Memo to the Obama Administration: if you want to see the makings of a national model to hold big banks accountable for fixing foreclosure-devastated neighborhoods, go to Milwaukee and talk to citizen leaders of a community organization who are practicing what Saul Alinsky preached.

"You broke it, you fix it,"...

The football prognosticators didn't give the banged up Green Bay Packers much of a chance on Sunday of defeating the high-flying New York Jets, but the Wisconsin team surprised the nonbelivers, squeezing out a 9 to 0 win. In less than 48 hours, will Wisconsin's junior senator defy the national...

After months of trying, David confronts Goliath tomorrow in Frankfurt, Germany, at the annual shareholders meeting of the world's second largest bank.

David is otherwise known as Common Ground, an upstart, feisty, two-year old community organizing endeavor spanning four counties in southeast Wisconsin, including Milwaukee.

Goliath is Deutsche Bank (Assets:...

Saul Alinsky, the father of community organizing, had a big year in 2008, even though he had been dead for 36 years.

And 2009, Alinsky's centennial, is off to a terrific start. Just ten days before Alinsky's 100th birthday, his community organizing disciple was sworn in as president. Barack Obama's...

I left my inside-the-Beltway home in suburban Washington on Friday and spent the penultimate weekend before the 2008 election in Columbus, Ohio to get a first-hand look at one of the most intriguing, hopeful and yet, in some circles, controversial voter participation experiments of 2008.

More than two years in...

The main reason for John McCain's post-convention surge can be summed up in one word: reform. As the Washington Post's Dan Balz said this week: "McCain has, for now, been able to redefine his candidacy -- more reform, less Bush 3. Can that last?"

In his acceptance speech, McCain said...

One year ago, on June 22 in Manchester, New Hampshire, Barack Obama told an audience that "we cannot settle for a second Gilded Age in America." Those were meant to be fighting words; they were preceded by Obama's paean to Teddy Roosevelt who, along with Wisconsin's Senator, Fighting Bob LaFollette,...

If Barack Obama had continued on a career path as a community organizer, he might have been in Milwaukee last Sunday savoring the successful kickoff of one of the most ambitious, potentially significant, large-scale community organizations in recent years. In fact, before Obama left the South Side streets of Chicago...

Campaigning in Philadelphia last week, Hillary Clinton threw a bucket of cold water on the growing chorus calling for her to concede the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. Evoking the image of Philadelphia's fictional fighting hero, Rocky Balboa, Hillary said: "Let me tell you something. When it comes to finishing...

When stuck with a losing hand, even good professional poker players often don't know when to drop out, because they've thrown so much of their ego along with their chips into the pot. But the greatest players don't fool themselves. They swallow their pride, conserve their capital, and fold their...