Jonathan Alter

A British report that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is planning to leave because he is having problems getting along with other White House staffers is unfounded.

As upset as certain military officers have been with the White House—and as much as they like McChrystal's can-do spirit—this was a seriously can't-do moment. No one can quite believe that McChrystal would be so stupid as to give this interview, which McChrystal himself this morning conceded in a statement was "bad judgment."

The BP spill is a failure not just of technology but ideology. That oil flows into the ocean from the deregulatory tide of the last 30 years. President Obama is right to compare the fiasco to 9/11.

President Obama's speech was most noted for its martial themes, but I was struck by what he said about the abuses at the Minerals Management Service. Finally, Obama went on offense.

In an election season marked by voters' desire for outsider candidates, the true story of the primaries is the women who won.

The president, consumed with cleaning up after his predecessors, can't just strip emotion from the public parts of his job.

The struggle over gays in the military offers an important lesson about Washington: when public opinion moves, politicians follow, even on the most seemingly toxic issues.

At the beginning of 2010, health care reform had passed both the House and Senate (where Democrats had 60 votes) and was merely awaiting the resolution of the differing versions of the bill.

Barack Obama was more cunning than anyone knew. Obama wasn't much of a tennis player, but he mulled a tennis metaphor offered by a friend: his opponent was like one of those guys in white shorts running from the baseline to the net, then from sideline to sideline, all over the court trying to hit the ball.

From The Promise: President Obama, Year One, by Jonathan Alter. To be published on May 18 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. © 2010 by Jonathan Alter.

Friday's Washington Post story about Andy Stern leaving the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) with debts offers a revealing look at the internecine strife that has long plagued the labor movement.

Elena Kagan is being attacked for her lack of judicial experience by some of the same folks (e.g., Sen. John Cornyn) who said Harriet Miers was especially qualified for the Supreme Court because President Bush had gone outside the usual suspects and nominated someone who wasn't a judge.

How the firm can find its way out of Toyotaland.

States and school districts across the country are about to lay off boatloads of teachers if something isn't done soon. Worse, outdated seniority rules mean that many of the best younger teachers will lose their jobs first.

The news media and public can only see current events through the prism of the past. So we're all looking for a Katrina replay in the oil-spill story. David Axelrod was on Good Morning America tamping down any suggestion that the White House had been tardy in reacting.

Elizabeth Warren would represent the people against powerful financial interests on the Supreme Court.

1. No decision has been made by the president.2. The top four candidates are Elena Kagan, Diane Wood, Merrick Garland, and Janet Napolitano.3. Dark horses are still possible, especially if one could be found who is an economic progressive who could help redress what the president considers to be the tilt toward the powerful on the court.

Fiery populist Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida is in the news for reporting death threats and comparing the right wing to Nazis who burned the Reichstag. But another comparison from the 1930s may be more apt, at least visually.

I'm not sure people realize just how much the failure of health care demoralized Evan Bayh. As I learned in reporting for my upcoming book, The Promise: President Obama, Year One, out in May, White House aides David Axelrod and Jim Messina visited the Senate just before the August recess last year and left feeling much better after hearing from Bayh.

About Princess Diana, her children, her love life and her effect on a generation

I took the call on my cell phone at the Starbucks in New York's Penn Station. It was from a doctor I barely knew telling me that a CT scan—ordered after three weeks of worsening stomach pain—showed a large mass in my abdomen, with what she said was "considerable lymph node involvement." I rubbed my eyes and sensed the truth instantly: cancer, and not one that had been detected early.

An Enduring Shame: Katrina Reminded Us, But The Problem Is Not New. Why A Rising Tide Of People Live In Poverty, Who They Are--And What We Can Do About It.

In this autumn of anger, even a liberal can find his thoughts turning to... torture. OK, not cattle prods or rubber hoses, at least not here in the United States, but something to jump-start the stalled investigation of the greatest crime in American history.

The quintessential New Yorker, Mayor Giuliani has set the standard for crisis management: inspiring, emotional and as tough as ever. By Jonathan Alter