BY JIM HIGHTOWER It read like just another obituary written about someone who’d lived a very long time: “Doris Haddock died peacefully in her family home,” it began. “Born in 1910, she lived through two world wars and the Great Depression. She is survived by her son, eight grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.” Oh, and […]

BY SUSAN ESTRICH It was 30 years ago that we first put national health insurance in the Democratic Party platform. I was working for Ted Kennedy then. We had lost the nomination to Jimmy Carter, but both sides were still fighting. Whatever we were for, President Carter and his team were against. And we were […]

BY FROMA HARROP The lights must dim around Google’s data-storage centers every time someone does a search for “government bureaucrat coming between you and your doctor.” Foes of the Democrats’ health-reform proposals have been chanting this on the hour for a year – with a surge after Democrats put money for “comparative effectiveness research” in […]

BY SUSAN ESTRICH A year ago, David Axelrod, the president’s senior adviser, was a genius. A year ago, Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff, was a wizard. Axelrod was at President Obama’s side for the long campaign, managing the strategy that resulted in Obama’s victories over Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in the primaries, […]

BY ALEXANDER COCKBURN Are they really bumblers? The opinion columns quiver with reproofs for maladroit handling of foreign policy by President Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Those who cherished foolish illusions that Obama’s election presaged a substantive shift to the left in foreign policy fret about “worrisome signs” that this is not […]