Ruth Marcus: What slacker nation?
"We're dismayed at the injustice that nearly half of all Americans don't even pay any income tax."
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Career politicians -- we need them
The marvelous paradox of politics is that it is the only field in which lack of experience is considered a job qualification. Or, conversely, in which extensive experience is cited as a negative.
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Trying might not be enough
The word clouds tell the story — and illustrate the challenges ahead for both sides.
View ArticleRuth Marcus: 'Yes we can' go Washington
Liberals are elated that President Obama is finally primed for a fight. Conservatives are happy to take up the chant of "class warfare."
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Back to the birth certificate
Rick Perry should have backed off. Instead, he doubled down, and in a way that was doubly illuminating — about Perry himself and the degraded state of modern politics.
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Hope and change, meet fear and loathing
Forget hope and change. President Obama's re-election campaign is going to be based on fear and loathing: fear of what a Republican takeover would mean, and loathing of whomever the Republican nominee...
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Gingrich would shred the law
In Newt Gingrich's America, states that balked at desegregating their schools could have ignored the Supreme Court with impunity.
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Keep an eye on this wild card
For all the roller-coaster tumultuousness of the primary season, the general election promises another strange jolt: the likely presence on the ballot in all 50 states of a third-party nominee —...
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Mitt Romney's skewed priorities
"I'm concerned about the poor in this country," Mitt Romney said the other day. "We have to make sure the safety net is strong and able to help those who can't help themselves."
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Is Arizona turning purple?
PHOENIX — Presidential travel, especially in an election year, offers an insight into the favored electoral road map. So it is no surprise that President Obama's post-State of the Union schedule...
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Rick Santorum's choice to run
The stories about Rick Santorum — to be precise, the stories about Rick Santorum's 3-year-old daughter — tiptoe around the issue with all deliberate delicacy:
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Color the Democrats purple
Far more Americans favor Democrats over Republicans. For decades, the number of Americans identifying as Democrats or calling themselves independent but leaning Democratic has far exceeded the share of...
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Lasting damage for Romney
The tedious fable of the Republican primaries, "The Tortoise and the Hares," is limping toward its predictable close. But if "fear the turtle" turned out to be wise advice for Mitt Romney's Republican...
View ArticleRuth Marcus: 2016: A political odyssey
Enough about the 2012 election already. Let's talk 2016, which promises to be far more interesting — and consequential.
View ArticleRuth Marcus: One job Romney can't outsource
Outsourcing the job to his wife isn't going to solve Mitt Romney's problem with women voters.
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Campaign 2012 — that empty feeling
Maybe it's a hangover — metaphorical, not literal — from the partying of White House Correspondents' Association dinner weekend, but this is feeling like the most vacuous presidential campaign in memory.
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Obama finally gets it right on gay marriage
WASHINGTON — I wrote earlier this week that same-sex marriage had turned into a test of character and leadership for President Obama. With his Wednesday interview, the president passed the test, saying...
View ArticleRuth Marcus: From parents, a lesson learned
You have to wonder what George and Lenore Romney would have made of their son the candidate.
View ArticleRuth Marcus: Nudge government run amok
Judging the wisdom of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on super-size sugary sodas depends on where you draw the line between nudge government and noodge government.
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