S
    Sam Stein

    Sam Stein

    Senior Politics Editor, HuffPost

  • Both Trump And Obama Moved Quickly To Save Indiana Jobs. One Sold It Better.

    The public relations element of the presidency matters, as Donald Trump is showing.

  • Pressure Mounts On Trump To Keep The Iran Nuclear Deal

    Foreign policy luminaries warn the president-elect that scrapping the accord would create a huge mess.

  • Trump Has Shown Receptiveness To Obama's Agenda. Does He Actually Mean It?

    The $1 million question: Can you change the president-elect's worldview or is this all for show?

  • The Young Woman Whose Addiction Story Touched Obama's Heart Just Died

    Jessica Grubb's political impact was profound.

  • Hillary Clinton's Problem Isn't That She's Not Progressive, It's That She's Cautious

    Many of her struggles stem from the political calculations she's made in her career.

  • How A 2007 Debate Gaffe Paved The Way For A Deal That Will Define Obama's Legacy

    On June 3, 2008, Barack Obama, then a senator from Illinois, secured the necessary delegates to become the Democratic nominee for president. The next day, he spoke before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby. Addressing the crowd, Obama remained unbowed on the position they found most indefensible: a promise to talk to the nation's adversaries without preconditions.

  • Clinton's Big Economic Speech Will Be Based On One Simple Idea

    In her first major economic policy speech on Monday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faces dual tasks: contrasting her agenda with the leading Republican presidential candidates and embracing -- while still drawing distinctions from -- the president she hopes to succeed. Appearing at The New School, Clinton will attempt to thread this needle by taking a cue from her husband’s 1992 presidential bid. According to the campaign, Clinton will offer a three-pronged vision that her aides say is designed to raise wages and protect workers.

  • The House Just Passed A Major Science Research Bill. No, Really, It Did.

    Science advocates scored a major legislative victory on Friday -- a rarity in recent politics -- after the House of Representatives passed a bill directing billions to agencies that promote biomedical research. The 21st Century Cures Act sailed through the chamber by vote of 344 to 77, a startling show of bipartisanship for a body that has done remarkably little of that. Should they do that -- and indications from the House Appropriations Committee are positive -- it would mark a reversal of financial fortune for a corner of the federal government that's been fretting about budget shortcomings since the last dollars of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package ran out.

  • Jeb Bush Addresses 'Tragedy' Of Heroin Epidemic, Citing Death Of Campaign Worker's Brother

    The growing epidemic of heroin overdoses is emerging as a key public policy issue for the leading presidential candidates in both parties. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said on Wednesday that he’s been peppered with questions on the campaign trail about how to tackle substance abuse and that the issue has had a personal impact on his staff. Bush confided that the brother of one of his campaign workers died from an overdose, as did the sons of two workers he recently encountered in New Hampshire.

  • Obama Wants An Iran Deal. He Also Doesn't Want To Be Blamed For Failure To Get One.

    As international talks with Iran over its nuclear program enter the eleventh -- and twelfth and thirteenth -- hour, the Obama administration is refusing to heed calls to leave the negotiating table, for two reasons. One is substantive: The administration believes a nuclear deal remains possible. The other is political: the White House is wary that if negotiations falter and it ends up with the blame, there could be serious diplomatic and geopolitical consequences.

  • Rick Perry Goes From Freaking Out Over Gay Service Members To Accepting Them

    On Sunday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry waved the white flag on allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, telling ABC’s "This Week" that “the horse is out of the barn” on that particular policy. “The GOP has to recognize that or be left in the past.

  • Suddenly Unable To Find The Donald Trump Mattress Of Your Dreams? Try These Other Classy Products

    News broke Thursday that Serta would stop selling Donald Trump mattresses after the businessman turned Republican presidential candidate made incendiary comments about Mexican immigrants. Which begged the question: Donald Trump has a line of mattresses? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

  • Bernie Sanders Raises $15 Million In Just 2 Months

    His campaign reported on Thursday that it had raised $15 million over the last two months. It is an impressive haul for a candidate few thought would be more than a socialist-minded megaphone. But Sanders has taken off, becoming the closest thing to a challenger to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the primaries.

  • One Very Large Man's 18-Year Quest For Hot Dog Eating Glory

    Listen to our interview with Eric Booker below. A native of New York City, where he still works as an MTA subway conductor, he was walking with his kids past the Nathan's Famous in Oceanside, New York, in June 1997.

  • Hillary Clinton Raised $45 Million In Latest Quarter

    WASHINGTON –- Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign on Wednesday announced a massive fundraising haul in the quarter that ended on June 30, further cementing her status as the clear front-runner in the 2016 race. All told, the Democratic candidate and former secretary of state raised more than $45 million in primary campaign contributions between her campaign announcement in April and the end of June. That figure, according to a Clinton aide, is the most that any candidate has ever raised in their opening quarter, topping President Barack Obama's roughly $42 million in the first quarter of 2011.

  • Wedding Vendors Gear Up For A $ame-$ex Wedding Boom

    The Supreme Court's ruling that state bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional represents the culmination of a decades-long political campaign, a historic benchmark in civil rights and a massive upending of social mores. "I sure hope we see an uptick in marriages," said Susan Madsen, general manager with Marcus Hotels & Resorts in Nebraska. Of those unmarried couples, approximately 150,000 live in the 13 states that did not previously allow same-sex marriage.

  • Some Republicans Want Their Party To Shut Up About Gay Marriage Now

    In a sweeping advancement of civil rights, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that gay marriage bans were unconstitutional. Republican strategists and supporters of same-sex marriage promptly encouraged the party to shut the hell up. It’s hardly a secret within the GOP ranks that their platform opposing same-sex marriage is increasingly on the wrong side of history and public opinion.

  • Scalia Said To Ask The Nearest Hippie About Marriage, So We Did

    In his dissent in the Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage throughout the country, Justice Antonin Scalia rested part of his case on the notion that marriage was inherently a self-limiting proposition. The Huffington Post decided to take him up on that offer. Shortly after the opinion was made public, we went to the White House in search of the nearest drum circle.

  • Here's The Story You'd Be Reading Today If The Supreme Court Had Gutted Obamacare

    The Affordable Care Act won a major victory in the Supreme Court on Thursday when the justices, on a 6-3 basis, declined to stick a knife into one of the law's major organs. This was a major news story with huge implications for President Barack Obama’s legacy and for millions of people relying on the health coverage the law provides.

  • Hillary Clinton's Newest Consultant Was A Major Keystone Lobbyist

    The newest hire for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is a longtime strategist who played a key role in her 2008 primary defeat while working for then-Sen. Barack Obama. Clinton's new consultant, Jeff Berman, has followed, in many respects, a well-worn path for those in Washington D.C. He spent a large chunk of his career in the public sector before a stint on K Street, and now he's back again. When Clinton hired Berman for his current role, it was seen as something of a coup, because he's known as a master of the mechanics of the primary process.