order here. I was shocked, after Richard Nixon died, that the commentary was so respectful. Lots of "elder statesman" talk, very little talk of "on...

President Obama stunned the political world today by announcing he will switch political parties, and soon become a Republican. "It seems the only way we're going to get bipartisanship in this town is if I lead the way," he said, in brief remarks before leaving for vacation. "The Republicans have refused to work with me because I'm a Democrat, and Republicans' biggest strength has always been the ability to fall into line with whatever their leaders tell them, unlike other certain unnamed poli...

The healthcare reform fracas has gotten so bad, it has forced some in the media to actually do their jobs. This statement will come as a shock to anyone who has become accustomed to the way these soi-disant "journalists" present just about any issue these days -- by having a center-left politician and a hard-right politician on to "debate," and then fanning the flames by refusing to referee and provide actual facts to the discussion. But I think now (maybe) the "journalists" have finally gotte...

I thought about titling today's column "Sausage Making, Interrupted" in (dis-)honor of the House of Representatives scarpering off on a five-week vacation without finishing their work on healthcare reform (the Senate, it should be noted, is reportedly planning on doing exactly the same thing next week, to their equal shame). Then I thought I'd riff on the old doctor joke: "The operation was a success... the patient died on the table, though." But when I sat down to write, I decided I was sick ...

Before I begin with the serious stuff, I'd like to indulge in a little gratuitous media-bashing first. If that sort of thing isn't your cup of tea, just skip to the next section now. You have been warned. A few weeks ago, because of firing Dan Froomkin and selling access to their reporters and in general for their op-ed priorities, I the Washington Post had reduced itself, in terms of being a trustworthy outlet for news, to a cartoon (Tom Toles' editorial cartoons, to be exact -- about the o...

Much to the dismay of just about everyone who breathlessly follows politics, the Senate hearings on the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor turned out to be mostly a snoozer. Web sites (left and right) were liveblogging and Twittering like crazy all week, and the upshot was: "It's a foregone conclusion, she will be confirmed." Which everyone knew already, at the beginning of the week. But it didn't stop the breathlessness online. The only real question in the hearings was how large a foot Republ...

"Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends..." All week long, this line has been running through my head. It's from an Emerson, Lake, and Palmer suite of songs called "Karn Evil 9," from the album . Which, of course, has an album cover designed by H.R. Giger, the same guy who did the artwork (and designed the monster) for the movie Alien (looking at the album cover or the album sleeve, it's easy to see the similarities). This past week was chock full (in the media sideshow, at le...

What separates humans from animals can be summed up as one simple thing -- the mastery of fire. Even "using tools" doesn't cut it anymore, as apes have been shown to use their own tools to achieve their own modest goals. When you get right down to it, the sole dividing line between us and the other creatures which crawl this planet can be drawn at the mastery of fire. Animals are still scared of fire. Humans, now, are not. This may sound like a strange beginning to my annual Independence Da...

It's been a crazy rollercoaster of a week, and at the end of it, California can proudly state that not only do we no longer have the most embarrassing governor in the country, we are not even in the top three anymore! With the antics of Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer, and (now) Mark Sanford, we've slipped into fourth place in the state comedians look to for jokes. Or course, some might argue that Spitzer doesn't belong in that category since he's no longer governor of New York, but then the gu...

Welcome back to your weekly Friday Talking Points roundup. This week will be a bit unusual, as instead of the normal list of talking points Democrats everywhere should be using this weekend in conversations (especially with the media), I'm devoting the entire talking points segment to one single issue -- why what President Obama is doing on the situation in Iran is exactly the right thing to do, and why his hands are tied (by the ropes of American history) so that saying anything more enthusias...

That subtitle can be taken two different ways. To be absolutely clear, I meant it in both interpretations. In fact, it is so exasperating that I feel a rather longish rant coming on (relatively speaking -- which makes "longish" even more intimidating, coming as it is from me). Just to warn everyone, up front. But back to the subtitle. The first way it can be taken is, of course: "Where are the Democrats on healthcare reform?" And the second is: "Where are the Democrats on healthcare reform...

This will be a truncated column this week (which doesn't mean it isn't also a fairly long one). Because every so often I have to devote the entire week's roundup to examining a single speech. And President Barack Hussein Obama's speech to the Muslim world which he just gave in Cairo is important enough to examine without other distractions. Which means no "most impressive" or "most disappointing" awards this week, sorry. No Democrat really stood out as being overly impressive or disappointin...

"Judicial activism" (or, alternatively, "legislating from the bench") is defined -- no matter what your political beliefs -- as "judges not ruling the way I want them to." It's an inherently partisan statement to make, even if it doesn't sound like it. If you are a Republican, using the term means courts ruling for things you don't like. Same for Democrats. The irony is that while the charge is leveled in order to prove some sort of bias or prejudice in a judicial candidate or judge, the onl...

President Obama and the congressional Democrats just had their first spat. While others have more-than-adequately delved into the fracas of Obama's national security speech and Harry Reid stripping out funding to close Guantanamo, what I was struck by this week was how Obama is better defining his character as president. This is going to be important later this year, when energy plans and health care reform legislation become protracted fights in Congress. And I was beginning to get a little ...

I have to start by saying that in all honesty, President Obama and the Democrats didn't have a great week. Obama started the week out by cracking a few jokes at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, which was actually pretty funny (as even just of his remarks shows). Then, early in the week, Obama held a photo op with the heads of the health care industry, where there were smiles all around as they announced the industry would be voluntarily cutting back their growth (not their absolute siz...

I realize that, as a political blogger, I am supposed to be talking about President Barack Obama's preferences in cheeseburgers today. Sigh. The "What kind of mustard?!?" debate (which followed the intense "Medium-well?!?" debate -- I wish I were kidding about this, I really do) among the right wing of the blogosphere is no doubt historically important (right up there with George H.W. Bush's aversion to broccoli), but I would instead like to talk about something a little more serious today. ...

First off, happy May Day to everyone! OK, with that out of the way, we must (sadly) turn our eyes to the Republican Party. Because they appear to be losing all touch with reality, so it's best to keep an eye on them at this point. For starters, they are calling a special Republican National Committee meeting in the next month to vote on (as if they could) forcing their opposition to change their name to what is variously described as the "Socialist Democratic Party" or the "Democratic Sociali...

I admit, I am getting the jump on the rest of the media here, by writing my "First 100 Days" article six days early (some would say five days early, but they would be wrong). I have jumped this particular gun already, I should point out, having already written one article (after Obama's first week in office) entitled So today we are going to pre-empt the usual Friday Talking Points article this week with a special edition on President Obama's "First 100 Days," since everyone will be talking a...