Democrats Outrun by a 2-Year G.O.P. Comeback Plan  —  The PowerPoint slides presented to House Republicans in January 2009 seemed incongruously optimistic at a time when the very word “hope” belonged to the newly ascendant Democrats and their incoming president, Barack Obama.

Harkin warns: No repealing or defunding healthcare reform on my committees  —  A well-placed Senate Democrat warned Thursday that efforts to scale back the new healthcare reform law will hit a brick wall in the upper chamber.  —  Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) — chairman of both the Senate Health Committee …

CNN Poll: Obama vs. Palin in 2012?  —  Washington (CNN) - His party got its clock cleaned in Tuesday's midterm elections, but according to a new national poll President Obama remains competitive in hypothetical 2012 presidential election matchups, especially against Sarah Palin.

Write-ins to be counted sooner than expected  —  LAWYERS LINE UP: Murkowski, Miller camps gird for tally tussle.  —  Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Wednesday she's confident that she's won Alaska's contentious Senate race but is starting a legal fund and bringing up election lawyers to fight an expected battle over the results.

Governor Christie to cut 1,200 public sector jobs, saving NJ millions  —  When Governor Christie set his sights on reducing the size of government and the debt in the Garden State, he is keeping that promise.  —  The governor announced that beginning January, he'll cut 1,200 state jobs saving New Jersey taxpayers $8.8 million.

You think '10 was tough?  Check out '12  —  For the first time in two cycles, Democrats will have more seats up for grabs than the Republicans, and the party could see its shrunken majority erased altogether.  —  Several of the senators up for reelection came in on the 2006 Democratic wave …

Devastation: GOP Picks Up 680 State Leg.  Seats  —  While the Republican gains in the House and Senate are grabbing the most headlines, the most significant results on Tuesday came in state legislatures where Republicans wiped the floor with Democrats.  —  Republicans picked up 680 seats …

In new memoir, Bush makes clear he approved use of waterboarding  —  Human rights experts have long pressed the administration of former president George W. Bush for details of who bore ultimate responsibility for approving the simulated drownings of CIA detainees, a practice …

34 warships sent from US for Obama visit  —  New Delhi: The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday.  —  Communications set-up, nuclear button, a fleet of limousines …

Defining “compromise”  —  Can we please bag this idea that it's somehow a “compromise” in any meaningful sense if we temporarily extend all the Bush tax cuts, including the ones for the rich?  Come on.  It's really capitulation.  Temporary capitulation, perhaps, but capitulation all the same.

It's the Ideology, Stupid  —  No doubt we'll be talking about the 2010 election for a long time, and dueling explanations for the Democrats' defeat will abound.  Although I plan to make my own contribution to this explanatory surfeit, my topic right now is more modest—to trace the contours of what actually happened on November 2.

The Midterms: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward  —  Have an intelligent message, and fight for your right to be heard.  —  Now that the dust has settled on the 2010 midterm elections, it's slowly becoming clear just how monumental the results really are.  We saw an extreme left-wing agenda suffer a crushing defeat.

How the National Exit Poll Badly Missed the Latino Vote in 2010  —  By: Gary Segura & Matt Barreto  —  Latino Decisions estimates differ significantly from the network exit polls and this raises the question of whether we, or they, have a systematic flaw (complete Latino Decisions Election Polls posted here).

A Rare Progressive Success  —  What's Your Reaction:  —  Tuesday was a disaster for Democrats, of course, but it was perhaps the best day ever for a cause that many progressives hold dear: redistricting reform.  In California, Proposition 20 passed with over 60 percent of the vote …

Top Blue Dog calls for Pelosi to quit  —  An elder statesman of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition is calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to step down from party leadership after a historic election in which she presided over the loss of 60 seats and control of the House.

Tired of Repetitive Arguing About Climate Change, Scientist Makes a Bot to Argue For Him  —  Getting into a climate change debate on Twitter could be even more exhausting than it sounds now that a software developer named Nigel Leck has automated the process.

What the Fed did and why: supporting the recovery and sustaining price stability  —  Two years have passed since the worst financial crisis since the 1930s dealt a body blow to the world economy.  Working with policymakers at home and abroad, the Federal Reserve responded with strong …

Bill Moyers: “Welcome to the Plutocracy!”  —  Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series.  —  I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn's life and legacy.  I was also surprised.  I am a journalist, not a historian.