Michael Kinsley, a contributing editor and alumnus of this magazine, once famously wrote that a political “gaffe” occurs when a politician accidentally tells the truth. You’re not supposed to look askance at Iowa, even to New Hampshireites. This is what Nikki Haley did when she dared to remind New Hampshire primary voters that they tend […]
Chris Matthews
Chris Matthews has worked as a political aide, author, broadcast host, and journalist. He is the author of This Country: My Life in Politics and History and Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked. He is a senior fellow at The Charles F. Kettering Foundation.
Posted inPolitics
Democratic Rights Are the Issue
Biden should campaign on democratic rights because Americans don’t want rights snatched from them like what happened with abortion.
Posted inPolitics
McCarthy, Biden, and the Washington Snub
The House Speaker is reportedly still angry over a two-year-old incident with the president. It reminds anthropologists studying capital culture that real or perceived slights can drive policy and politics.
Posted inJanuary/February/March 2023
The Plumbers Who Couldn’t Fix a Leak
For me, the puzzle of Watergate is why Richard Nixon, who wasn’t responsible for the Democratic National Committee break-in, decided to lead the cover-up just days after the burglary undertaken by a band of White House–led dirty tricksters known as “the Plumbers.” What made the president order the CIA to shut down the FBI probe […]
Posted inBooks
Patrick Leahy’s Long and Winding Road
At 83, the Vermonter is retiring after 48 years in the U.S. Senate, and in his new memoir, he somehow finds hope for the chamber—and the country.
Posted inPolitics
On Abortion, Trump Told Me Women Have to Face “Punishment”
I asked him on Hardball how he’d enforce his opposition to abortion rights. He put the onus on women and explicitly absolved men.
Posted inPolitics
Memo to Democrats: Tie Putin to Trump
The carnage in Ukraine must be laid at the former president’s doorstep.
Posted inPolitics
January 6th and the Heroism of the Concession Speech
I’ve seen politics as a U.S. Capitol Police officer, a speechwriter, and a journalist. On this sad anniversary, here is a sober look at what Trump wrought.
Posted inFeatured, Political Animal, Politics
Jimmy Carter’s Lessons in Healing
How the former president took political risks to repair the country after Vietnam.
Posted inFeatured, Political Animal, Politics
What the Vietnamese Will Ask Kamala Harris When She Visits
Lecturing in Ho Chi Minh City recently, I learned how urgently bright young people there want to understand what’s happening here. Their future may depend on it.
