When is a fire an earthquake?
When it opens a gaping hole under failed politicians and their policies
Charles Lipson
Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he founded the programme on International Politics, Economics, and Security.
Monday
Sunday
What is DoGE’s hardest task?
Can it roll back the regulatory state and accelerate growth?
Monday
The legacy of Jimmy Carter
An honorable man who failed as president and succeeded in later years
Monday
The winners and losers in the fight to keep the government open
They cut the pork but signaled problems for the Trump administration
Sunday
What’s flying over New Jersey?
Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane….
Friday
What Trump’s appointments tell us
The immediate challenges are the economy and the border. The looming, long-term challenge is to pare back the administrative state
Thursday
The two final battles of the culture war
Do conservatives have the edge with moderates in the trans-rights argument?
Wednesday
What disputes about trans athletes say about Democratic politics
The fierce cultural battles at the heart of the Democratic Party’s future
Wednesday
What comes after Trump’s decisive victory?
A big agenda, replete with lessons from the first term
Tuesday
Friday
Biden scores another own goal over Trump’s ‘garbage’ supporters
Sometimes, the best move is to let bad stories die
Sunday
Contrasting the candidates’ closing arguments
For Harris, it’s ‘he’s dangerous.’ For Trump, it’s ‘MAGA’
Thursday
What follows Sinwar’s death in Israel’s war in Gaza and beyond
Nearly all Hamas’s senior leaders are dead. What comes next?
Thursday
CBS: from the Tiffany Network to the cheap discount bin
The network has abandoned journalist integrity for partisanship
Monday
Can Kamala Harris escape the ‘Hubert Humphrey problem?’
When the president is unpopular, their vice presidents rarely win the top office
Wednesday
Vance vs Walz was what a debate should look like
From our UK edition
The most important takeaway from the vice-presidential debate between Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz is that this is what a serious debate for high office should look like. It was calm but impassioned, thoughtful, and truly helpful to any voter who wants to understand the policy differences between the two tickets. The candidates
Tuesday
Iran attacks Israel: what does it mean and what happens next?
Right now, the attack looks constrained
Sunday
What happens if the American election is a tie?
From our UK edition
32 min listen
America has a peculiar way of deciding national elections. Instead of a cumulative national vote, the president and vice president are determined by fifty separate state elections. The top ticket in each state (except Nebraska and Maine) receives all that state’s electoral votes, no matter how slim the margin of victory. Each state’s electoral votes
Israel’s campaign to kill Nasrallah, Hezbollah and Hamas
What comes next in the Middle East
Thursday
What if the Electoral College vote is tied?
A constitutional primer on picking the new president
