Eleanor Clift

Calculating the impact of the BP spill on the midterm elections is almost as hard as measuring the flow of oil from the hole in the ocean floor. Everybody's got their own assessment. As President Obama scrambled to prevent the burgeoning ecological crisis from turning into a political nightmare, late-night talk-show host Jay Leno observed that among the species facing extinction as a result of the spill, "the odds-on favorite is Democrats."

President Obama tends to hang back until it appears that almost all is lost, and then he retrieves the situation.

Democrats had a very good night on Tuesday, dampening, at least for now, Republican boasts about taking back control of the House. Democrat Mark Critz, a longtime congressional aide, held the Pennsylvania House seat of his former boss, the late and legendary logrolling politician John Murtha, calling into question GOP claims that Republicans would sweep blue-collar swing districts in key states across the country and return the party to power.

Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan was one of Mayor Bloomberg's whiz kids before he joined the Obama administration. Meeting with reporters Thursday morning to tout glimmers of good economic news, he recalled the scene in the famous Bloomberg bullpen in New York when the first stimulus bill failed in Congress.

When it comes to the abortion issue in a Democratic Supreme Court nomination, everybody plays their preassigned role. Pro-choice groups say they are encouraged by what they've heard and want to hear more. The opposing side says it's deeply concerned. The nominee says she respects judicial precedence, stare decisis, and all that, and won't answer hypothetical questions. And the president says he doesn't have a litmus test.

Many commentators are questioning the extent of Solicitor General Elena Kagan's experience, noting that, unlike her eight potential future colleagues, she has never served as a judge.

Rep. David Obey's retirement will be felt acutely in Congress.

Why Democrats' chances of avoiding disaster in November have improved … slightly.

McCain's campaign manager says the GOP should shy away from the closed-mindedness that his former running mate represents.

Just when you thought the charges involving former Democratic congressman Eric Massa's alleged sexual misconduct couldn't get any more convoluted, new issues of possible financial fraud surfaced over the weekend, prompting the House ethics committee to take the unusual step of launching a full investigation even though Massa has resigned.

When I saw the Washington Post headline on my morning paper, top of the fold, saying the FDA plans to limit amount of salt allowed in processed foods for health reasons, I knew that critics of the Obama administration would be crying "nanny state." Ingesting all the salt you want without the government telling you that it's bad for you is another of those freedoms that the tea-party crowd surely cherishes.

Why were complaints about Rep. Eric Massa not made public for so long? Because of the culture of Capitol Hill.

In the artfully balanced world of the Supreme Court, the liberal versus conservative divide takes precedence when one justice leaves and another is cued up to fill the slot.

'Global Zero' reminds us that eradicating nuclear weapons should still be our ultimate goal.

Unlike his flamboyant predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, the current chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen has all 10 fingers and doesn't curse as much.

Anger over the economy becomes even worse when President Obama points out that it is rebounding. But here's how he can assuage it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi enrages Republicans because she is so effective.

Obama is beginning to reshape his rhetoric to the language of values.

President Obama has said he wants to emulate Reagan's political success. Here's how he can.

Democrats nervous about voting for health-care reform should look back to lessons of the 1994 crime bill.

Republicans are giddy about the prospect of returning to power in Congress. But Obama's first year offers a cautionary tale.

Now that he's on his way out the door, Evan Bayh is taking a public stand on bipartisan reform. As a senator defined more by unmet expectations than real accomplishments, his New York Times op-ed piece is a welcome bit of advocacy.

The 2010 midterms are looking a lot like the 1994 election. Why that might not be bad for Obama.

On health-care reform, the president didn't repeat Clinton's mistakes. Obama made new ones.

When Republican stalwart Bill Kristol calls what GOP leaders are doing "silly," that gets my attention. Kristol is a rare beacon of intellectualism in a party intent on embracing its lowest common denominator, and he rightfully criticized House leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor for setting "preconditions" before they would meet with President Obama at a White House summit to discuss health-care reform.

There's no shortage of advice for President Obama about what he should do substantively and stylistically to regain the momentum that he squandered in his thus-far-futile quest to achieve health-care reform.

John Murtha was Nancy Pelosi's friend and mentor, and his backing her for leader over Steny Hoyer, a longtime insider player in the Democratic caucus, gave her the street cred she needed to win as the first woman to hold that high a position in what was an old boys' club.

Strategists such as Frank Luntz can make governing very difficult. But smart politicians can learn from their insights.

It's comforting to liberals to think the other side is so out to lunch that they shouldn't be taken seriously. It's more of the same demonization that Obama dreams of overcoming, and it shows the power of name-calling. Thinking Obama is a socialist—or is taking the country in a socialist direction—is a pretty mainstream view these days.

The new libertarian, antigovernment movement has had an impact. But are the tea-partiers a lasting force?