Politics

Sept. 29, 2008—The Sarah Palin Effect is over. Palin and McCain joined forces last week to make sure that no one took them very seriously, and they did every thing they could to help Obama open up a small but increasingly solid lead on McCain. With the Palin bump neutralized, Obama’s still nagging concern are…

Despite its failure in the House yesterday, a massive taxpayer-financed bailout of the nation’s various financial institutions remains a near certainty. Black taxpayers in particular, who have been disproportionately affected by the housing crisis, have reason to be anxious about how they will fare in the rescue scenario. If only numbers runners held the kind…

John Boehner wept. Roy Blunt fiddled. Nancy Pelosi lamented. And on a day when the stakes could not have been higher, or the situation graver, nothing worked in Washington. On one of the most chaotic and stunning days on Capitol Hill in recent memory, the 110th Congress rejected the $700 billion proposed bailout of troubled…

The Sarah Palin Effect is over. Palin and McCain joined forces last week to make sure that no one took them very seriously, and they did every thing they could to help Obama open up a small but increasingly solid lead on McCain. With the Palin bump neutralized, Obama’s still nagging concern are those Hillary voters…

If  you have not made up your mind about whom to support for President, last night’s debate about foreign policy and the ongoing economic crisis may not have helped you. Neither Republican John McCain nor Democrat Barack Obama committed a major gaffe or landed a knockout punch. Neither expressed a new idea. So I suggest…

“…She swallowed the spider to catch the fly— I don’t know why she swallowed the fly…” When Sen. John McCain shows up in Mississippi tonight, after two solid weeks of Wall Street bailout headlines, he and Sen. Barack Obama will square off in the most anticipated presidential debate in almost 50 years. McCain still believes…

The first presidential debate scheduled for the University of Mississippi tonight is being held hostage be John McCain’s deep concern for the economy, but plans remain in place for the showdown, which would give Americans the first opportunity for a side-by-side comparison of the two White House hopefuls. A clear win by either side will change…

While the greatness of American democracy is celebrated by Obama and McCain, the rest of the free world is squinting and tilting its head at our version of egalitarianism: staggeringly expensive political campaigns, a questionably representative two-party system, a confusing and misleading electoral college and laws (and tricks) that continue to disenfranchise minorities. It also…

There are some people who like to make it harder than necessary for others to vote. Voter-caging practices have already taken hold in this election. It was rumored that the Michigan GOP planned to use a list of foreclosed houses to bar those residents from voting. But with the way these things work, the damage…

It has taken a frightening flirtation with global economic collapse, but even George W. Bush seems to have exhausted his blind faith in the almighty market. “I’m sure there are some of my friends out there saying, I thought this guy was a market guy; what happened to him?” the president posited last weekend—while proposing…