You championed a small version of the Affordable Care Act in Massachusetts. Does that mean you believe it's more efficient for each state to have its own system for insuring the uninsured?

In Wednesday night's debate, Romney won on style while Obama won on substance. Romney sounded as if he had conviction, which means he's either convinced himself that the lies he tells are true or he's a fabulous actor.

In political terms, headlines are everything -- and most major media are leading with the drop in the unemployment rate. Look more closely, though, and the picture is murkier.

Republicans are well practiced in the politics of fear and the logistics of the big lie. The challenge for Obama and Biden and for the rest of us over the next four weeks is to counter their fearsome lies with the truth.

Beware Joe Biden: Paul Ryan will appear affable. He's less polished and aggressive than Romney, even soft-spoken. And he acts as if he's saying reasonable things. But under the surface he's a right-wing zealot.

Biden not only trounced Ryan, but also, in the process, trounced Romney.

Although the "town meeting"-style debate isn't conducive to sharp give-and-take with Romney, look for every opportunity to nail him. Indignance doesn't come naturally to you, but you have every reason to be indignant on behalf of the American people.

Tuesday night our president was articulate and forceful -- in sharp contrast to his performance in the first presidential debate. He stated his beliefs. He defended his record. He told America where he wanted to take the nation in his second term.

President Obama should propose that the nation's biggest banks be broken up and their size capped, and that the Glass-Steagall Act be resurrected. It's good policy, and it would smoke out Mitt Romney as being of, by, and for Wall Street -- and not on the side of average Americans.

Although Monday night's topic was foreign policy, I hope Americans understood it was also about every other major challenge we face. Mitt Romney is not only a cold warrior; he's also a class warrior. And the two are closely related.

This is for those of you who consider yourself to be progressive but have given up on politics because it seems rotten to the core. You may prefer Obama to Romney but don't think there's a huge difference between the two, so you may not even vote. Your cynicism is understandable, but it's a self-fulfilling prophesy.

As we go into the final days of a dismal presidential campaign where too many issues have been fudged or eluded -- and the media only want to talk about is who's up and who's down -- the biggest issue on which the candidates have given us the clearest choice is whether the rich should pay more in taxes.

Leaving JFK today, I couldn't help think it was a miniature version of the America we'll have if Mitt Romney is elected president. Rational and efficient in terms of supply and demand, guaranteed to maximize profits, but fundamentally unfair.

Lies like the latest from Mitt Romney, financed by deep pockets, are hard to refute, but they must be refuted. Otherwise, there is no accountability in our democracy.