Eleanor Clift

Liberals were looking for bolder leadership from the president, and in both his prepared oratory and his off-the-cuff ripostes Barack Obama seemed the man we elected little more than a year ago.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited some journalists, including me, to a chat about the issues President Obama will address in the State of the Union Message tonight.

Instead of reaching out to Republicans in his State of the Union, President Obama needs to reassure his base. Here are four ways he can do that.

One of the factors that went into Martha Coakley's loss in Massachusetts was what insiders call "the woman thing." Coakley distinguished herself in a field of men in the Democratic primary as the first woman Massachusetts would send to the Senate.

There's plenty blame to go around for Martha Coakley's poor showing, including the little-known fact that the Kennedy family and the late senator's extensive network of loyalists were cool to her candidacy.

The Archbishop of San Francisco has responded to remarks made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an interview for NEWSWEEK's year-end issue. He sharply rebuts Pelosi, who worships in his jurisdiction, for citing the Catholic teaching of free will to support her belief that reproductive choice for women is not at odds with what she was raised to believe as a practicing Catholic.

A study finds Barack Obama has the highest legislative success rate of any president in recent history.

The notion that a Republican opposed to the health-care reform that Ted Kennedy championed could actually win Kennedy's seat has Democrats running scared in the final days before the Jan. 19 special election in Massachusetts.

The account in the new book Game Change of Bill Clinton's fury in a phone conversation with Ted Kennedy over his refusal to endorse Hillary has the ring of truth.

Voters want to know that Obama is angry and determined.

John McCain and Joe Lieberman, the presidential ticket that never was, ruin their reputations.

Nancy Pelosi doesn't care if you like her. All that matters is getting the job done.

All the ire of liberals is directed at Joe Lieberman for scuttling what was left of the public option, but what about Howard Dean? For liberals who also identify as Democrats, the former DNC chairman is playing a dangerous game in encouraging Senate Democrats to vote against health-care reform in its scaled-down form.

Joe Lieberman is motivated by a desire to get what he thinks Democrats didn't give him in his last two campaigns.

The idea of a carbon tax, proposed by Al Gore 17 years ago, is winning new converts.

A reflexive antiwar stance is easier to embrace when you're a candidate.

How my niece became a 'rabbit advocate.'

What do teachers' unions think about being vilified by everyone from Newt Gingrich to Al Sharpton?

In a city where few secrets are kept, Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid managed to keep the latest iteration of the Senate's health-care reform bill under wraps even as the Congressional Budget Office scored it just a few hours ago as costing $849 billion over 10 years, big news in the yearlong debate.

It's nothing new when liberal women complain about sexism, but when conservative men take up the banner, calling NEWSWEEK sexist for portraying Sarah Palin on the cover in her jogging clothes, that catches my attention.

The only party worse for women than Democrats is Republicans.

Democrats need to focus on the economy.

Some people see any change to the current health-care system as a threat. Then there's Susan Kelly.

Why making laws takes so darn long.

Will Joe Lieberman be the first Democratic domino to fall on health-care reform? Will Olympia Snowe be the first Republican one?

Obama's Nobel Prize would feed nicely into a 'Saturday Night Live' parody. But comedy wouldn't be funny without an element of truth.

You'd think liberals would be excited about health-care reform. You'd be wrong.

Madeline Albright Talk About Her Fashion Pins

Now that we've had three successive administrations name a female secretary of state, it doesn't seem like a big deal anymore. But Madeleine Albright was a novelty when she took the position in 1997, and how she used her gender to advantage is the subtext to her new book, Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box.

Did the Baucus bill sell out progressives, move the ball forward, or both?