A couple of times I've joked about having a "mind meld" with President Obama that has allowed me to predict when something is up...like I did recently when he had a convo with David Simon . But I'll let you in on my secret. It's not about a mind meld or even being a "smartypants." It's just about paying attention. A lot of people in the media miss a story like this because they're lazy. I've seen a couple of articles ( here's the worst ) about the President's recent commutations and they all zero in on a narrative that was started a long time ago about him being stingy with clemency. All that was required to adopt that narrative was counting. But if you read the President and Attorney General's comments when they kicked off the Clemency Initiative, you knew what had held things up in the beginning and what they were doing to change the process. It was inevitable that - before his second term was over - there were going to be
Nancy LeTourneau's big picture look at politics and life