Political candidates across this great country of ours, I ask you -- nay, I beg you: Can you please put a moratorium on the words "Main Street" and "Wall Street" in the same sentence? I know it won't be easy (Gosh, I even enjoyed writing that last line). Surely the...

There are many issues confronting American democracy that can make us uneasy about its health in future years. These include the undue influence of campaign contributions on legislation, the drawing of legislative districts to produce safe districts for representatives, questionable practices in State voting processes, lack of serious media coverage...

Growing voter concerns over the financial crisis are closely connected to worries about health care. The latest Institute for America's Future Op Ed ad in Tuesday's NY Times links the two issues directly, with the headline: WILL WE LET CONSERVATIVES DO TO HEALTH CARE WHAT THEY DID TO BANKING?...

With Obama up in polls, the Palin narrative unraveling, and McCain embracing the mantle of underdog, events are starting to answer the question of whether Barack Obama should or should not have picked Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

In the months since Obama decided against adding Clinton to...

Until the Republican Convention, very few had ever heard of Sarah Palin... and now this mean-spirited campaigner is asking who is Barack Obama?

I'm asking who is Sarah Palin?

I know that she's a woman who doesn't believe in allowing women the right to choose their own reproductive health decisions...

In the New York Times, Adam Nagourney identifies "race" as one of the six factors that could prevent the election of Barack Obama. The others, as paraphrased by Mark Halperin, are "(1) not everyone who has recently registered as a Democrat may vote on Election Day; (2) the...

Political horse-race fans are focusing on Obama's 11-point lead in the new Newsweek poll. But I'm focusing on the 10-point lead McCain has on national security and terrorism -- the only remaining issue voters believe the Republican candidate would be more adept at handling.

As the one arrow...

I had intended to write this entire piece and then go back and remove the 'g' from every word that ended in one.

But then I thought that would make me a churlish, smart-arsed, lefty stereotype and alienate the very people I want to try to hear me. (Although...

The financial markets are gyrating. The world economy is teetering. The U.S. government is making a $700 billion or more bailout to avert a worldwide disaster. No surprise, health care has become a side show. Or has it? Not only does this upheaval actually make health-care reform more pressing, it...

Does John McCain "pal around with terrorists?"

Certainly McCain's continuing "association" and relationship with the convicted Watergate burglar and domestic terrorist G. Gordon Liddy might suggest that is the case, if we are to apply the standards drawn by the McCain campaign.

In 1998, Liddy gave a fundraiser...

The difference between Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney is Sarah Palin didn't flunk out of college. Dick Cheney did, so he has an excuse when he can't understand the difference between illegal and unethical. Sarah Palin should know better.

Smart? Ask anyone at the Weekly Standard: Sarah Palin is John...

I have to admit I was impressed when all those republicans revolted during the bailout saga. I may not agree with the principles at work but I have to admire people who stuck by theirs even as their own president and candidate pointed at the falling sky.

Of course,...

These days, a lot of white folks are asking me about how race is going to affect the presidential election.

It's a question I've often found amusing. After all, most white people these days know enough to avoid expressing racially insensitive ideas around people of color....

"Senator McCain, you used to say that the main thing you were looking for in a running mate was the ability to take over as president, if necessary, on Day One. Given how many people there are in government that clearly meet that criterion, how do you justify picking someone...