Lanny Davis

“So now we have a problem, Governor,” said Gov. Romney’s mythical Spinmeister. (more)

The Republicans are making a big mistake by assuming they can successfully depict Barack Obama as an out-of-the-mainstream leftist. They are making it easier for him to move to the center, where he actually has been for most of his years in politics. (more)

President Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night framed the issues in a way that polls show commands a majority of the American people’s support. Unless Republicans find a way to reframe the debate — and I don’t see how they can — or change their position on the rich contributing more in tax revenues — and I don’t see how they will — Barack Obama holds a big advantage on the issues heading into the general election. (more)

It might be unseemly to bring this up just as Mitt Romney celebrates his win in New Hampshire on Tuesday night and seems to be a strong front-runner for the GOP nomination. But the story of his putting his dog in a carrier on his car roof for a 12-hour family trip is spreading again on the Internet and disturbs me the more I learn about it. (more)

It doesn’t matter if Mitt Romney wins the Iowa caucuses tonight. He is about to experience a severe political hemorrhage over his refusal to disclose his tax returns. (more)

The “Renewed Nationalism” speech that President Obama delivered on Tuesday set important themes for his 2012 campaign and offered the president a chance to win back the vital center of American politics. His focus on fairness, income inequality and the plight of the middle class is his best chance to overcome what is, at best, a disappointing record on the key issues of the economy and the hemorrhaging national debt. (more)

Barack Obama’s odds of being re-elected are better today than any Republican could have possibly imagined six months ago. Recent polling shows he is ahead of all the Republican candidates in the pivotal swing state of Ohio, and he leads or is in a dead heat in the national polls against every Republican candidate, including Mitt Romney — this despite his low grades on handling the economy and the 9 percent unemployment rate. (more)

Below is a hypothetical conversation between myself and Herman Cain: (more)

Since before the first Republican debate, I have consistently stated in TV and print interviews that Mitt Romney would be the strongest Republican candidate against President Obama. (more)

In the 1960s, the late New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (D) used conservative, market-based, competitive forces to create new jobs in the inner-city wasteland of the minority neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. A cynical New York City reporter (a redundant expression) was heard to mutter, as he heard Kennedy’s pro-market, pro-business ideas to help the poor, “You sound like Barry Goldwater.” Legend has it that Kennedy responded: “Maybe, but I know that I mean it.” (more)

If ever there is an example of hyper-partisanship, the recent personal attacks challenging the honesty and competence of Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the ATF’s errors in its “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking program should be Exhibit A. (more)

I like and respect Grover Norquist. Despite the many matters on which I disagree with him, I respect his consistent, deeply held belief in limited government, which leads him to oppose higher taxes as an enforcement mechanism. (more)

This coming weekend, I’ll be joining alumni from the two Bill Clinton presidential campaigns in Little Rock, Arkansas, to mark the 20th anniversary of Mr. Clinton’s declaration for the presidency. (more)

It is a mystery: Why do so many Jewish Americans wherever I go express grave concerns about President Obama’s commitment to the Jewish state of Israel? (more)

On September 6, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz published a letter to “Fellow Citizens” in The New York Times challenging the leadership of both parties in Washington, the president and the Congress, to “put an end to partisan gridlock and, in its place, to set in motion an upward spiral of confidence.” (more)

This appeared in USA Today on August 17, 2011. (more)

A famous 1950 Japanese movie, “Rashomon,” describes a murder from the perspectives of four main characters who were involved in it — including the medium speaking for the murdered man. All four versions differ as to who is the real murderer. The director was asked by the actors: Who was the real murderer? The director’s response: We don’t know, because each person was telling the truth as he or she perceived it. (more)

The headline in the left-hand lead of The New York Times on Tuesday read: “Obama grasping centrist banner in debt impasse.” (more)

Read the June 27 Newsweek cover story, with a smiling Bill Clinton filling the cover, and the headline "14 Ways to Save America's Jobs," and you will be reminded why and how Clinton began his first term as president with a $300 billion deficit and a stagnant economy emerging from a recession, and ended after two terms with a trillion-dollar-plus surplus and 23 million new jobs, not to mention a 65 percent job approval rating. (more)

For several years in the late 1990s, I worked for the government of Pakistan, mostly when the late Benazir Bhutto, an inspiring small “d” democrat and charismatic populist leader, was prime minister of Pakistan. I made lots of Pakistani friends, in Pakistan and among the large Pakistani-American community here. (more)