A couple of weeks ago Frank Rich in the New York Times, like many progressive commentators and activists across the country, worried that President Obama had punked us by caving in to Republican demands. The real story behind the debate over health care reform however is the systematic punking of...

Is the Grand Old Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln that saved the Union and destroyed southern slavery, becoming the party of secession and political extremism? Recent events that indicate an affirmative answer to this question would make most Republican Party founders turn in their graves. Some Republicans have...

The inauguration of Barack Obama had barely begun before Americans across the political spectrum started talking about the historic nature and meaning of the event. Indeed, the election of Obama represents, for the thronging millions in Washington at the very least, a seismic shift in American politics. 2008 will surely...

The emergence of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential Republican candidate is one of the biggest acts of betrayal against women in American history. In a transparent and cynical ploy to appeal to women's votes, John McCain has picked an anti-women's rights woman candidate. The worst part is that both...

Political pundits have likened Obama's oratory, its style and content, to that of Abraham Lincoln. Most recently, Gary Wills has compared Barack Obama's speech on race in America, "A More Perfect Union," with Abraham Lincoln's 1860 Cooper Union address. In fact, like most of Lincoln's great speeches, Obama's speech evokes...