Nearly a month ago I took one of my teenaged children to the best of the best doctors. We'd been trying to get a diagnosis for a few years regarding recurring abdominal pain. I was charged more than $1100 for the initial office visit. When I got the bill, I...

I hope you didn't miss Lou Dobbs on Monday night speaking on fairness in the media. It provided a revealing look at what we've come to consider "free speech" in the United States: whoever can afford it. Dobbs was commenting on a "move to reimpose a so-called 'fairness doctrine'...to...

When I first wrote for Huffington Post over two years ago, one of my first blogs was about the intellectual free fall our country was in at the time. Our leaders were either ignorant, manipulative or both. And they didn't care what the rest of us thought. We were the...

As one door is closed to them, unethical banks will surely find another. That's what I shared with my senators and representatives when writing to them today. I've been using banking cards for a very long time. And never has a bankcard allowed me to get money I did...

What makes a president presidential? From communication research we know it comes from credibility defined largely by expertise, trust, conviction, comfort and something called homophily (perceived similarity).

President Obama's expertise gaps occasionally show. For a while he was blaming the past - the economic burden...

During the George W. Bush administration, traveling to other countries was an invitation for criticism. You found yourself either dodging or countering attacks. We have, indeed, been down in international opinion polls. What a breath of fresh air it is to see our president and first lady impress the world...

Parkinson's disease makes people uncomfortable - having it and seeing it. Oprah Winfrey helped alter that yesterday when she invited Dr. Mehmet Oz and Michael J. Fox onto her show. And the importance of that to millions of people who either have PD or love someone who...

Barack Obama, despite the massive problems he faces, is a popular president. Some of it may be the honeymoon of the first one hundred days, though these weeks have hardly deserved the term. It may be his infectious smile and determination and his tendency to come to us rather than...

Two venture capitalist friends of mine visit now and then, not because I know an ounce of what they study every day, but because anyone who is deeply involved in the vicissitudes of the economy likely lacks the big picture. It reminds me of when I was learning to play...

Having a medical comparative effectiveness council is fine so long as it is advisory at least until American voters have a chance to see how well it is working. And it should include among its members patients, nurses and other medical practitioners. The people who work directly with patients...

I'm not as sanguine as some about a council of federal employees who will determine which medical treatments are more effective. I understand something must be done about medical costs, but from the time I read plans for bringing the costs of chronic illnesses under control on both Clinton...

Of course there are reasons why the House appeared to becaving yesterday with regard to capping executive pay, imposing penalties and ending bonuses for banks that have, like thieves, taken our money and run. There are reasons why the White House capping of executive pay isn't retroactive. There are...

Those charts he used back when he was a presidential candidate in 1992 were simple, funny, and persuasive. Apparently he never stopped making them. But our government is about to spend some $800 billion and we've yet to see one from our representatives in Congress or The White...

As President Obama and his team learned the last few days, "winning isn't everything" is no longer only what parents tell their children. It's useful advice for winners.

Yes, they won. They had a marvelous celebration. Hopes ran high. And then they took their impressive political capital...

Tonight on Frontline (PBS) or online you can watch Dave Iverson's "My Father, My Brother and Me." If you have Parkinson's disease or know someone who does, I recommend it highly.

You'll see some amazing progress in medical science and as a result of individual determination....

There's a sense of urgency emanating from The White House. Political analyst David Gergen has described it as the actions of an ambitious president for whom things are going well. And that's good. There's nothing herky-jerky about it. All seems well planned and, with few glitches, well executed. It's...

Yes, I know -- "She lost. Get over it!" That's exactly what she did. She got over it and is moving on far more quickly than many of her critics. The "robust diplomacy" she described this morning, on her first day as Secretary of State, is exactly what she...

We knew he was bright, impressive even as a work in progress, but now we know Barack Obama is a true genius. There are multiple forms of intelligence, and embodied in this man are surely most of them. He evokes passion in a way we've not seen since John F....

Give me some of that! Wow! What line was the yet unborn Governor Blagojevich in that most of us missed trying to order a better looking nose or an endearing smile?

I've met many extremely talented and intelligent people. I've never ceased to be amazed at how many of...

Brace yourself. It's going get rocky soon. We are about to have a very bright man as our president. And we've been away from that territory for a very long time.

Barack Obama is what social scientists describe as "cognitively complex." He can accommodate within his views and values...