President Obama faces two huge challenges in the next few months. One is dealing with the reality of an impending depression. It will take much stronger medicine to avert a depression than the measures taken to date, and the president needs to rally public opinion if he is to persuade Congress to act at the necessary scale. The related challenge is about appearances -- about whether middle America feels that the federal outlays are trickling down to regular people. So far, bankers seem to be getting too much and Main Street too little.
The conservative movement is now officially dead. All that remains is for the pallbearers to carry the casket to its burial site. Obama's speech tonight will provide the funeral oration.
While no text of the President's address has been released to the press, Republican leaders have already promised to respond to it with the grouchiest facial expressions in history.
A cartoon is misinterpreted and black organizations see an opportunity to make noise. Meanwhile, Rihanna is beat down by Chris Brown and commentary in the black community is, "What did she do to cause it?"
Paulson and Geithner's refusal to comply with the law has already cost the taxpayers scores of billions of dollars in unnecessary costs. Geithner indicated Friday that he would continue to flout the law.
Bobby Jindal is playing politics, branding himself and his party in an effort to return to power, all at the expense of the people of his state.
We had a government so vicious and impenetrably stupid that it managed to take my freedom of speech and turn it into someone else's living hell.
Whenever our Republican representatives show up on the cable channels, they look like a 1950s high school principal who just caught you cheating. Pinched, stern, and scolding. Definitely not cute.
Unlike Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, Clinton's job demands she be more than a one-trick pony -- she does not, and never will, enjoy the luxury of having only one prerogative.
Through the years, there have been many issues where labor and business don't see eye to eye. Here's one where we firmly agree: the need to fix healthcare, now, not in spite of the economic crisis, but because of it.
In the wake of this economic meltdown, maybe it's time to put to rest the conservative canard that respecting workers' rights to unionize and to bargain collectively is tantamount to a communist coup d'etat.
There is a progressive way to bring fiscal responsibility back to our federal budget, a path that embraces progressive values of taking care of the poor and investing in a prosperous middle class.
Secretary Clinton certainly doesn't need nor deserve a lecture from the activist peanut gallery on China's human rights or her commitment to calling them on it when the time is right.
My first thought when reading no stimulus money was earmarked for hurricane recovery was, "Damn, three and a half years along, and we're not shovel-ready." But in fact, that's not the case.
You can create a pretty sizable audience in a cost-effective manner if your publication's perspective is what we can call The Rest of Us -- a perspective focusing on how public policy affects ordinary people.
Recently, I sat down with the normally press-shy actor to talk about a number of subjects, including how he views his role as an advocate.
The Oscar telecast was a bloated and overdone spectacle that left us bewildered, unenthusiastic and exhausted. The show wasn't a complete train wreck, but it came pretty close.
In this downturn, cash may have been promoted from king to God. If you have it, now is a time of opportunity.
