The study of politics involves reading the tea leaves - what one very savvy businesswoman at the top of her field told me she does everyday to see which way the wind is blowing in her company. She listens for what is being said, but more importantly what isn't.

Wherever...

While Senators Clinton and Obama are struggling to reach the "little guys" in Indiana and North Carolina, an article by Ellen Goodman reminded me about some big guys who pose a danger to democracy.

Last year I wrote about the Supreme Court decision to make it impossible...

Something potentially sinister is emerging because of the health care debate we're failing to have.

No matter which candidate you favor or whose plan you back, if you look at the spiraling costs of medical tests and doctor visits, you have to wonder who will be sacrificed.

Yes, that's what...

Yes. There was true pain on Barack Obama's face today and in his gestures. He'd been burned and we've all been there. Fortunately for most of us it is a private experience. For Barack Obama, it was all too public.

This is learning the hard way. But...

Why is the Democratic Convention in August if August is too late?

Who was sleeping at that switch for so many years? August has always been close to November.

This year, however, it's apparently closer. We've been hearing from Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid...

At The White House Project EPIC Awards gala held Thursday at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, ten years of advancing women to leadership was celebrated. But it was also a time to reflect on why the U.S. ranks 67th in the world in terms of...

If the comment below was meant to be persuasively rational, Jane, you'd better stick to fiction.

But, please, any of you angry white women who still support this craven shill, don't mention it to me.

This attack and the paragraph that follows it in your blog are shockingly narrow-minded and...

The better question is why not? Why aren't there more females in the U.S. Congress? If we can talk about race, let's talk about gender. Whatever race she is, it's going to be a great day when a woman becomes president or vice president.

But why, people ask, push for...

General David Petraeus is an admirable man and soldier. Not only because of his extraordinary career in the military, but because he can sit comfortably in a room full of true and striving erudite interrogators and talk for hours telling them little more than they already know.

...

Perhaps it's serendipity. The story of John Adams is being televised into millions of American homes each Sunday evening just as we need to be reminded of the struggle, in every sense, required to found, develop and maintain a democracy.

With the obligation of inheriting the beacon of...

People have a right to vote against Hillary Clinton. It isn't anti-woman or anti-feminist to do so. But, the Democratic Party used to be more supportive of women's advancement. At least they seemed to be. They don't backslap them into their place or tolerate those who do with venomous words...

Substance has become a liability. Some of my best friends and family members, as they say, are journalists. But I'm sick of hearing from them. Where are the historians, political scientists, economists, sociologists, communication experts and objective political analysts -- for a start?

Journalists are apparently equipped to tell...

Who could have predicted how much a presidential race in the 21st Century would damage women's progress? When Betty Friedan and I taught classes together in the mid 1990s, she'd moved beyond The Feminine Mystique to what she called "the second stage," a time when men and women would...

The Democratic health care debate has focused almost exclusively on whether 15 million people will purchase health insurance on their own. That debate is important, but where is the quality debate? Why would 15 million people trying to make ends meet buy health insurance if they aren't likely to...

If Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, it looks now as though he'll have to be ready to face Romney or McCain. The former will mimic and belittle Obama with an onslaught of economic jargon and slights far beyond what he has endured from Hillary or Bill Clinton. And McCain...

You could get dizzy from the back-and-forth about who is lying and who is so honest sainthood is in the wings. There are no saints in politics. When there is something of value at stake and more than one person interested in obtaining it, politics is in the mix. When...

The Democratic race is bound to be a heated one. But isn't attempting to muzzle Bill Clinton by implying that he is going to influence a Hillary presidency or that it is somehow unseemly for a past president to support his wife, politics as usual? Is Michelle Obama going to...

In negotiation, it's wise to define the best alternative to achieving your primary goals -- the fallback -- no matter how unappealing compared to a clear win. Then you tuck it in the back of your mind and aim higher. As unappealing as it may seem now, the vice presidency...

What are racism and sexism? Is there a continuum starting at the point where sexist or racist inclinations are nonexistent? Then moving along it we find a preference to work and associate with people of one's own race and gender. Is that racism/sexism yet? Next might be making subtle derogatory...

Let's hope so. She's impressive. And perhaps by then we'll be ready for a woman president. No one should vote for her, or for Hillary, solely because of gender. But it would be refreshing to hear people admit that there are male-female differences, that we've historically linked leadership with...