To no surprise, the super-committee served up the Congress of 2012 right in time for Thanksgiving. We gave Washington the bird. This holiday it came home to roost. Solving the long-term budget gap just isn't something our country can do for us. That's something only we can do, for our...

My sister Susan once dubbed me "Dr. Pangloss on steroids" -- hardly a compliment from a serious philosopher. It's true that I have an uncanny and often irritating ability to find silver linings behind even the darkest clouds. It was a personal challenge when she asked...

There's not a damn thing that Democrats can do between now and November to improve the lives of average Americans in any significant way. It's a little late for that. But there is something Obama could say that would demonstrates that he gets it and simultaneously validate the common sense...

It's great to see Democrats getting back to doing something we're really good at. Effective governance isn't our strong suit. No surprise since we don't have much experience. Over the past 30 years we've controlled both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue less than four. But when it comes to blaming each...

History is overdetermined, as the last decade proves so well. Do you remember that beautiful stretch of zeros, those sweet nothings, like so many unhatched goose eggs, like the odometer of a gleaming new car just driven off the lot? Oh, purest virgin decade of an untouched millennium, how did...

I used to think it was as absurd to say that nothing was a conspiracy as to say that everything is a conspiracy. That was before developing a thorough understanding of the absurdity of existence--especially in the political realm. It now seems altogether possible, even probable, that both statements could...

Now we get to see just what it looks like when an irresistible force meets an immovable object. The audacity of hope versus the tenacity of fear. That fear doesn't just drive the opposition to a frenzy of fanatical rejectionism. It also clutches at the throats of Obama supporters, especially...

Ask and ye shall receive, as the good book says. The fine print on that promise is "watch out what you pray for -- you just might get it." The Christian right prayed for the end of the world. Sure enough, they got the end of their world. They prayed...

The silver screen is both a reflection and window into our collective consciousness. Hollywood has had uncanny interactions with presidential politics since Ronald Reagan failed to get the lead in Casablanca and wound up in the White House instead. No doubt there's a parallel universe in which Reagan landed the...