Jay Bookman

Anomalies are funny things. Considered in isolation, they might not mean much. But when you get a string of them, one anomaly after another, they cease to be anomalies at all. They become a trend.

With Brian Kemp leaving the governor’s office after next year’s election, Georgia Democrats have an opportunity to make history.  All they need now is a candidate. The alleged frontrunner for the 2026 nomination is Keisha Lance Bottoms. According to a poll of Democratic primary voters commissioned by her own campaign last month, Bottoms “pulls more […]

It has taken some time, but the American public is finally beginning to understand what Republicans in Washington are doing to our nation’s health care system, including the Affordable Care Act that now covers an estimated 24 million people. “When the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are […]

She blew it. Fani Willis blew it. Give her credit for this much: The Fulton County district attorney did have the guts, the courage and the ambition to attempt to bring Donald Trump to justice for his role in trying to overthrow the 2020 election here in Georgia. For all we know, Willis might also […]

Donald Trump’s appointee as secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has set out to dismantle an Atlanta-based institution, attempting to transform the Centers for Disease Control, the planet’s pre-eminent public-health agency, into the Centers for Deluded Conspiracy, an official purveyor of pseudo-science and quackery. And those with the power to stop […]

Do you believe in democracy, or do you believe in Donald Trump? That’s the question you’ll have to ask yourself when you go into the voting booth to elect Georgia’s next governor. If you’re a true believer in Donald Trump, if you see him as The Man Sent By God Himself to rescue America from […]

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is asking Georgia voters for a big promotion, and the centerpiece of his campaign to become our next governor is a promise that many will find appealing, at least at first glance.  The fact that the promise is also highly impractical and deeply unfair is almost beside the point, given the […]

Georgia’s 2026 Republican primary won’t be held until next May, but Sen. Jon Ossoff already knows who he’ll be running against:  Donald Trump. “Trump promised to attack a broken system. I get it: Ripe target,” Ossoff told a campaign crowd last week in Savannah. “But here’s the thing: He’s a crook, and a con man. […]

If I wanted a failed football coach as my U.S. senator, I’d move to Alabama. And I’m not moving to Alabama. Seriously, what in Derek Dooley’s resume makes him think his next job ought to be serving Georgia in the U.S. Senate? At age 57, his sole asset as a political candidate is his legendary […]

Last weekend, for the first time in a while, I felt faith refreshed. In Atlanta, Savannah, Marietta, Athens, Macon, Columbus and other Georgia cities, large and small, tens of thousands of people turned out in protest against the excesses of their government, joining millions of their fellow Americans in protest all around the country, in big cities, country towns and suburbs.

After repeatedly promising on the campaign trail that he would never cut Medicaid benefits, Donald Trump is pushing a “big, beautiful” spending bill that would slash Medicaid and other health care spending by $800 billion over the next decade.  And if you still believe the administration, they’re going to make those cuts without anyone losing […]

By most common measures, the life of Adriana Smith ended three months ago, when a tragic series of undiagnosed blood clots left her brain dead, with no hope of recovery. Yet today, in a hospital room in Midtown Atlanta, Adriana’s body is still being kept alive by machines, without regard to her family’s wishes. As […]

Through most of last week, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene sounded pretty much committed to a run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Jon Ossoff. She made it clear how eager she was to run, how much she wanted to be the one to reclaim the seat that in her mind Democrats had […]

Brian Kemp is not a large man, but he is the Big Dawg. The scramble doesn’t start until the two-term governor says it starts. But once Kemp makes up his mind whether to run for the U.S. Senate next year, he will set off a mad dash by politicians of both parties hoping to move […]

“It’s our mission to enhance your college experience through the internationalization of campus,” the University of Georgia tells its 2,600 foreign students on its website. “No matter your held identity, perspective and worldview, there’s a place for everyone.” Except, there’s not a place for everyone.  Not anymore. All around the country, including here in Georgia, […]

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines canceled earlier projections of record annual profits this week, with CEO Ed Bastian instead warning investors that the airline is canceling expansion plans and preparing for a recession. “We’re in uncharted, unprecedented uncertainty when you look at what has happened,” Bastian said, calling it “a self-inflicted situation.”  “Until we get better […]

Our lives rely on systems. Flush the toilet, the sewage system takes it away. Flip an electrical switch, the lights turn on. Hit the brake pedal, the system brings the car safely to a halt.  We take those systems for granted, assuming that they’ll operate unseen and in the background, because that’s how we design […]

Jon Ossoff is a Georgian, a U.S. senator and a Jew. He also faces a tough re-election fight next year, perhaps against a popular Republican governor. All of that and more set up a pretty easy decision for Ossoff last November, when the Senate was considering a series of resolutions to stop the sale of […]

Who are you picking to win the Super Bowl? You could bet the Kansas City Chiefs, but you’d have to spot the Eagles a point and a half. You could bet the over/under (the total number of points scored by both teams), which the sports books have set at 49. If you bet $100 that […]

Back in 2018, Stacey Abrams was one of the hottest political figures in the country, and in some liberal circles was even approaching folk-hero status.  Her talent, then and now, was obvious. She is brighter than hell, she understands policy, she shines in small groups and in front of crowds, she can raise money and […]