Presidents' Day is a time set aside to celebrate the legacies of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and also remember all of the presidents of the United States (POTUS) that have made our nation great. Legislation passed under the Lyndon Johnson administration moved the legal observance of Washington's birthday from...

Pericles, the famed leader of the Athenian Golden Age, once said "If Athens shall appear great to you, consider then that her glories were purchased by valiant men, and by...

Our national conversation is often spent on trivial things and really important matters get trivialized. Getting our fiscal house in order should be priority No. 1 for all Americans. With major tax increases and deep cuts to the military (a la sequestration) looming that could send us back into a...

Governor Brown talked about "declinists" in his State of the State speech last month and also said that reports of California's demise were greatly exaggerated -- to use an old Mark Twain refrain. It can be difficult to remind ourselves that we Californians really are in...

Political sex scandals have had a way of captivating us and diverting our attention from the real issues even before the days of TMZ, Big Government and the National Enquirer. The modern-day celebrity news culture dedicates column inches, cable minutes and untold pixels to talking about shirtless congressmen,...

One of the first things you hear when attending a political seminar at the USC Unruh Institute of Politics or at something like the American Associated of Political Consultants Annual Conference -- as I have in past years -- is that political people are the abnormal ones. The...

There are enduring American touchstones that took root in our childhood and continue on as we get older and become fathers and mothers and grandparents: taking off our caps during our national anthem, singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th inning stretch, and placing the right...

There seems to be an anthem for every political season. Reagan, much to the chagrin of Bruce Springsteen, had "Born in the USA" in '84. Clinton had Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop." Go back to Bobby Kennedy's 82-day presidential run in '68 and you come up with Woody Guthrie's "This Land...

As predicted, the party out of power picked up seats in the midterm elections -- as it has to past presidents like Reagan in '82, Clinton in '94 and Bush in '06. The "wave election" or "swerve election" as David Broder calls it, seemed to stop at the...

During a high point of the Cold War, President Kennedy sent a message of defiance through his Ich bin ein Berliner speech.  The young president said "I am a citizen of Berlin," effectively boosting the morale of West Berliners and stating American policy to the Soviets in the wake...

As President Obama and lame duck Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have learned the hard way, complete overhauls or transformations are rare in American politics. Incrementalism is the general rule, even here in California despite our reputation for exporting revolutionary ideas.  Healthcare reform led by the late Senator Ted Kennedy in...

Mrs. Frendt was my 4th and 5th grade teacher at Walt Disney Elementary School. I still remember her talking about the Continental Army and how the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga was the first American victory in the Revolutionary War. That nugget of history stuck with me, and I...

The Honorable Jerry Brown is one of those larger-than-life politicians with a smaller-than-life persona that has served as the political wallpaper in many of our mental kitchens. While I may have still been watching the later episodes of Land of the Lost on Saturday mornings when he began his...

Two of the most prophetic statements made in presidential farewells are Washington's warning about foreign entanglements and Eisenhower's cautionary note about the military-industrial complex.  Evidence of the last half century suggests--and in particular the last administration--they go hand-in-hand, especially with the rise of Big Poli,...