A MAP OF THE WASHINGTON MIND, 2012

BRUCE FEIRSTEIN

THE™ YORK TIMES

CORE OPERATING PRINCIPLE Tip O'Neill was wrong when he said all politics is local. Today, all politics is partisan.

TALK RAD 0

TALKING POINTS Spin, platitudes, pat answers, and sound bites for every occasion, sometimes filled with sound and fury, almost always signifying nothing.

APOCALYPTIC THREAT Term limits.

HEROES f J.F.K., F.D.R., Truman, Martin Luther King Jr., Bill Clinton.

ENIGMAS Barack Obama.

HOLLYWOOD

Abraham Lincoln.

Reagan, the Founding Fathers, Churchill, 'hurrhill God. C-7orl

SHORT-TERM, MEMORY Where today's campaign promises overwrite yesterday's

FUND-RAISING The complete donor database of every single person who did—and didn't—contribute to your last election, categorized by income, race, and Zip Code.

POLLS Historical data on your state/district dating to 1900, plus the latest data from Gallup, Rasmussen, Fox, CNN, Reuters, etc.—crosstabulated to 0.001 percent.

V\"DRILL, BABY, DRILL!"

NIGHTMARES vs. DREAMS Big Business. Deregulation. School vouchers. Voter IDs. Solyndra. The Bush tax cuts. Rush Limbaugh. The Koch brothers. Fast and Furious. Fox News.

DREAMS vs. NIGHTMARES Big Government. The A.C.L.U. The E.P.A. Planned Parenthood. Public Broadcasting. Obamacare. Jon Stewart. George Soros. HBO. The DREAM Act.