South Carolina: Inside the 'Black Primary'

December 20, 2007

As Clinton and Obama square off in South Carolina, a window opens on the fractured state of black politics. It's been an extended soul search. And it ain't over yet.

Fumbling Florida

November 29, 2007

Have Democrats already blown the biggest swing state?

Blue Tide In Kentucky--and Virginia

November 7, 2007

Democrats gained steam in Tuesday's off-year elections, making it even more obvious that two significant Southern states are up for grabs in 2008.

The New GOP Means Business

October 22, 2007

Forget Values Voters. With Bushism discredited and mainstream Republicans looking for candidates with business savvy and competence, Democrats may be facing far more formidable foes than they imagined.

Kentucky at War

September 13, 2007

Opposition to the Iraq War has created some unlikely alliances in Kentucky, much to the chagrin of Senator Mitch McConnell.

Purple America

July 25, 2007

Democrats are poised to seize a historic opportunity to win back voters in the South and West they started losing four decades ago.

The Democrats' Depressing Debate

April 27, 2007

The candidates ignored race, class and religion, and fumbled the key question of how to get out of Iraq.

Should Democrats Do Dixie?

February 21, 2007

The Way Down South

January 25, 2007

The South is more purple than red, and Democrats don't need to sell their souls to win it back.

Johnny Populist

January 5, 2007

John Edwards's hard-edged populism could be an antidote to the surreal Bush years.

Letters

December 13, 2006

A Complicated Blessing

November 16, 2006

Claire McCaskill's victory in Missouri proves that moral politics is growing more expansive--and less Republican--as values voters waken to the moral bankruptcy of the religious right.

A New Southern Strategy

November 9, 2006

The midterm elections proved to Democrats that the South must not be written off. The key to winning rural and working-class voters in Dixie is the same as anywhere else.

A New-Model Ford

October 26, 2006

Harold Ford has wooed and wowed white conservatives in Tennessee with a mash-up of star power, earthy eloquence and a contrarian right-wingery that has driven the GOP to take drastic measures.

Virginia's Rumbling Rebels

October 8, 2006

As Senator George Allen's faux-populist campaign devolves into a series of racial embarrassments, Virginia Democrat Jim Webb's unlikely campaign is surging, thanks in large part to Webb's unblemished record of opposing the Iraq War.

White Heat

August 10, 2006

Welcome to Nashville, Tennessee, the unlikely symbol of the biggest American immigrant resettlement since the Industrial Revolution. It's also the white-hot nexus of the new American nativism.

Reading the Reed Rout

July 27, 2006

Two Republican primaries in the Deep South expose potentially serious cracks in the party's religious-right foundation.

The Devil Inside

March 30, 2006

Falsehoods, fudges and outright lies have defined Ralph Reed's career. Tarnished by the Abramoff scandal, he's betting his political future on the tendency of the religious right to see no evil in its leaders.

Cornbread and Roses

November 9, 2005

With his campaign to eradicate poverty in America, John Edwards has shed his Clinton Lite image. But to truly redefine the Democratic party and win the 2008 presidency, he has a long way to go.

Endangered Species of the American South

October 2, 2003

What the Democrats must do to survive.

Samaritans in the Desert

May 8, 2003

Defying US policy, they save the lives of illegal migrants, a cup of water at a time.