• Clinton Backs Barack and Biden...Finally

  Bill Clinton

  Talking Points Memo : Bill Clinton thinks the vice presidency will be more important than ever in the next four years--and his bet's on Joe Biden

• The Working-Class Vote in Ohio

  US Politics & Government

  Brett Story & VideoNation : What issues matter to Ohio's blue-collar voters? JoAnn Wypijewski reports from the campaign trail.

• Bill and Hill's Dangerous Game

  Bill Clinton

  Nicholas von Hoffman: The Clintons cannot compete with the enthusiasm Obama sets off so they are trying to destroy it. They just may succeed--but at an awful price.

• Get Me Rewrite

  Journalists & Journalism

  Mark Updegrove: Bill Clinton maintains that the mainstream media has misrepresented his record on fighting terror. But it will take a generation to meaningfully assess his effectiveness.

• Clinton's Blindness on Welfare Reform

  Welfare

  Robert Scheer: You'd think Bill Clinton doesn't know the difference between getting mothers and their children off the welfare rolls and getting them out of poverty.

• Middlemarch

  Bill Clinton

  Eyal Press: The GOP is an object of popular loathing, yet prospects seem dim for ousting it from power. Three new books explain why: Off Center explores the GOP's genius for subverting the mechanisms of accountability, and Death by a Thousand Cuts and Stand Up Fight Back examine how the Republican machine dominates issues from tax cuts to energy conservation. Plus, the Clinton biography The Survivor looks at the man who once made liberals feel like winners, yet whose legacy holds them back.

• Clinton Agonistes

  Media Analysis

  Eric Alterman: John Harris's history of the Clinton Administration deserves much of the praise it has received, but it ignores the media's anti-Clinton animus.

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• On a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok

  Humor

  Calvin Trillin: The song of a political visionary--with apologies to Alan Jay Lerner.

• John McCain Explains What He Meant by Saying That the Fundamentals of the Economy Are Strong

  Humor

  Calvin Trillin: He'll figure it out eventually.

• Truth by Repetition

  Humor

  Calvin Trillin: She flips, she flops, she flips again.

• On Sarah Palin's Revelations of God's Will

  Humor

  Calvin Trillin: God's girlfriend is never wrong.

• Two Views of Hurricane Gustav and the Republicans

  Humor

  Calvin Trillin: The GOP's prayers are answered.

• The Rime of the Ancient Candidate

  Humor

  Calvin Trillin: A home in every port.

• Management Styles

  Humor

  Calvin Trillin: A different kind of identity politics.