The love fest between Barack Obama and his top fundraiser Penny Pritzker that has led to her being nominated as Commerce secretary would not be so unseemly if they both just confessed that they did it for the money

The horror of Boston should be a reminder that the choice of weaponry can be in itself an act of evil. President Obama made clear that "any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror." But are we as a society prepared to be judged by that standard?

Why is David Stockman driving everyone crazy? The shoot-the-messenger frenzy that has greeted Sunday's New York Times op-ed by Ronald Reagan's former budget director leaves one searching for the message that has so unhinged his critics.

How is it that there is no palpable sense of soul searching associated with the 10th anniversary of a war based on officially concocted lies and a policy of torture? It is because the presumption of a unique American claim to an original and enduring innocence perseveres, no matter the death and destruction.

Go offshore, young man, and avoid paying taxes. Plunder at will in those foreign lands, and if you get in trouble, Uncle Sam will come rushing to your assistance, diplomatically, financially and militarily, even if you have managed to avoid paying for those government services.

It is brutally immoral that the proposed cuts in federal spending now be imposed on the victims of the meltdown rather than the perpetrators of their financial ruin.

This is the movie season to consider the CIA as a benign force, occasionally stumbling but in the end, driven by good intentions. The example of Iran, where the Argo caper is set, is instructive of the absurdity of that view.

It is bizarre that Chuck Hagel, a war hero with a long record of sensible views on the deployment of military power, gets blocked as the president's nominee to run the Pentagon, while Jack Lew, steeped in Wall Street greed, sails through as Treasury secretary.

Why aren't film director Kathryn Bigelow's claimed government sources, including employees of the CIA, in jail like Pfc. Bradley Manning? Or, at the very least, being investigated for their role in one of the most damaging leaks of national security information in U.S. history?

I suppose that he can't be much worse than Timothy Geithner, but that should be scant cause for cheer over the news that the president has nominated Jack Lew as Treasury secretary.

Morning in America already feels too much like a hangover. The house is still a wreck, the family is dysfunctional and there are enormous bills to pay that are not about to go away.

To employ the vernacular used in my day job teaching college students, I give Obama a generous B- grade. Meanwhile, the rapacious capitalist-turned-candidate Romney earns a solid F and makes Obama look quite good in comparison.

If Romney would just commit to granting all of us the same deal that he gets from his hedge fund and capital gains tax breaks and offshore accounts, I might be tempted to join the ranks of terminally shortsighted white males who seemed poised to vote him into office.

"Romney's Go-To Economist" read the headline on a New York Times profile of R. Glenn Hubbard, the man who will make your life miserable if Mitt Romney is elected president.

I wanted Obama to do more for beleaguered homeowners and less for the Wall Street swindlers who trafficked in toxic mortgages. But the president must have done something right, or the hucksters at Goldman Sachs wouldn't hate him so.

We're bombarded with all manner of tugging and pulling from this side or the other, right down to those who suggest it's all so dark there's really no point in voting anyway. So what do we do?

Obama has followed the examples of Summers and Geithner instead of those of Warren and Harris, and that is what has made the election a tossup as voters continue to suffer in an economy that Democrats as well as Republicans wrecked.