WASHINGTON - The last place - and I do mean the very last place - any candidate wants to be is in the frame with Anthony Weiner.This is especially true if you're Hillary Clinton.Even worse than being associated with the infamous sexter this week is being FBI Director James Comey, the ...
WASHINGTON - As Donald Trump presses on with his scorched-earth politics, the mayhem he has created may well be striking a welcome chord of reflection and patriotism among many Americans. In the end, he may remind them of what has already made America great, and why they must reject his ...
We now know that the October surprise of the 2016 presidential campaign has turned out to be first lady Michelle Obama.When voters in the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll were given a list of individuals and organizations and asked to rate their feelings toward each (on a ...
In last week's third and (thank goodness) final presidential debate, each candidate did an excellent job of presenting convincing arguments for why people shouldn't vote for the other.Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a felon, and Clinton called Trump a traitor. Unfortunately for America, ...
Donald Trump's warning that he might not accept the results of the presidential election exemplifies his approach to everything: Do whatever it takes to win, even if that means undermining the integrity of the entire system.Trump isn't alone. The same approach underlies Sen. John McCain's ...
In a few short weeks, this election will be over, and the task of governing will fall on the winning candidate and the reshuffled Congress. At the top of the list of issues to address in the early months of 2017 should be reforming our broken tax code.Why should tax reform take center stage ...
Spurred by screaming headlines about "skyrocketing" premiums on some government insurance exchanges, Obamacare foes are dredging up Bill Clinton's colorful quote regarding the Affordable Care Act. No, Clinton didn't call it "crazy."This is what Clinton said (after noting that over 20 million ...
Jackie has decided to be an ice-cream cone. And why not? Who doesn't love ice cream?Carolyn is going to be a puppy. One of her favorite words so far is "woof," so this makes sense, totally.We have two superheroes this year. Superman is Milo; his cousin Spider-Man is Leo - in case you've been ...
WASHINGTON - The system is rigged and the polls are phony.As E-Day draws nigh, Donald Trump and his spokesvolken have contrived every possible excuse for the Republican candidate's likely defeat. Unless, of course, lying has caught on "big league" and voters have followed their leaders' cue and ...
WASHINGTON - The death at 76 of Tom Hayden has taken from the scene an influential student radical of the 1960s who pivoted to orthodox politics as an influential California state senator, where he carried on his dedication to anti-war and other liberal principles.I first encountered Hayden in ...
The first time I ever saw my sainted mother cry was late at night on Nov. 4, 1952, as she listened to Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic presidential nominee, graciously congratulate - from the Leland Hotel in Springfield - Dwight D. Eisenhower on Ike's landslide victory that day. ...
No issue has generated more heat in this year's presidential election than immigration - but neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton shed much light on the issue in their third presidential debate.Trump made his usual promise to build a wall and added to his insults against Mexican immigrants ...
The year 2016 has been a big year for protest politics - not just in the United States, what with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump getting over 40 percent of primary votes, but also all over Europe and Latin America, where voters have been rejecting the advice of their nations' political, ...
Hillary Clinton won't be the only winner when Donald Trump and his fellow haters are defeated on Election Day (as looks increasingly likely). Another will be Paul Ryan, who will rule the Republican roost.Democrats may take back the Senate, but they won't take back the House. Gerrymandering has ...
With all the debate over Donald Trump's tax-dodging, I've been wondering how taxes have played into presidential politics in the past.For some answers, I turned to Bob McIntyre, head of the nonpartisan research and advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice. For 40 years, McIntyre has been on the ...
According to research by the USA Today Network and the Associated Press in a series of stories published Friday, close to 200 children nationwide were killed in accidental shootings in the first six months of 2016.Gun industry lobbyists have their talking points to explain away most of them. ...
I've dismissed talk of Hillary Clinton's "secrecy problem" as mere babble in an election year. I thought, for example, that Clinton had no obligation to disclose her mild pneumonia, a temporary ailment she was over in a few days.Thus, I assumed there was something politically damaging in her ...
WASHINGTON - Donald Trump needed a game changer. Instead, he landed a jaw dropper.When the Republican nominee for president refused to say he would accept the results of the election, he rattled American democracy and openly flirted with the notion of a contested transition of power. He ...
WASHINGTON - Viewers of tonight's final presidential debate should brace for an even more destructive Donald Trump performance, as he carries his desperate scorched-earth strategy to its logical conclusion: disparaging the whole political process he fears will reject him.His campaign is now ...
I would rather be writing about Bob Dylan's surprising Nobel Prize in literature this week, a well-deserved acknowledgment of his contribution to modern culture.But that would entail ignoring the elephant in the room: the refusal of many in the Republican Party to admit they have nominated a ...