The returns weren't all in yet on Tuesday's Republican primaries but President Obama didn't wait. He kicked off his 2012 campaign against Mitt Romney with a hard-hitting speech centered on the House Republicans' budget plan -- which Romney has enthusiastically endorsed. That plan, by the way, is the most radical reverse-Robin Hood proposal propounded by any political party in modern America. Here's what the president had to say about it: "Disguised as a deficit reduction... it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It is thinly veiled social Darwinism." Indeed, we are likely to hear a lot more about social Darwinism in the months ahead.

Imagine a country in which the very richest people get all the economic gains. They eventually accumulate so much of the nation's total income and wealth that the middle class no longer has the purchasing power to keep the economy going full speed.

President Obama will claim the economy is improving -- and, technically, it is. Growth this year will most likely average around 2 percent. The problem is, most Americans aren't feeling it in their paychecks.

The magic of private equity reveals a lot about how and why our economic system has become so distorted and lopsided -- and why all the gains are going to the very top.

As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote in 1904, "taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society." But the wealthiest Americans, who haven't raked in as much of America's income and wealth since the 1920s, are today paying a lower tax rate than they have in over 30 years.

The Obama White House should face it: "We're on the right track" isn't sufficient. The president has to offer the nation a clear, bold strategy for boosting the economy. It should be the economic mandate for his second term.

So many Americans are so angry and frustrated these days -- vulnerable to loss of job and healthcare and home, without a shred of economic security -- they're easy prey for demagogues offering simple answers and ready scapegoats. Take, for example, Bill O'Reilly.

What are the three demographic groups whose electoral impact is growing fastest? Hispanics, women, and young people. Who are Republicans pissing off the most? Latinos, women, and young people. It's almost as if the GOP can't help itself.