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James Warren

James Warren

James Warren, a former reporter and editor with the Chicago Tribune, now writes for the Chicago News Cooperative and the New York Times.
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James Warren is a former manager, editor and Washington bureau chief of The Chicago Tribune. An ink-stained wretch, he's labored at The Newark Star-Ledger, The Chicago Sun-Times, and the Tribune in a variety of positions, including financial reporter, legal affairs reporter-columnist, labor writer, media writer-columnist and features editor. The Washingtonian once tagged him one of the town's 50 most influential journalists (he thinks he was 46, the number worn by Andy Pettitte, a pitcher for his beloved New York Yankees). He's a political analyst for MSNBC. He was recently publisher and president of the Chicago Reader, and is now policy columnist for Business Week and twice-a-week Chicago columnist for The New York Times (you can find his handiwork on the paper's website and on new Chicago pages produced for Friday's and Sunday's Midwest print editions by the nonprofit Chicago News Cooperative, which he held to start). A native New Yorker, he's a happy resident of the wonderful, if ethically challenged, City of Chicago, where he lives just north of decaying Wrigley Field with his Pulitzer Prize-winning wife, Cornelia, and their sons, Blair and Eliot. Blair's t-ball team is, yes, the Yankees.
Why Clint Eastwood's Chrysler Ad Was Pitch Perfect

Why Clint Eastwood's Chrysler Ad Was Pitch Perfect

Political undertones aside, the commercial's message holds true: Teamwork, community, and investing in American workers are a smart strategy.… More »

JFK's Re-Election Advice for Obama From Beyond the Grave

JFK's Re-Election Advice for Obama From Beyond the Grave

Like his predecessor, President Obama is leading a re-election campaign with a Democratic Party that has lost its popular appeal.… More »

Rachel Maddow: Romney Is the 'Tallest Midget' in the GOP Field

Rachel Maddow: Romney Is the 'Tallest Midget' in the GOP Field

At a lively forum in Chicago, David Axelrod, David Brooks, Rahm Emanuel, and others discuss the 2012 election, Facebook, and more.… More »

Bill Daley, the Wrong Man for the Job

Bill Daley, the Wrong Man for the Job

A centrist Chicago Democrat who made $20 million at JPMorgan Chase, he was ill-placed at the helm of a White House trending populist.… More »

'Chicago-Style Politics at Its Worst'? Fact-Checking Romney's Jab at Obama

'Chicago-Style Politics at Its Worst'? Fact-Checking Romney's Jab at Obama

Politics as usual in the The Windy City these days is transparent, efficient, innovative, and defying its ugly caricature.… More »

Why Obama Was Right to Pick a Fight Over the CFPB's Richard Cordray

Why Obama Was Right to Pick a Fight Over the CFPB's Richard Cordray

The president makes a needed, consumer-friendly act of defiance in appointing a new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.… More »

The Gingrich Dichotomy: Those Who Know Him Best Like Him Least

The Gingrich Dichotomy: Those Who Know Him Best Like Him Least

"He appears unable to even govern himself"… More »

Farewell to a Singular Soul, Christopher Hitchens

Farewell to a Singular Soul, Christopher Hitchens

He was irresistibly engaging and a source of intellectual, even physical, awe. For years to come we will ask ourselves: What would Hitchens have thought about this?… More »

Should a Sports Mogul Join the Republican Race?

Should a Sports Mogul Join the Republican Race?

If a New Jersey sports owner can run against Putin, maybe other owners have a shot against Obama.… More »

How Much 'Voice' Does the American Worker Have?

How Much 'Voice' Does the American Worker Have?

In the wake of Obama's comments on income inequality, the Labor Department means to find out… More »

Class Notes: Papandreou Knocked from Office by Former Amherst Roommate

Class Notes: Papandreou Knocked from Office by Former Amherst Roommate

A (satirical) letter to the Amherst class of '74, which just saw one of its alums dislodged from the highest political office in Greece by a classmate… More »

Gluttons for Punishment: Blame Voters for the Dismal GOP Field

Gluttons for Punishment: Blame Voters for the Dismal GOP Field

If the Republican presidential candidates fail to offer substance, it's because they're giving the public what it wants -- empty calories… More »

Get Over It: This Is Who Obama Is

Get Over It: This Is Who Obama Is

From his community organizing days to the Illinois State Senate, Barack Obama has always put pragmatic deal-making above ideology… More »

More Wild Tales as Rod Blagojevich Takes the Stand in His Retrial

More Wild Tales as Rod Blagojevich Takes the Stand in His Retrial

The former Illinois governor did not testify in his first trial but chose to do so this time, often rambling and straining to claim benign interpretations of damning wiretaps… More »

JFK Worried Moon Mission Was a 'Stunt,' New Tapes Show

JFK Worried Moon Mission Was a 'Stunt,' New Tapes Show

The 1963 recording, released by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, reveals presidential doubts about the program… More »

The Top Challenges Facing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

The Top Challenges Facing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

The pomp and circumstance of the inauguration will give way to these tough governing tasks ahead… More »

Obama, Osama, and the Problem With Defining Moments

Obama, Osama, and the Problem With Defining Moments

As pundits rush to apply historical significance to any big event, from the Challenger disaster to slaying Osama, real meaning can be trivialized… More »

Obama Woos the Oprah Voter Again

Obama Woos the Oprah Voter Again

The talk show host remains a powerful microphone for a White House looking to regain the 2008 magic… More »

The Potentially Revolutionary Political Role of Fried Chicken

The Potentially Revolutionary Political Role of Fried Chicken

At the MPSA conference in Chicago, thousands of attendees heard, among other things, a presentation on how we can be lured to vote more often… More »

Why Experts Get It Wrong

Why Experts Get It Wrong

New research explains why those we rely upon for advice so frequently lead us astray… More »

Special Report
The Civil War National Portrait Gallery The Civil War
A 150th-anniversary commemorative issue, with Atlantic work by Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and others. Read more ›
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