How Gary Hart’s Downfall Forever Changed American Politics

Bai revisits the “Monkey Business” scandal, finding out who really set the story in motion, and how it opened up political journalism to deeper scrutiny of candidates’ personal lives.

Author: Matt Bai
Published: Sep 18, 2014
Length: 31 minutes (7,876 words)

Obama vs. Boehner: Who Killed the Debt Deal?

A blow-by-blow account of a political negotiation gone wrong. President Obama and Republican House speaker John Boehner came close to a deal last July that would cut federal spending and bring in billions in new revenue. But a series of missteps led to its demise:

“From Boehner’s perspective, it’s not hard to see why he came away feeling Obama betrayed him. ‘He had to have known that this was going to set my hair on fire,’ Boehner told me when we sat together in his office on the first day of March. He was seated in a leather chair by a marble fireplace, his cigarette smoldering in an ashtray at his side. Three aides sat nearby.

“‘You have to understand,’ he went on, ‘there were hours and hours of conversation, and he would tell me more about my political situation than I ever would think about it, all right? So when you come in and all of a sudden you want $400 billion more — he had to have known!’ Boehner shook his head, as if he was still puzzled by it all.”

Author: Matt Bai
Published: Mar 28, 2012
Length: 40 minutes (10,023 words)

Does Anyone Have a Grip on the G.O.P.?

Longtime Republicans have been satisfied enough to have their candidates run down activist government as a campaign tactic, even as they themselves retained a more nuanced view of the federal government’s role (which is why a Republican Congress, working with a Republican president, managed to pass a Medicaidprescription-drug bill in 2003). But when you talk to them now, these same Republicans seem positively baffled that anyone could have actually internalized, so literally, all the scorching resentment for government that has come to define the modern conservative campaign.

Author: Matt Bai
Published: Oct 12, 2011
Length: 29 minutes (7,303 words)

The Connecticut-Country-Club Crackup

Author: Matt Bai
Published: Sep 23, 2010
Length: 19 minutes (4,801 words)

Democrat in Chief?

“The fact is,” Nancy Pelosi said, addressing herself to David Axelrod, “that the longer you say Washington is broken, and you’ve been saying that for 18 months, the more that becomes the story.”

Author: Matt Bai
Published: Jun 8, 2010
Length: 32 minutes (8,078 words)

Taking the Hill

Sometime in the next few weeks, Congress and the White House will descend into the labyrinthine politics of comprehensive health care reform. For Barack Obama, this signals the end, in a sense, of the eventful prologue to his presidency.

Author: Matt Bai
Published: Jun 2, 2009
Length: 32 minutes (8,208 words)