"Reform" is a word we have lost and conservatives have taken over. Reform has become a code word for decreasing Social Security and Medicare benefits, for commodifying, marketizing, and privatizing public education, de-funding public higher education and insuring that no rich child is left behind.

Rhetorical manipulation clouds reality. We aren't debating the facts anymore, but how the facts are delivered.

Americans intuitively know that it will take a collection of small steps to put the nation and their lives on a better path. There is no quick fix. And yet so many people lack the belief that the nation is even capable of coming together to take those steps.

No one in his or her right mind would spend over a billion to win an election unless the value of victory was much higher than that, which in the case of winning the presidency includes influence over trillions in spending (not to mention the other extraordinary powers and perks of office).

Even though the Romney campaign has apparently changed its losing strategy of being an "extreme conservative," team Obama has so far failed to respond with the obvious, winning strategy -- labeling Romney the Etch-A-Sketch candidate.

Everyone would like to be as memorable and effective a speaker as Barack Obama or Bill Clinton. And the fact is that anyone can because there is really just one big secret to being a memorable speaker -- knowing how to use the figures of speech.

Mitt Romney is about to deliver the most important speech of his life, at the GOP convention in Tampa. What's fascinating is that Romney is one of the worst communicators to win any party's presidential nomination in recent memory.

We are indeed an exceptional country, and we should celebrate that. But patriotism also means calling our nation out for its problems and troubles. Here are my top four patriotic criticisms of Americans that I wish a politician would articulate.

As I watch America become more polarized, I worry that a balanced approach to the biggest problems of our generation will elude us as a country. I worry the lessons of Chancellorsville will be lost, and the battle lines will be drawn again.

If you don't know the difference between a socialite and socialist, you are a prime candidate for the U.S. Republican debate team.

Often politicians pack so many misleading strains into a sentence that I step back in awe, almost impressed by the linguistic gymnastics. In that regard, and speaking exclusively in policy terms, I found recent statements by Gov. Romney to be deeply troubling, though potentially effective.

The threat of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is real -- the goal of preventing Iran from doing so is of utmost importance and the consequences of failure are dire. But the consequences of capricious war, of giving up on diplomatic solutions when not all have been exhausted, are equally grave.

Somehow I feel that what may prohibit Gabrielle Giffords from returning to Congress is more important than what may prevent Anthony Weiner from remain...