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E.J. Dionne, Washington Post columnist, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and professor at Georgetown University, talks partisan politics, the conversation over Bain Capital, and his new book, Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent.  

EVENT: E.J. Dionne will discuss the book at the Players Club (16 Gramercy Park South) on Thursday, May 24 at 7 p.m.

Jorge Ramos, anchor for Noticiero Univision and host of "Al Punto" ("To The Point"), which airs on Sunday mornings on Univision, talks about current political news as well as immigration and Univision's role in this presidential election year.

President Obama has come out swinging on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital. As the NATO Summit came to a close on Monday, President Obama defined the presidential election in terms of his economic vision for the country compared to Mitt Romney’s. Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich joins us to answer: Where does the campaign go from here?

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on American citizens and others without a warrant. Congress officially legalized this once-secret program with the passage of the 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but civil libertarians claim that warrantless wiretapping is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has just agreed to hear a case on this very issue. Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent for our partner The New York Times, explains what's at stake.

United States Congressman John Lewis discusses how his experience as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement can offer guidance on how to live virtuously and work to change the world. In Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change, Lewis revisits the lessons of the 1960s to help the electorate once again confront questions of social inequality.

Apart from Washington, D.C., Chicago is the first American city to host the NATO Summit. As world leaders arrived for the Summit yesterday, they were greeted by thousands of protesters and just as many police officers. Chicago Police have arrested five protestors who allegedly planned to throw Molotov cocktails at President Obama’s campaign headquarters and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home. 

Historian David McCullough is known for his biographies of monumental American figures: John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman. But McCullough second book, published in 1972, explored American history not through the eyes of a Founding Father or a President, but through one of the most important public works projects of all time: the Brooklyn Bridge.

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in New York to a throng of cheering supporters on Saturday. He will soon begin a fellowship at New York University Law School's U.S.-Asia Law Institute, and he spoke to the crowd at NYU about his plight: "After much turbulence, I have come out of Shandong," he said, through an interpreter. "This is thanks to the assistance of many friends." Bob Fu is a Chinese human rights activist and pastor, living in the United States. He was instrumental in publicizing Chen Guangcheng's case and helped negotiate his release.

The NATO Summit spurs protests in Chicago all week, while European leaders continue talks that began at the G-8 conference over the weekend. The insider trading case against former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta begins this week in New York, as the Senate Banking Committee starts a round of Dodd-Frank hearings. Also, just a few weeks after President Obama declared his support for gay marriage, the NAACP followed suit. The impact on African-American voters remains to be seen. Molly Ball, staff writer covering politics for The Atlantic, and Charlie Herman, business and economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC, explain the stories of the week. 

Samuel Popkin, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego, examines the winners—and losers—of the last 60 years of presidential campaigns, explaining how challengers get to the White House, how incumbents stay, and how successors hold power for their party. His book The Candidate: What it Takes to Win—and Hold—the White House looks George H. W. Bush's campaign for reelection in 1992, Al Gore's campaign for the presidency in 2000, and Hillary Clinton's effort to win the nomination in 2008, and gives an account of what goes on inside a campaign and what makes one succeed while another fails.

On February 4, 1983, Wanda Lopez was stabbed to death in a Texas gas station. A jury convicted Carlos Deluna for the murder five months later and Deluna was executed in December 1989. But this week, nearly 30 years after Wanda Lopez’s death, a new investigation into Deluna’s conviction and execution poses serious questions about Deluna’s guilt, and challenges the fairness of our justice system.

We all know that we're living in the era of the super PAC. And we're now facing the first presidential election since the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, the ruling that the American government couldn't stop political spending by large corporations and labor unions in election campaigns. According to our partner, The New York Times, there's a costly advertising plan underway to attack President Obama in ways never seen before.

The talk surrounding the bill has veered into the controversial subjects of immigration and identity politics.

His attorneys also will not call Edwards' adult daughter to the stand. He's accused of using campaign funds to try to hide his affair and a daughter Rielle Hunter delivered.

You've probably heard pundits point to various attributes of each presidential candidate, Obama's likeability or Romney's stance on the economy, for instance, as explanations of why they appeal with different demographics, or to explain rises and falls in the polls. But it could turn out that none of these factors make much of a difference.

Richard Tisei is running to represent Massachusetts' 6th congressional district, against Democratic incumbent, John Tierney. If he's successful, Tisai will be the first gay Republican to be elected to the House of Representatives and to have come before an election.

Not surprisingly, President Obama’s announcement last week in support of same-sex marriage appeared to mobilize his gay supporters. But, contrary to what some might expect, it also appeared to mobilize his Latino supporters, regardless of their sexual orientation.

It’s hard to imagine the Senate without the filibuster, but now the non-profit group Common Cause is filing a lawsuit against the Supreme Court claiming that the notorious senate procedure is, in fact, unconstitutional. The Takeaway talks with the plaintiff’s attorney Emmet Bondurant and filibuster scholar Gregory Koger to find out where the filibuster came from, what good it’s done us, and whether it’s going to stick around.        

Mara Liasson, national political correspondent for NPR, discusses recent political headlines in the 2012 election and in Washington DC.

President Obama's campaign attacked Mitt Romney's record on Bain Capital with an add that paints a picture of Romney as a job killer. In response, Romney team has put out its own ad, hailing Romney as a job creator who can save struggling American cities. Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich reviews the competing ads and assess whether which character description of Romney is more likely to stick with voters.