Alan Greenblatt
Alan Greenblatt has been covering politics and government in Washington and around the country for 20 years. He came to NPR as a digital reporter in 2010, writing about a wide range of topics, including elections, housing economics, natural disasters and same-sex marriage.
He was previously a reporter with Governing, a magazine that covers state and local government issues. Alan wrote about education, budgets, economic development and legislative behavior, among other topics. He is the coauthor, with Kevin Smith, of Governing States and Localities, a college-level textbook that is now in its fourth edition.
As a reporter for Congressional Quarterly, he was the inaugural winner of the National Press Club's Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, which is given to outstanding reporters under the age of 35. Sadly, he no longer meets that requirement.
Along the way, Alan has contributed articles about politics and culture for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is happy to be working for an outlet where he has been able to write about everything from revolutions in the Middle East to antique jazz recordings.
Alan is a graduate of San Francisco State University and holds a master's degree from the University of Virginia.
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Neither Vice President Biden nor GOP Rep. Paul Ryan gave any quarter Thursday night. The two men were pointed and at some points personal in discussing their differences across a broad range of domestic and foreign policy issues.
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Vice presidential debates are often quickly forgotten, but tonight's matchup — featuring what one pundit calls "probably two of the most substantive vice presidential candidates we've ever had" — will likely be widely watched. Both men are steeped in policy but offer big contrasts in styles.
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The outcome of the presidential race will come down to swing states, but Obama begins the race to 270 with the comfort of counting on a greater number of all-but-certain electoral votes than Romney has.
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President Obama came across as defensive and lackluster, while Romney sounded confident and may have begun a late-season pivot to the center. It may not be enough to erase Obama's polling lead, even in the short run, but Democrats will want to hone their messages for the debates to come.
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It's easy to blame politicians for failing to set aside differences and work together. But many political scientists believe that voters share the blame. Americans increasingly view the world through separate, partisan lenses and have turned compromise into a political liability.
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Polls suggest Hispanics favor President Obama over Mitt Romney by at least a 2-to-1 margin. And while the Hispanic share of the population is growing fast, the turnout rate remains low. So Obama and Romney both are working hard to get their Hispanic voters to the polls.
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In recent decades, many U.S. embassies have become virtual fortresses. The difficulties diplomats have in mingling freely in other countries complicates their task of gleaning information and promoting the U.S. message.
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Once political enemies, President Obama and Bill Clinton have established a partnership that's becoming a cornerstone of the Obama campaign. Clinton exemplifies perhaps the most crucial political gift that Obama seems to lack.
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Every election cycle sees political candidates continue on with their cause long after the media and party officials have concluded that they have no chance of winning the nomination. But is it that they can't see the writing on the wall? Don't believe it? Or just don't care?
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The economy was the main focus of the president's State of the Union address. Obama offered specific proposals for boosting manufacturing and creating more jobs. He also laid out an optimistic vision of the nation's role in the world. In the GOP response, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said Obama had made the economy worse.