Swampland

Our Chatty Cathy Congress

Karen Tumulty — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:34:01 +0000

Those of us former little girls of a certain age can remember a doll that we all had to have. She was called Chatty Cathy, and if you pulled a string in her neck, she would say things like "Please brush my hair" and "Let's have a party!" It turns out that Chatty Cathy and the [...]

Barack Obama: First Pacific President? Not exactly.

Michael Scherer — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:19:09 +0000

Singapore This phrase, "first Pacific president," is everywhere here among President Obama's senior staff. In Tokyo yesterday, Obama used it himself: As America's first Pacific President, I promise you that this Pacific nation will strengthen and sustain our leadership in this vitally important part of the world. It is another feather, the White House seems to suggest, in [...]

Klein vs. Frum on Israel vs. Iran

Joe Klein — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:27:17 +0000

My debate with David Frum on Bloggingheads. Not much to look at, but a good conversation.

Lobbying The Big Guy

Karen Tumulty — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:27:40 +0000

Okay, this is a new one on me. Our colleague Sophia Yan reports that public option advocates in Connecticut have come up with a new kind of lobbying: A group of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Unitarian Universalist clergy andmembers will be praying this Sunday evening for Senator Joe Lieberman to support passage of a public option. Senator [...]

1,000 Words: Overseas Edition

Karen Tumulty — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:06:14 +0000

From our photo gallery. Who's the man behind the mask?

Health Care Reform to Small Business: Friend of Foe?

Kate Pickert — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:35:32 +0000

Despite what you may have heard, there are some small business owners who support the Democrats' health care reform proposals - including the eight who signed their names to a Health Care for America Now press release that landed in my inbox today. (HCAN is a grassroots pro-reform group.) In my latest Time.com story, [...]

Video: Obama in Arlington

Jay Newton-Small — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:33:17 +0000

As Karen Tumulty noted on Thursday, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made a solemn visit to Arlington National Cemetary on Veterans Day. TIME photographer Christopher Morris recorded the below video from that day.

Latest Installment of Make 'em Filibuster

Karen Tumulty — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:19:46 +0000

As long-time readers of Swampland know, I am a big proponent of the filibuster. And I mean the Real Filibuster--not the make-believe ones that the little girls of the United States Senate are constantly waging, and not the occasional exercises where they pull out the fainting couches cots and pretend that they are actually going [...]

Oops. Guess Whose Health Insurance Covers Abortion?

Karen Tumulty — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:06:49 +0000

Or did, until Politico reported it. The Republican National Committee issued this statement late last night: News reports have revealed that the RNC's health plan dating back as far as 1991 may have included some coverage for elective abortion. Upon learning of this, Chairman Michael Steele instructed the RNC Director of Administration to opt the [...]

Asia trip? What Asia trip? Obama's Spokesman Parries Afghanistan Questions In The Air

Michael Scherer — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:28:46 +0000

Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska In an early sign of how President Obama's trip to Asia will likely go, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs came back to the press cabin on Air Force One Thursday to a torrent of questions that were not about the president's trip to Asia. “Can we start with Afghanistan, and [...]