The Atlantic | October 2006 HISTORY judges good presidents by what they do, bad ones by how long they take to undo. Although history hasn’t yet caught up with President George W. Bush, midterm elections are about to—and those are often a referendum on presidential performance. Now is therefore as good a time as any…

The Atlantic | July/August 2006 BOIL AWAY the verbiage, and Americans’ reaction to Iran’s apparent drive for nuclear weapons amounts to: “Oh, no!” It’s a reasonable reaction. A bitter enemy appears determined to acquire fearsome weapons, or the capability to produce them (which comes to the same thing). A preventive military strike might do little…

National Journal | August 12, 2006 CHALMETTE, LA. — By the time water encroached on the Chalmette Medical Center parking lot, the worst of Hurricane Katrina was over. Upstairs on the second floor, Dr. Bryan Bertucci had spent a sleepless night admitting emergency cases, taking medical histories, conducting physicals. That job done, he caught an…

The Atlantic | June 2006 PRESIDENT CARTER ducked the presidential debate of September 21, 1980, but Ronald Reagan and John Anderson, the independent candidate, were on hand for a revealing exchange. The question was whether Reagan’s proposed tax cuts, if not balanced by spending reductions, would fuel inflation. Anderson thought so: “I have been very…

National Journal | April 1, 2006 “AND now, polygamy,” sighs Charles Krauthammer, in a recent Washington Post column. It’s true. As if they didn’t already have enough on their minds, Americans are going to have to debate polygamy. And not a moment too soon. For generations, taboo kept polygamy out of sight and out of mind in…

The Atlantic | March 2006 ARIEL SHARON could boast of as daring a military and political career as anybody since Andrew Jackson, but he saved his biggest surprise for late in the game. The champion of the Right conquered the Israeli center. In doing so, he transformed Israeli politics. More than that, he showed the…

National Journal | July 30, 2005 IN JUNE, conservatives howled when the Supreme Court upheld the right of New London, Conn., to condemn an entire neighborhood in order to make room for private development. House Republicans, in particular, took turns denouncing the Court’s decision in Kelo v. New London. Among them was Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.…

The Atlantic Monthly | January/February 2005 ….. Have fear, Americans. Ours is a country divided. On one side are those who divide Americans into two sides; on the other are all the rest. Yes, America today is divided over the question of whether America is divided. All right, I’m joking. But the joke has a…

The Atlantic | October 2004 GEORGE W. Bush is not the President he wanted to be. In 2000 he campaigned, famously, as “a uniter, not a divider,” and by all indications he was perfectly sincere. As the governor of Texas he prided himself on finding common ground with the state’s Democrats. But in the White…

The Atlantic Monthly | November 2004 SUPPOSE I told you that I knew of an education reform guaranteed to raise the achievement levels of American students; that this reform would cost next to nothing and would require no political body’s approval; and that it could be implemented overnight by anybody of a mind to undertake…