Michelle Obama stutters. She does not have a stutter. She stutters on purpose. "I-I-I, I've seen it in our men and women in uniform." "Fr-from the young person with so much promise." "And-and, even as a kid..."

Imagine, if you will, the following scene tonight, during Mitt Romney's address to the Republican National Convention: the lights go out. The ominous sound of bells rings through the convention center. A spotlight appears in the center of the stage, where a puff of smoke barely conceals the sudden appearance of a…

We've heard a lot from the liberal press and so-called "fact checkers" — more like "fact chokers," am I right? — about the supposed "misleading statements" and "hypocrisies" and "outright lies" in Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's big convention speech last night. But why won't the mainstream media…

To watch America's most treasured political theater play out firsthand is to come to understand that this is not about real things that happen in the world outside of television boxes and the mouths of anointed leaders. This is a mass indulgence of the faithful in the collective ecstasy of their faith. As an act of…

You can't really appreciate the extent to which politicians are actors until you're seated in a shitty press seat at a political convention that does not give you a direct view of the stage, but which does give you a view of a huge TV screen showing the politician speak and, simultaneously, a view of the teleprompter…

Vice President Joe Biden spoke candidly about his experiences with grief and even thoughts of suicide when he addressed a survivors of slain military members. The group gathered near the capital for Memorial Day weekend.

Barack Obama's State of the Union speech scored at an eight-grade readability level, according to the University of Minnesota's Smart Politics blog. His three SOTUs all rank among the six lowest scoring ones ever, and are on average "more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses…

Tonight we witnessed President Obama outline all the proposals that will be blocked by Congress in the election year 2012. Drill for everything. Create jobs for the humans who want jobs. End more wars, try not to have new ones... but maybe have some new ones? 2012 is shaping up to be a banner year for America's…

Well, duh. Why did we believe that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor would actually go through with his surprise speech on income inequality today? He always walks away just when things are getting tough. And apparently a lecture hall at Penn's Wharton School of Business wasn't secure enough to protect Cantor from the…

New York Times ethics cop Phil Corbett just sent out the following memo to the newsroom, reminding them about the paper's rules for paid speaking engagements. (Thomas Friedman, among others, has had trouble with this in the past.) An NYT source says "they don't send these reminders out unless someone breaks the rules…

Last night President Barack Obama delivered the keynote address at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)'s National Dinner in Washington, DC, and spent much of his time at the podium raving about his meal. "The dinner rolls were absolutely divine," he said. "The little potatoes—well, I need to get that seasoning recipe…

Bill Clinton, our most rascally of presidents, may have been out of office for ten years. But the guy can still bring the gravitas when he wants to—as he did today at the unfinished memorial to the victims of United 93, with a speech that's perfect in almost every way.

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter is one of the members of Congress who's been bragging in the last few days about not attending President Obama's speech tonight — in his case, to hold a football-watching party at his house. But it probably wasn't a good idea to broadcast his lame flouting of congressional tradition!…

Rep. Michele Bachmann was unusually silent and uncared-about during last night's debate, in the latest sign that Rick Perry has completely eaten her lunch and all that's left for her campaign is a tragicomic, Norma Desmond-esque flameout. What can she do? Perhaps call a news conference to rebut Obama's speech tonight!…

Last week, Republicans complained about the date of President Obama's jobs speech to Congress and got the White House to move it to the next evening. The resolution of this conflict has allowed Republicans to move on — to making new excuses about why they won't show up anyway. One will be busy tweeting in his office!…

In a gratuitously and joyously dickish move today, the White House announced that it would address a joint session of Congress next Wednesday at 8 p.m., right when the long-planned NBC/Politico debate for Republican presidential candidates is scheduled to take place. And this afternoon, Speaker John Boehner issued the…

At the end of last night's fluffy-duffy speech to the public about the debt ceiling, President Obama urged everyone to call their representatives to request his "balanced" approach to deficit reduction, which apparently means $3 trillion dollars in spending cuts along with zero dollars in new tax revenue. What the…

Yeah, it's gotten this bad: President Obama will address the nation at 9:00 ET tonight about the debt ceiling negotiations, bringing this fresh hell to your teevee screen! What can you do? The guy loves giving speeches.

Graduation season always brings with it entertaining tales of lazy, desperate, or just plain dumb graduation speakers, who chose to plagiarize their speeches. Already this year we've had a medical school dean ripping off Atul Gawande, and a law school graduate pleading ignorance about the fact that plagiarism is…