Citing his close personal and professional relationship with Tim Russert, veteran anchor Tom Brokaw has stepped up to lead Meet the Press through the 2008 election season. It's a good interim move to maintain the respect and high level of quality which the show has become famous for.

What...

As the second Sunday rolls around without Tim Russert, and while Brian Williams will be standing in this weekend, I am remembering the influence Meet the Press has had on the leadership of this country, due in part to the seriousness and poise with which Russert treated both his guests...

Back in the 1980's, I was on the NYC Human Rights Commission that held hearings on the pervasive problem of sexual harassment in the construction sector. The most moving story I heard during that period came from a male construction worker. He talked about what a typical day looked like,...

When Senator Clinton decided to suspend her candidacy after eighteen months of rigorous campaigning last Saturday, I just so happened to be in Ohio, among nearly 100 women who had come together to -- of all things -- learn how to run for political office. Imagine the odds; after so...

In this week's Gallup Poll, national Democratic voters continue to be evenly split, with Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton each receiving 47% support for the party's nomination. Yet despite this neck-and-neck race to the partisan finish line, as Eric Boehlert recently surmised, the press has been pushing...

When Senator Obama called on our nation to create a more perfect union, his appeal resonated deeply with Americans of every race. His words spoke to the legacies of the grief and guilt, anger and apprehension that we bear as a nation, remnants of a history which has never been...

Recently, the financial gurus at Motley Fool ran a provocative piece on financial prowess. Their prime assertion: Warren Buffet invests like a girl. Indeed, author LouAnn DiCosmo attributes Buffet's monumental success to his gender-bending ability, doing what women investors have long been shown to do: trade less often, conduct...

Last week marked the 22nd anniversary of the glass ceiling's entrance into our vernacular -- a phrase which cleverly described the invisible but extensive impediments to women's ascent into positions of senior leadership. Over two decades have passed since we gave the problem a name, and while women's collective gains...

Like many of you, I listened to Senator Obama's tremendous speech last Tuesday with equal measures of pride and awe: pride at this relatively young man's attempt to bring race from the neglected sidelines of life to the center of our attention, and awe at his bravery in doing it....

I've traveled from Minnesota to New York, Georgia to Colorado, helping my team at The White House Project inspire, inform, and equip a diverse array of women to take the political lead. Of the nearly 1,500 women we have trained thus far, many invariably ask the above question, and...

I've written a great deal about how this historic election season has led to a number of political firsts, but I've never seen it expressed quite this way: in a recent column for Newsweek, Martin Linsky wrote, "This campaign will always be remembered for the emergence of the first...

There is a time when music becomes the best politics. From its lilting cadences and bursts of staccato to its heartrending twins of harmony and melody, music can be a truly transformative medium and a powerful instrument of human connection. Yesterday, The New York Philharmonic gave an unprecedented concert...

"Agonizing choice."

That was the Boston Globe's take on what women voters faced in Tuesday's historic Super Tuesday contest. Perhaps many Democratic women did negotiate a difficult personal and political decision during yesterday's primary. But instead of framing women as distressed and ambivalent, we should be celebrating the fact...

Change. It's the buzz word of 2008 -- the rallying cry heard loud and clear from voters of all political stripes. All along the campaign trail, each of our prospective political leaders has been trying to prove why he or she is the real bearer of change: Sen. Obama offers...

The 2004 election was an exercise in contradictions that left me feeling quite ambivalent about the state of our nation. While youth voting surged by 11 percentage points -- with single women leading the way -- 78 million eligible voters neglected to take part in the political process. Sure, we...

In the past few days, the media has jumped on race and gender as fervently as they played up the primacy of the polls the week before. With our democratic forerunners embodying so many political "firsts", they offer an opportunity to bring to light the important issues of race, gender...

What a difference a day makes: With New Hampshire behind us, and a different result in the books than either the polls or the pundits expected, it feels as if there's new energy in this historic democratic race. And it's no surprise that women--45% of whom backed the female candidate...

"I tried so hard to keep my heart and head separate."

That's what former Secretary of State Robert McNamara said when speaking about his fateful decisions during the Vietnam War.

But wasn't that false divide between head and heart the root problem of Vietnam -- and perhaps the...

Last night was a win for our country. People turned out in unprecedented numbers across the tundra of Iowa to vote for candidates that represent the divisions that have plagued us far beyond our political parties: race, gender and class. History was made when the first viable African-American man topped...

A collective sigh of relief will probably be heard nationwide after tomorrow's Caucus, when Iowa again recedes into the anonymity that is its normal fate. Yet beyond the constant stream of TV ads, media brouhaha, and general campaign craze, the caucuses offer something else: a unique demonstration of the type...