Steve Benen

As expected, President Obama’s re-election campaign unveiled its first television ad of the year yesterday. There’s been some chatter about whether it’s too early for such a step, but I don’t buy it — if Obama for America has the resources, there’s no reason not to start getting the message out. The president’s Republican rivals […]

As if we needed another reason to question why Iowa is always allowed to go first, it turns out Republicans in the Hawkeye State didn’t quite get the results of their caucuses right the first time. There are too many holes in the certified totals from the Iowa caucuses to know for certain who won, […]

In September, Rick Perry entered the Republican presidential race to significant fanfare. Finally, conservatives thought, they had a credible alternative they could trust, and who could save the party from a Mitt Romney nomination. The Texas governor was, as was widely discussed at the time, the “savior candidate” the GOP had been waiting for. After […]

The general trend on initial unemployment claims over the last two months has been largely encouraging, though there have been setbacks. Last week, for example, was a step in the wrong direction. This week’s report, however, was a very pleasant surprise. Initial claims not only dropped sharply, they fell to a level unseen in nearly […]

With Mitt Romney still refusing to release his tax returns, we can only speculate as to why he’s so afraid of disclosure. The widely held assumption has been that the Republican frontrunner is embarrassed by his “15% problem” — the multi-millionaire takes advantage of existing tax loopholes to pay lower tax rates than millions of […]

Today’s edition of quick hits: * The International Monetary Fund is “seeking to boost its war chest by $600 billion to help countries reeling from the crisis, even though some nations insist Europe must first do more to support ailing members, according to sources.” * U.S. manufacturing: “A healthy pickup in production of manufactured goods […]

Reader J.J. passes along an interesting tidbit from Gloria Borger’s latest column for CNN: Imagine my surprise when, in the CNN/ORC International Poll out last week, Republicans rated Romney as the person best able to handle health care. Wow. A vote of confidence for the man who supported a plan with mandates in Massachusetts? It’s […]

There would appear to be a contradiction in the polls. On the one hand, Americans continue to be deeply unsatisfied with the state of the economy. On the other, President Obama’s approval rating has been pretty stable in the mid- to high-40s. The key to understanding this is simple — most folks still don’t blame […]

In the wake of his concession yesterday that he pays a lower tax rate than much of the American middle class, Mitt Romney has renewed discussion about his “15% problem.” As Alec MacGillis put it, “The country is going to spend much of the next year talking taxes. And leading one side of the debate […]

The Keystone XL oil pipeline has become a major source of partisan wrangling. The project would stretch from Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas, posing major environmental risks that made the pipeline deeply controversial. As of today, the Obama administration has scuttled the pipeline. The Obama administration was poised on Wednesday […]