History is written by the whiners Is there any hope for the Stimulus? More than seven years after the Recovery Act became law it’s clear to economists that the law improved and possibly saved the economy. But — despite the Herculean or Sisyphean efforts of Mike Grunwald — most people still have no idea what it did. There’s no Hoover […]

The following essay was written by Mitchell Robinson and is cross-posted on his most-excellent blog at MitchellRobinson.net. Robinson is associate professor and chair of music education, and coordinator of the music student teaching program at Michigan State University. Follow Mitchell on Twitter at @mrobmsu. His essay is reposted here with permission. Enjoy. The news was shocking in its incongruence and […]

If you’ve been following the Democratic primary closely, it probably seems pretty ugly to you. Charges laced with must-Google terms like “Superpredator,” “mass incarceration” and “productivity’s relationship to GDP” touch on real divisions on policy and a reckoning on race necessary to move the progressive movement forward. While discussions about uterus ownership and “Bernie Bros” suggest to me the overblown […]

There’s a court case lingering over the presidential election that could explode in the next few months, and it’s probably not the one you’re thinking of. Yahoo‘s Michael Isikoff reports: This spring, just as the GOP nomination battle enters its final phase, frontrunner Donald Trump could be forced to take time out for some unwanted personal business: He’s due to […]

Yesterday I explained why billion-dollar baby Donald Trump’s boast that he will win Michigan makes almost no sense. Strategist and pontificater Dana Houle added another key point: Michigan has the largest Muslim population of any state. George W. Bush won the Muslim vote in 2000 while losing the state and that population has only grown since then. And Muslim-Americans probably […]

Michigan has been poisoned by this act before On CNN’s State of the Nation, Donald Trump picked New York and Michigan as two blue states as he’ll have a chance of winning if the Republican Party’s immune system continues to fail and the party nominates the most unpopular candidate in recent American history. Trump spoke in Grand Rapids last year […]

My friend Jason Karsh, a writer and political strategist, spent the past week documenting the Nevada Democratic Caucus with his camera. He offered up his view of the event in this photo essay of the week leading up to (and including) Caucus Day. Enjoy.

Author and entrepreneur Seth Godin says he credits his many successes to his abundance of failures. This concept helps me understand Bill Clinton — who talks more and has accomplished more than most any other human being alive. But despite leading us through eight years of general peace and prosperity where 22 million jobs were created, his record is defined […]

It’s all about boosting the ego of white guys who thought they’d do better with their lives It’s almost forgotten history that at this point in the 2012 election, Rick Santorum was leading Mitt Romney in the national polls. The former Senator and spokesman for homophobia could have taken the delegate lead by defeating Mitt here in Michigan. But then […]

A few words from the legendary Democratic strategist on the fate of healthcare reform in this election. When you’re offered a few minutes to speak with someone like Jim Messina, you take it. As campaign manager for Obama 2012, Messina is considered the mastermind behind President Obama’s 2012 re-election. He also served as Deputy Chief of Staff for President Obama […]

It’s time to start giving Donald Trump some credit. The billion-dollar baby deftly figured out that the GOP has the immune system of an earthworm. The party’s warring factions, weak leadership and corruption of the campaign finance system have made it ripe for a parasite to infect and capture its host’s brain while it’s still praying for Jeb Bush to […]