James Zogby

President, Arab American Institute; author, 'Arab Voices'

I might suggest that we first take a deep breath and make an effort to put the events of the past week in some perspective, but I know it wouldn't do any good. There is blood in the water and in deeply partisan Washington, the struggle for advantage and power always trumps reality.

Richard C. Levin

President of Yale University

We leave together. You leave Yale College after four years; I leave the Yale Presidency after twenty. I find myself thinking about a Grateful Dead song written in 1970, the year I came to Yale as a graduate student. You know the words: "Lately it occurs to me, what a long, strange trip it's been." It's been a long trip, but, for us, more wonderful than strange.

HuffPost Radio

What a week for Republicans! It started with Obama fighting off simultaneous scandals and 24 coming back this Fall. But as Spitzer and Reagan discuss, by Friday the Scandals Scorecard revealed more smoke than fire. Who'll tell FOX?

Elizabeth Kucinich

Pure food and vegan advocate

Don't want a children's toy containing lead paint manufactured with child labor in your state? Congressman King and the House Agriculture Committee say "tough." Want the workers in your state to have a better chance? Your state won't have the right to choose. The Feds are encroaching.

Robert Kuttner

Co-founder and co-editor, 'The American Prospect'

The student loan program calls attention to the double standards of debt relief. Corporations are able to declare bankruptcy under Chapter 11 and write off old loan -- but college debt follows former students literally to the grave even if they go bankrupt.

Eli Lehrer

President, R Street

For all of its populist appeal, the corporate income tax is arbitrary and exempting some organizations from paying it is equally arbitrary. Abolishing the corporate tax altogether would supercharge the economy and wouldn't serve any particular set of political interests.

Jarrett L. Carter

Founding Editor, HBCUDigest.com

Barack Obama visited Morehouse College on Sunday to give a refrain on the responsibility of Morehouse Men and black America to find dignity and progress in self-reliance, a refrain that has simultaneously proven exciting and excruciating for African Americans over the last four years.

James Peron

President, Moorfield Storey Institute

As bad as drugs can be, Drug Warriors are worse. They raise the stakes of the drug fight, incentivize the drug gangs and push them to greater heights of violence. When a solution becomes worse than the problem it is time to abolish the solution.

Thomas White

International Affairs Master's candidate, New York University

Taliban resurgence could immediately undo any improvements made under U.S. occupation, as could economic collapse, civil war and regional instability.

Miles Rapoport

President, Demos

Almost 16 million Americans have registered or re-registered every year under National Voter Registration Act provisions. Many people today don't remember a time when they couldn't register at their local DMV. Yet, there is work to be done.

Azeem Khan

Co-founder, Supshot

I have a huge issue with what happened that day. And what happens to me every single time I go to an airport. This was supposedly a random search. But it wasn't a random search at all. It was a "you're a Muslim" search.

William S. Becker

Executive Director, Presidential Climate Action Project

In picking Gina McCarthy to lead the EPA, Obama sent the Senate a nominee who should satisfy, if not delight, Republicans as well as Democrats. But these days, the Senate rarely stumbles in the right direction. Senate Republicans are playing games with Obama's selection.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Author and political analyst

there's the almost ritual expectation by the public that second term presidents will be dogged by some scandal. This was the case with Eisenhower, Nixon, of course, Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush. This shouldn't surprise.

Christopher H. Schroeder

Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies; Co-Director of the Program in Public Law, Duke Law School

Critics of the Justice Dept.'s subpoena of AP telephone records have shamelessly mischaracterized the Dept.'s actions and the purposes for them. Any interference with the free press merits close scrutiny, but that scrutiny needs to consider just what the Dept. actually has done and why.

Bob Burnett

Berkeley writer, retired Silicon Valley executive

Republican policy no longer represents the teachings of Jesus. The GOP favors the rich and ignores the poor, disadvantaged, sick, elderly, long-term unemployed, and other unfortunates. Republicans may be religious, but they're not Christians.

Joel Rubin

Director of Policy and Government Affairs, Ploughshares Fund

President Obama should stick to his red line policy toward Syria and avoid advancing a red line policy toward Iran that will tie his hands. That may frustrate his domestic critics, but it makes America's adversaries nervous. And this is exactly where we should want our country's foreign policy to be.

Randi Weingarten

President, American Federation of Teachers

America's public education system could be on the brink of a once-in-a-generation revolution. If implemented properly, we can provide all children with the problem-solving, critical-thinking and teamwork skills they need to compete in today's changing world. But that's a big "if."