Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid likes to reminisce about being an amateur boxer. But his Senate tenure has often looked like an endless rope-a-dope.
Obstruction takes time.
Confronting Republicans can definitely mobilize a disaffected Democratic base.
It's hard to be a national punch line unless lots of voters have soured on you.
Historically, the most favorably viewed figure in any administration is the first lady, regardless of her husband's popularity. That is largely because first ladies avoid the political fray and are ritualistically presented as a warm, human presence in the White House.
Obama won the presidency by running the first integrated three-screen campaign - reaching people directly via Internet, cell phones, and TV - with an authentic, complex style that resonated for voters sick of dark, deceitful, and divisive politics.
The modern GOP has perfected this cyclical deficit outrage ritual. Republicans run up the tab when they control the White House, then scream about deficits when Democrats win - insisting that 'serious reform' means cutting only Democratic budget priorities.
The Tea Party movement's economic agenda is a matter of emphasis, not exclusion. This is not a single-issue group.
Tea Party sympathizers are more conservative on abortion policy than typical Republicans.
Why do Tea Party backers oppose abortion at higher rates than their traditional GOP cohort? Religion.
Tea Party adherents are actually more religion-driven and more anti-abortion than the party they are supposedly upending.
Obama must scrutinize and disassemble the post-Sept. 11 imperial presidency, even if he reduces his own power in the process.
Obama can show that America's promise of equality not only means that anyone can reach the highest office in the land - it also means that everyone is equally subject to the law.
Obama's openness is a welcome change from his predecessor, who went all the way to the Supreme Court to hide the RSVP list for a single policy meeting. And transparency is intrinsically good, since in a democracy, very little government activity is legitimately secret.
A louder government with less journalism does not enrich our democratic process.
I got some experience appearing as a guest on several news channels, and I thought over the years I would be able to mix practicing law and writing with providing analysis on TV. I didn't know that would lead to a full-time opportunity that would take me away from my law practice. When MSNBC made me an offer to join, I jumped at it.
My job is to be accurate and clear.
Law and politics are often overly complicated because there are people that don't want the rest of us to know what's going on.
It always rankled me - in law school and the legal profession - when lawyers would speak to each other in their own exclusive language.
There are a lot of things that people learn and live through culture first, and politics comes afterward.
