Change Coming Soon for Political Consultants
In his piece "You Lose, We Win: Consultants Profit Even When Candidates Underperform," Brendan Nyhan wonders when consultants will begin to "be held accountable for their performance on Election Day."...
View ArticleThe State of State (and Local) Finances
State and local government finances appear to have stabilized. No one could describe them as sound, neither in aggregate nor certainly in particulars. The sector as a whole continues to run deficits,...
View ArticleThe Coalition Against ISIS
President Barack Obama is carefully putting together a coalition of partners to join the U.S. in degrading and ultimately destroying the radical terrorist group ISIS. His approach has come under attack...
View ArticleTo End One-Dollar, One-Vote
Co-written with David Cohen It is wrong to squander the public outrage. This is a particularly grievous error given that the public outrage about the flood of private monies into public hands is rather...
View ArticleNATO Summit Delivers
The deliverables from the NATO summit are major steps toward countering the twin threats of ISIS and Putinism. President Obama's opponents have cynically treated these challenges as political...
View ArticleUS Rep Calls For Fed Investigation Over Anti-Pot Initiative Campaign
US Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) has called on the directors of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Substance Abuse Mental Health Administration to investigate...
View ArticleWhy I Am Endorsing Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu
It is hard to exaggerate the shamelessness that passes for political behavior these days. Politicians sell out our democracy to the highest bidder, and trade away our public schools, clean air and...
View ArticleMore Than a Passing Grade: President Obama Succeeds With US-Africa Summit
This post was co-authored with Aubrey Hruby. On these pages last month, we offered the President and his team some friendly advice and "Dos" and "Don'ts" on the first ever US-Africa Summit. ("How Obama...
View ArticleAsk Women to Run for Office to Lead and Change Our Communities
Recent media coverage has questioned why anyone would run for office given the calculations and hostility of campaigns, and particularly whether women are or should be election averse, continuing the...
View ArticleThe Invisible Achievement Gap: Students in Foster Care
Across the country it’s back to school time. I hope it is a year full of promise and not disappointment and added stress for all children -- especially those most vulnerable. I also hope this school...
View ArticleBridgegate: One Year Later, Why We Must Persist
One year ago, residents of Fort Lee, New Jersey woke up to a traffic nightmare that was to last for four days. School buses were hours late, emergency service vehicles were delayed, and a police...
View ArticleBy Air, Land and Sea, the Military is Going Green to Save Lives and Money
"Climate change affects the sons and the daughters who are currently stepping up to wear the uniform of our country." - Former Sen. John W. Warner This month, one of America's most accomplished "naval...
View ArticleIt's Time to Retire Our Definition of Retirement
Tomorrow in San Diego I'm speaking on "Thriving After 50" at the AARP's annual Ideas@50+ conference, which has me thinking about what retirement means in our culture today. To withdraw, to go away, to...
View ArticleLearning to Live Together
"Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever begin to live together." Justice Thurgood Marshall penned these words 40 years ago, as part of his stirring...
View ArticleEgypt's Banning of Ultras Constitutes Effort to Outlaw Legitimate Opposition
An expected decision by Egyptian soccer authorities to ban as terrorist organizations groups of militant soccer fans builds on the definition by Arab autocrats of legitimate, democratic opposition...
View ArticleThe Wall Street Journal Parade of Climate Lies
That Rupert Murdoch governs over a criminal media empire has been made clear enough in the UK courts in recent years. That the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages, the latest victim of Murdoch's lawless...
View ArticleIn Defense of Christians
We have every reason to be concerned with the fate of the Christian communities of the Arab World. From Egypt to Iraq, these ancient churches have not only survived through centuries of hardship,...
View ArticlePresident Obama Should Wait on Immigration Executive Action
Desperation is the father of bad decisions. At this point in the never-ending saga of immigration reform, mass deportations and the GOP's rabid opposition to immigrants, advocates are pushing President...
View ArticleOne Governor Down, One Governor to Go?
There's something rotten in the State of Wisconsin...
View ArticleMayor of Latvian Capital: Putin Is 'Best Thing Possible' for Latvia
The mayor of the Latvian capital city Riga, Nil Ushakov, stated yesterday in Moscow that for Latvia, "the best thing possible right now is President Vladimir Putin." Ushakov, a prominent ethnic Russian...
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