All Politics Daily Training

Daily Training for February 8th: Thank You, President Obama

This Op-ed in the New York Times by Justin Vaïsse, senior fellow and the director of research at the Center on the U.S. and Europe at the Brookings Institution has some tough talk for Europe, I'll be very interested to hear your reaction to it.

Daily Training for February 5th: The Spanish Debacle

As I researched the posts I was writing in my blog this week about the National Prayer Breakfast, I came across this article by a Spanish writer, Jaime Pozuelo-Monfort in the Huffington Post and decided it would make for an interesting Daily Training. I really want to hear your opinion on this one, so take the time to read it and write me a note!

Daily Training for February 3rd: U.S. Decision to Skip Meeting Seen as Slight in Europe

Obama's long awaited and much talked about visit to Spain this May has been called off. In fact, the White House has explained that the visit was never on the president's agenda. Today's Daily Training is a New York Times article about this.

Daily Training for February 2nd: The State of the Union Is Comatose

For me, Frank Rich's weekly New York Times column is required reading and this Sunday's was especially good and a little shorter than usual. Before your read it, take a look at these words:

Daily Training for January 27th: The Populist Addiction

Today's Daily Training is David Brooks' thoughtful and though-provoking Op-Ed Column from the New York Times about populism in politics. It's worth noting that Brooks writes from the right-of-center.

Daily Training for January 25th: The Court’s Blow to Democracy

Today's Daily Training is about the most significant thing that happened in politics last week: the Supreme Court decision to allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political communications. The New York Times Editorial about the decision explains the ruling and its context well and at the same time sharply condemns the decision, as many on the left including President Obama have done. Understanding campaign finance is critical to understand US politics: following the money trail will almost always provide a lot of answers. This ruling changes everything.

Daily Training for January 21st: FBI angers politician whose image was used to show older Bin Laden

The controversy over the photo used of Gaspar Llamazares as part of a digitally enhanced image of Osama Bin Laden caused quite a stir here in Spain as well as some headaches for Will Ostick at the US Embassy! It also got some news coverage in the US and today's Daily Training is a CNN report on it.

Daily Training for January 20th: Mass. Senate race's lesson for Obama

As I write this, we still don't have a final result for Tuesday's special election in Massachusetts for Ted Kennedy's Senate Seat, but E.J. Dionne Jr. believes there is a lesson in it for Obama. Note, at the end of the article he references the Reagan years and their successful narrative as "Morning in America" and "the Gipper" is Reagan himself.

Daily Training for January 14th: Congress fights healthcare fatigue to finish bill

Today we're going to take a break from the Harry Reid insensitive comments drama and take a look at where we are on the health care reform drama. This article from the Los Angeles Times describes the fatigue that's affecting Congress and the need to get this bill through soon.

Daily Training for January 12th: Paul Krugman "Learning From Europe"

Today's Daily Training is Paul Krugman's New York Times column that addresses a common US perception that the economy in Europe is weak because of generous social benefits. Krugman very directly challenges this misperception which as he notes is common among Democrats and Republicans.