Washington Examiner Political Editor Chris Stirewalt, who coordinates political coverage for the newspaper and ExaminerPolitics.com in addition to writing a twice-weekly column and
regular blog posts.
It's Democrats who are facing the most trouble in Tuesday's primaries. Sen. Arlen Specter is in a serious jam in Pennsylvania, and Sen. Blanche Lincoln had to move left and spend big to hold off a challenge in Arkansas.
But while there is no Republican incumbent candidate at risk, one of the GOP's incumbent ideas -- support for the occupation of Afghanistan -- is headed for a fall.
An old-fashioned whupping is shaping up in Kentucky, and Afghanistan helped stir it up.
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It's not just health care and the economy that President Obama believes are in need of more central control from Washington.
Obama is also working overtime to make the Democratic Party a command political economy.
This week, Ohio Democrats picked Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher to be their nominee for Senate. Fisher, who since 1981 has been rotating through elected offices and appointments to little effect other than his own incremental advancement, delivered an 11-point drubbing to Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.
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New York Times — Policy Makers Seek to Calm Markets as Slide Continues Confused trading, a typo on a sell order, several electronic safeguards intended to prevent utter calamity on Wall Street, and a whole lot of surly Greeks contributed to a day that saw the Dow Jones swing almost 1,000 points down before skittering to a close at a scant 350-point loss.
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Editorial writer Mark Hemingway points us to a story that shows how dreadful the state of debate on immigration has become.
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New York Post -- Bomb suspect busted at JFK
That lanky white dude who changed his shirt in Times Square is regretting his sketchy appearance today. New York and federal authorities -- after starting a national manhunt for the possible “lone wolf” bomber caught on security video near the green Pathfinder loaded with gasoline cans and propane tanks -- have arrested a native Pakistani and are exploring potential ties to overseas Islamist terror groups.
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Washington Post -- As oil spill hits Louisiana coast, critics assail Obama's offshore drilling plan
President Obama’s new policy on offshore drilling was actually more notable for the areas of the continental shelf it closed to exploration than for what it made available and none of areas for which he lifted his self-imposed moratorium will be pumping anything for two years.
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Peter Wallison -- Taxpayers and the Dodd Bill
In the perverse scorekeeping of Washington, the fact that 41 Republicans will vote to block the Dodd bank bill from advancing today actually means that there is more likelihood of a bipartisan deal.
If there were a real ideological chasm here, a filibuster would mean a no go, as it did on Obamacare in the Senate.
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Public employee unions are getting fired up about the financial regulations chugging through Congress.
All week, the unions and their allies in community organizing will be holding mass demonstrations across the country to decry the power of Wall Street and demand passage of the president's plan.
Rallies and marches for a bank bill? What does that have to do with working for the government?
Stephen Lerner, who is spearheading the movement for the Service Employees International Union, summed it up for Peter Dreier of the Huffington Post: They want the banks' money.
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Are you prepared to go from the supermarket to the black market for your bacon?
The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to lower the boom on sodium content in American food. And companies are scrambling to lower the salt levels in their products in advance of the new rules.
The target is not really your BLT, but instead the huge piles of sodium that are used to make otherwise inedible processed food pass for something good to eat.
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Sebastian Mallaby -- In SEC vs. Goldman, who's really at fault?
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Wall Street Journal -- The SEC's Impeccable Timing
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New York Times -- Top Goldman Leaders Said to Have Overseen Mortgage Unit
The Obama administration is getting tough with Goldman Sachs… kind of.
The investment firm that provided more campaign contribution to Obama than any other group in 2008 had become something of an embarrassment for Democrats – Goldman alumni and friends of the firm populate the financial regulatory world.
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If Chris Dodd hadn't been so cozy with the financial industry, he wouldn't have been hounded out of the Senate.
But if he weren't retiring, he wouldn't have a free hand to write the legislation to change the way the financial industry is regulated.
The financial industry built Dodd's career, so why shouldn't it profit from the demise of it? It's like a political credit-default swap.
It's a perfect fit for the Goldman Sachs era on Wall Street: No matter who loses, they win.
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New York Times -- President Signs Bill to Extend Jobless Aid
Washington saw an interesting dichotomy on Tax Day.
All day, thousands of small-government activists were in the city. They held marches, taught classes on taking the movement back home, endorsed candidates, and generally made a ruckus about taxes, spending and deficits.
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Three years ago, the Republican establishment piled scorn on the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul.
Today, he is in a statistical tie with President Obama in 2012 polling. His son, an ophthalmologist who has never run for elective office, is well ahead of not only the GOP's handpicked candidate for Senate in Kentucky but also both Democratic contenders -- all statewide officeholders.
What happened? Did America suddenly develop an insatiable appetite for 74-year-old, cranky congressmen from Texas? Is the gold standard catching on?
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