Among the very worst practices of American broadcast news is the "focus group of one." That is, reporters casually substitute the tale of a single person, company or community for actual analysis of a complex issue. And so it was Sunday, when CBS Evening News profiled Rod Hudson of Quicksilver Analytics to warn that small […]

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney like many of his GOP colleagues insisted that Americans without health insurance can always go to an emergency room. But for some with health coverage--especially Medicare--that ER is the "front door" to an unnecessary hospital admission. And as it turns out, while those filled beds and needless tests […]

The cruel and unnecessary death last month of Savita Halappanavar, the 31 year-old dentist denied a life-saving abortion, is rightly prompting soul-searching in Ireland. But those in the United States whose business is saving souls would do well to join them. After all, with their "human life amendment," draconian clinic regulations, "personhood" initiatives, heartbeat bills […]

For the better part of a year, Mitt Romney has been frantically trying to narrow his persistent gap with President Obama among women voters. (In recent polling, Romney's disadvantage remains in the range of 8 to 13 points.) As a show of his commitment, Romney announced in March that his wife Ann "reports to me […]

If Mitt Romney carries the always hotly contested state of Florida, his smokescreen about a mythical Obama "raid on Medicare" will have a lot to do with it. A new Kaiser survey shows the Republican ticket has narrowed President Obama's edge on Medicare from 16 to just five points over the last month. As TPM […]

If for nothing else, you have to give the 2008 and 2012 GOP tickets for getting their lines straight. On Thursday, John McCain rejoined Mitt Romney in support of embattled Indiana Republican Senate hopeful Richard Mourdock. That McCain would come around after accepting Mourdock's "apology" for proclaiming rape-induced pregnancies gifts from God should come as […]

One week after Mitt Romney comically claimed "There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda," the Romney campaign began airing a new ad whitewashing his past positions and his party's extremist present on the issue. After all, Romney's latest cynical play for women voters doesn't […]

During the 2010 campaign, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell falsely charged that with the Affordable Care Act President Obama was "sticking it to seniors." McConnell's GOP was rewarded for that fiction, as a 21 point margin among voters 65 and older propelled the Republicans to an overwhelmingly victory in the midterms. Now just two years […]

For the second time in three weeks, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney echoed George W. Bush, Tom Delay, Mitch McConnell, Paul Broun and other Republicans pretending that "people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room." But in claiming "We don't have people that become ill, who […]

Mitt Romney's history on abortion reads like the Kama Sutra: it contains almost every position imaginable. Now, the man GOP strategist and former Romney adviser Michael Murphy in 2005 called "a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly" is at it again. In a meeting with the Des Moines Register editorial board, Romney declared, […]