This week, outgoing Congressman Beto O’Rourke said he would not rule out running for president in 2020. While a tantalizing prospect, should Beto run, he may be missing an opportunity to build something else far more powerful in the long run.... To continue reading this article, ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 30, 2018

Note: the following is the second in an ongoing series about the sexism problem on the left. To read the first of these pieces, click here.  I’ve been dissatisfied with Bernie Sanders’ supporters since he announced his campaign back in June of 2015, not because I was angry that ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Washington, DC is not a popular place.  That's not really new.  For years I have been told that people "inside the beltway" are disconnected from the ordinary, hard working Americans that live outside of it.  New polling data released this week shows Congress' approval rating ...read more

• By Alyson Chadwick
  Nov 9, 2018

In an astonishing segment on his show, Bill O'Reilly goes on a rant about 'far Left' elements in America that can only be described as an epic bout of cognitive dissonance. The segment starts with O'Reilly plays a clip of himself pre-election stating that: "20 years ago, ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Feb 18, 2016

As most of our readers know, I'm squarely in the Obama camp for the Presidential election. This isn't because I agree with everything he has done or pledges to do in office - far from it - Obama has disappointed me on many, many issues to the point where my defense of him has ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Feb 18, 2016

Steve Clemons looks at the data and concludes one thing: Republicans love debt a whole lot more than the Democrats: As the debates on who is responsible for the levels of federal debt continue to play out in the next 10 days before the election and the 66 days before the US ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Feb 18, 2016

By Ben Cohen: Romney campaign co-chairman John Sununu told CNN's Piers Morgan on Thursday night that Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama not because of his policies, but because Obama was somebody of Powell's 'own race'. Sununu served as the 75th Governor of New ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

[liveblog]Ok, we're off to a ripping start. Obama goes on the attack immediately accusing Romney of being completely out of touch with reality. He accuses Romney of thinking the biggest geo political threat is Russia! He then lambasts him for being wrong 'every single time' ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Michael Tomasky on what the President needs to bear in mind when he goes into the debate with Romney tonight: I hope that someone can say to him, “Mr. President, 70 million or more Americans are counting on you. They voted for you, they’re planning on voting for you again, and ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Feb 18, 2016

After several days of doing research, interviewing sources and writing up the two pieces we put out on Mitt Romney's hidden fortune (part 1 here, and part 2 here), we received a fair amount of traffic on the site. The two pieces we put out generated in excess of 3000 views ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Politicians today could learn a thing or two from JFK. In this excellent speech, the 35th President of the United States lays out a forceful defense of government and its positive role in society: This is what we need to hear from Obama in the next debate. The poll numbers are ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

The latest from Gallup: The polling is still not quite settled, but there does appear to be a trend favoring Romney at the moment - and this should cause Obama to take note. Writes Nate Silver: That’s an awful lot to accomplish in one night, especially considering that Mr. ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

In a thoughtful piece about the choice Americans have this election, Gary Younge concludes that despite Obama's many flaws, a vote for Romney leads to quantifiably worse outcomes: Insisting it makes no difference who wins is not tenable. Last year Chelsea Shinneman of Roanoke, ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Nate Silver's latest projections if the election was held today (blue is Obama, red, Romney): We've still got the debates to come, the economy could go into free fall, and Obama could make a catastrophic error, but it seems highly unlikely Romney will be able to pull back from ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

I'm still annoyed that Keith Olbermann's gigantic ego destroyed his own career - he'd be extremely useful right now in piling on the Republicans, and he really only has himself to blame. Despite his flaws as a person, he was a voice of sanity in the corporate media and routinely ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Feb 18, 2016

Welcome to this week's edition of The Daily Banter Mail Bag! Today we talk about boycotting Chick-Fil-A, whether it's acceptable not to vote for Obama this fall if you're a Democrat, and whether Romney is as bad as George W. Bush as a Presidential candidate. The questions:I ...read more

• By Guest Contributor
  Nov 9, 2018

By Ben Cohen: I'm sure lots of outlets will be doing similar lists of the late iconic Gore Vidal's best quotes, but I thought I'd chime in with my own as there are plenty to choose from. Here are the ones I believe capture the genius of the man who stands as one of the most ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

President Obama dropped his planned campaign speech in Florida over the weekend and instead held a moment of silence for the victims of the Aurora, Colorado shootings. Said the President: "And if there's anything to take away from this tragedy it's the reminder that life is ...read more

• By Guest Contributor
  Nov 9, 2018

You have to give credit where credit is due, and at a town hall meeting in Ohio on Tuesday, Romney was asked a question by a woman who called Obama “a monster.” Amazingly (for Romney at least) he didn't wait for any polls to come out before he responded. “That’s not the term I ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

I know, I know, the people responsible for running Barack Obama's media campaign are the same people who sell you Pepsi, but the new campaign video is actually pretty good (and accurate): I've been wondering about this whole 'retro actively' retired business for a couple of ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

By Chez Pazienza: There's an old saying that I'm a big fan of: Never try to teach a pig to sing -- it wastes your time and annoys the pig. I think of this every time I get the urge to lash out at Fox News for some irresponsible, grossly unethical thing or other that the network ...read more

• By Chez Pazienza
  Nov 9, 2018

Joe Klein on team Romney's extraordinary efforts to stop reporters talking to him: Mitt Romney is clearly a candidate terrified by his own mouth. What other explanation for his campaign’s extreme efforts to prevent reporters from asking him questions? I know that there isn’t ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Bob Cesca hammers home the point: Everyone with a realistic view of the the Obama administration knows what's what — for better or worse. At this stage in the proceedings, with another pivotal election around the corner, there's nothing wrong (and everything right) with making ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Matt Taibbi on the hidden election this year: In the wake of the Tea Party, the Occupy movement, and a dozen or more episodes of real rebellion on the streets, in the legislatures of cities and towns, and in state and federal courthouses, this presidential race now feels ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

A Treasury department graph highlighting the debt under Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton and Obama (via Bob Cesca): Of course this graph is a reflection of reality and the Republicans aren't really interested in that. The Republican line states that Obama started two foreign wars while ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Bob Cesca on the alternate universe created by the Republican Party: Their ability to shape their own reality -- to blame the president for the entire recession while simultaneously rigging the game against the recovery is unprecedented in American political history. It's ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

If you are a liberal dissatisfied with President Obama and are threatening not to vote for him in 2012, just watch this video from last night's Republican debate where Ron Paul was asked whether he thought someone without health insurance should be left to die. Paul waxed lyrcial ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

This is a snippet from President Obama's Labor Day speech in Detroit in front of an audience of blue collar workers: Judging by the rhetoric, it would seem that Thursday's speech about job creation might actually involve something substantial. There will no doubt be the usual ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Yes, it has really come to that. The Republican party is now so extreme that George Bush would be considered a liberal in the current Presidential field. Michael Tomasky draws a comparison: Bush—and it leaves me speechless that he’s starting to look reasonable by comparison ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

There's much talk of Obama not having the numbers to get a second term, but according to history, it's just that - talk. Here's an interesting chart looking at previous President's gallup ratings and whether they got a second term (via Andrew Sullivan): According to history at ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Image by BlueRobot via Flickr A couple of years ago I made a decision to ignore arguments coming from the establishment Right. So far removed from reality, it seemed pointless to engage with people who didn't believe in evolution, thought Obama was a Muslim terrorists and ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

NewsHounds debunks Sean Hannity's assertion that Birtherism wasn't his 'issue': Sean Hannity’s Great American Panel unanimously and emphatically broke ranks with Hannity last night (6/29/11) as each panelist agreed that Donald Trump’s birtherism was offensive and racist. ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Matt Taibbi takes conservative NYTimes columnist Ross Douthat to task for his recent transformation from war hawk to pacifist: The recent conversions to the cause of foreign-policy prudence by people like Douthat would be obnoxious even if they were believable. It’s easy to ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Image via Wikipedia I have been sympathetic to Cornel West and his recent brutal assessment of President Obama, but I can also sympathize with those who found his attacks to be unproductive and unfair. Writes Ta-Nehesi Coates: Both are afflicted with a species of blindness, and ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

In a scathing interview with Chris Hedges, Princeton Professor and one time Obama campaigner Cornell West tears into Barack Obama for what he sees as a political and personal betrayal on every conceivable level: "It became very clear to me as the announcements were being made,” ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018