The recent uproar about the arrest of the distinguished Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates called to mind my own experiences with the Cambridge police during my years in college, several decades ago. As with the incident involving Prof. Gates, each of these encounters provided what President Obama called a "teachable...

Facing stubborn resistance from some Senate Republicans to a bailout for the ailing auto industry, the three major carmakers, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, have reportedly decided to sweeten the deal by offering every American household a free car if the bailout goes through.

A version of the emergency rescue...

Reasonable people may differ as to when exactly the bloom came off the rose for Barack Obama. Of course, hopes fulfilled inevitably bring anti-climax, so it's possible that much of the general public is now predisposed to find fault even where none exists. But surely few of his supporters, and...

President-Elect Barack Obama's transition team is reported to be deeply divided over whether to offer a post to Monica Lewinsky, the former White House Intern whose intimate relationship with President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment.

Until now, Lewinsky was one of the few high-profile figures from the Clinton Presidency...

In what is sure to be a controversial move, President-elect Barack Obama has indicated to his inner circle of advisors that he and his wife may have sex in the White House sometime during the four years of his first term in office.

"He's not saying they definitely will have...

The lawn signs are still up for Al Franken here in Minneapolis. And they seem likely to stay up until long after the squirrels have eaten the faces off of all the remaining jack-o-lanterns. A mandatory recount looms in Al's still-undecided Senate contest with Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and the...

In a characteristically sassy column on October 11th, the New York Times' frequently forwarded columnist Maureen Dowd summed up the declinist mood currently sweeping the sushi-and Schopenhauer set. The piece, entitled "Are We Rome? Tu Betchus!," consisted mostly of a typical Dowdian flight-of-fancy: an extended riff in what might...

Regardless of which side you're on, I think you'll agree that this year's presidential election is awfully important. The voters have been presented with a clear choice between two candidates with fundamental differences in their backgrounds and levels of experience and in their plans for our country's future. The significance...

Back in 2002, The Onion ran one of the truest of the thousands of untrue headlines that have appeared in that publication over the years. It read, "Peace Activist Has to Admit that Barrett .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle is Pretty Cool."

The piece (you can read it here) explains...

Could you believe it? A slam-dunk, right?

I haven't seen a beat-down like that since Bentsen vs. Quayle. It wasn't even close! It's over. There's no way the Other Guy can bounce back from a humiliating defeat like that.

My Guy was so presidential. You could really see him sitting...

The apocalyptic tone of this year's presidential race is starting to wear me out.

While neither Barack Obama or John McCain is claiming that the world will end if the other is elected (on the other hand, both Sarah Palin and Joe Biden seem perfectly capable of saying such...

I believe that old people are our future.

Although the number of Americans aged 18-29 is about the same as the number over 65, 40 million or so, voter turnout among the older group was far higher in the last presidential election. Almost 80% of the feisty oldsters turned...

It's a tawdry scenario that has become one of the more depressing clichés of our modern media era: an attractive but naive young woman, eager to succeed in show business, falls into the hands of a Svengali who convinces her to perform unnatural acts on videotape with vague promises that...

That nasty schoolyard adjective, the "S Word," "stupid," has returned to the national discourse right on schedule, as politicians, pundits, and celebrity political hobbyists from both sides accuse their opponents of trying to pull a fast one on the American Public. It's intended to belittle by suggesting that the other...

To the ten friends who e-mailed me the Photoshopped picture of Sarah Palin in the American flag bikini holding a rifle...

To the guy who posted the list of lies in her speech even before it was over...

To the rumor victim who sent me some new scandalous tidbit every...

Two Tuesdays past, when Hillary Clinton took the stage at the Democratic Convention in Denver in her Day-Glo pantsuit looking for all the world like a human highway cone, my immediate reaction was, "Is she here to speak or is she here to make balloon animals?" At first blush, this...

Less than a minute after Rudy Giuliani finished tanning himself in the spotlight in St. Paul, Sarah Palin took the stage Wednesday night in the most eagerly anticipated Republican debut since Brenda Frazier made her curtsies before polite society back in '38, (Actually, that's not really fair. For all I...

John McCain's announcement last Friday morning that Sarah Palin, the obscure political neophyte who currently holds the largely ceremonial post of Governor of Alaska would be his running mate, stunned the political world. It also annoyed the political world, which is known for reacting to anything flying under its radar...

Even his diehard opponents will admit that Barack Obama, for months the presumptive and, as of last night, the actual Democratic nominee, rarely puts a foot wrong along the campaign trail. While some have criticized his rhetorical style as bloodless and vague, it is clearly a choice, the result of...