One of the strangest things about California over the past decade is how little impact Arnold Schwarzenegger's two landslide wins for the governorship had on the Republican Party.

The 2012 election, like every election before it, has been defined by race. This is America, and race always matters. Death, taxes, and race.

The Romney that poked his head out of the ground last week was not the Romney that Republican activists presumed that they nominated. We saw glimpses once again of the Romney that once was -- and that Romney's primary opponents long warned against.

MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) accused Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) during the gubernatorial debate on Thursday of running an inappro...

WASHINGTON -- The 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign has been the most negative in recent memory. The main culprits are well-funded super P...

Mitt Romney, in his struggle to wrap up the 2012 Republican nomination for the Presidency, has presented himself as an outsider....

NEW YORK -- Republican Joe Miller has hired a controversial political hand to help him beat back a win by incumbent Lisa Murkowski in the Alaska Senat...

The target may differ, but the Republican tactic is always the same: demonize a group of human beings based on what sets them apart -- skin color, religion, sexual orientation -- and make them objects of derision.

A long line of inmates enters and exits a prison yard. As the lone black inmate reenters society, he peers into the camera with a menacing glance. The ad plays on "fears of the dangerous, violent, black male."

Until we make prisoner rehabilitation and redemption real and institutional, we're teaching people how to be comfortable in prison, and they'll keep coming back for longer and longer.

Now the Republican Party has its own 21st Century George Wallace, another Southern Governor who has also run for president, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.

After Rick Santelli ranted about government spending on CNBC, coverage by FOX News, conservative talk show hosts, and right-side bloggers pushed the Tea Parties to prominence.

High-profile clemency cases like Maurice Clemmons, while tragic, are ridiculously atypical of the cases that usually come to the attention of parole boards and chief executives.

Candidates have strong incentives to keep criminals behind bars. But when such standards trickle down to nonviolent criminals, prison populations and government debt soar, and lives are ruined.

Rank-and-file teamsters get it. They aren't willing to be swayed by false, irrelevant arguments. They want change. They want ideas. And the fact is -- McCain doesn't have any.

Now we have Republicans, Democrats, and Independents walking away from and speaking out against extreme rhetoric and deeds. The country is ready for an Obama administration.

Instead of erupting in outrage and secretly dreading that a smear campaign will undo Barack Obama's lead in the polls, I return to the basics.

The poll numbers so far this month have fostered the belief that the current economic crisis is close to dooming the McCain campaign. But any crystal ball that offers assurance of an Obama victory is a piece of junk.