Paul Waldman


Recent Articles

A Truly Ideological Campaign?



Peter Finch in "Network"

Too Good to Check, Santorum Edition

You might not want to believe a thing I say.
A couple of weeks ago, Rick Santorum got into some trouble for saying that Barack Obama was "a snob" for wanting every American kid to be able to go to college. Santorum elaborated that universities today indoctrinate people in dangerous liberal ideas and convince them to abandon their religious beliefs. And now he's offering more details on just how un-American universities are: I was just reading something last night from the state of California. And that the California universities – I think it's seven or eight of the California system of universities don’t even teach an American history course. It's not even available to be taught. Shocking! And it would be even more shocking if it were even remotely true. But as Think Progress notes , "In fact, of the 10 UC system schools, just one (San Francisco) doesn't offer American history courses. But that’s because it doesn't offer any humanities courses at all — it's a medical school." When Santorum says "I was just reading something last...

What Is George W. Up To?

Not what George W. Bush is doing these days. (Photo by the White House)

Will Obama Get Blamed for High Gas Prices?

The good old days. (Flickr/photomatt28)
Everyone involved in politics knows that there is almost nothing the president can do to affect the price of gasoline. Democrats know this. Republicans know this. People in the oil industry certainly know this. But they all, at various times, play a game in which they try to deceive the American public into believing something they know to be false. So right now, an oil industry group is running ads saying the high price of gas is Barack Obama's fault (you'll be shocked to hear that the ubiquitous Koch brothers are involved ). Republican leaders are saying the increasing price at the pump is Obama's fault. And what about the public? Are they buying it? The polls we've seen so far actually show that the answer is, not really. A CNN poll asked how much blame people assigned to various factors, and the oil companies came in first, with 55 percent saying they deserved a great deal of blame. "The policies of the Obama administration" got a great deal of blame from 24 percent, just about...