Stephen Reader

Recap from It's a Free Country.

Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's A Free Country, we bring you the unmissable quotes from the morning's political conversations on WNYC. Today on the Brian Lehrer Show, Matt Barreto, advisor to impreMedia/Latino Decisions polling and a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, discussed the findings of a new poll, which suggests that Latino voters do not care as much about religion or social issues as previously thought.

More than just another call to extend a payroll tax cut, today's speech from President Obama on the economy gave a broad idea of the kind of campaign he'll run during the general election, and what his policy priorities would be if he won a second term.

A series of e-mails from the tax-exempt 527 group "Should Trump Run?" is attempting to stoke new speculation about—and donations to—another campaign for The Donald.

When Newt Gingrich first formed his presidential exploratory committee back in March of 2011, we wondered if this was the "Return of the Mack." Once he jumped into the race, his staff jumped ship, his campaign sank into debt, and we stopped wondering. However, the unlikely events of the last month—Perry's "Oops," the Cain Train's fantastic derailing, Romney's continued "meh"—have us, and the electorate, taking a second look. This is your guide to Gingrich, complete with some things you might not know about the latest Republican hopeful to make a grab for the Not-Mitt-Romney mantle.

Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's A Free Country, we bring you the unmissable quotes from the morning's political conversations on WNYC. Today on the Brian Lehrer Show, Khalil Byrd, CEO of Americans Elect, talked about the campaign to nominate a presidential candidate outside the political party system.

Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's A Free Country, we bring you the unmissable quotes from the morning's political conversations on WNYC. Today on the Brian Lehrer Show, Paul Krugman reviewed the failure of the Super Committee to reach a deal, the ongoing crisis in Europe and the future of the euro, and more from the world of politics and economics.

President Barack Obama gave a jobs speech today at Manchester Central High School in New Hampshire, where he was heckled by Occupy Wall Street supporters.

TIME's Jay Newton-Small says that poor voter turnout means that most people aren't represented in the United States' most representative body. Congress is representing the extremes, and that's why it feels like nothing's getting done.

What did voters learn about the candidates—their biographies, their politics, their vision for the country—through more than just the news stories and blog posts and 140-character updates?

[Barack Obama] promised to be a transformative president; in that case, you have to tell us what you're going to transform. —  Chris Matthews, anchor of MSNBC's "Hardball" and NBC's ...

Should the deficit reduction super committee fail to cut at least $1.2 trillion in spending, a trigger will do it for them, taking an axe to defense spending while largely sparing entitlement programs.

A new Siena poll of registered New York voters has Barack Obama beating Republican front-runner Mitt Romney by 25 points, and the president's favorability rating at its highest point since July.

Interests like Greg David and [Kathryn Wilde] lobby vociferously against the very expenditures that would make investment in education and infrastructure possible...I'm not stereotypi...

In case you missed it, Herman Cain sang on demand at today's National Press Club luncheon. It was a hymn, and it wasn't about pizza.

Even if they don't make the news, even if they're not litigated, they provide the constitutional backdrop for how our democracy works. If we're going to understand the Constitution, w...

This is part of a vetting process for a candidate who has done better than any of us expected. Herman Cain has really defied the expectations of political reporters who didn't take hi...

Republican presidential nomination hopeful Rick Perry isn’t counting himself out of the race yet. Despite slipping steeply in the polls, the Texas governor is back with a new approach, and it involves reforming America’s ridiculously complicated federal tax policy. Perry has been coy with some of the intricacies, and so far independent tax analysts haven’t been able to gather enough details about Perry’s plan to rate it. But for now, here is what we know so far about Rick Perry's flat tax:

Seemingly tailor-made for protesters, new statistics from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office show after-tax income grew more for the top 1 percent than it has for anyone else since 1979.

Libya was the test case for the un-Iraq. This was an effort to make the commitment at the beginning that there would be no American ground troops. —David Sanger, chief Washington cor...

Former New Hampshire Governor and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu announced today that he would endorse Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination, while business mogul Steve Forbes came out in support of Rick Perry over the weekend.