Published: mic (May 23, 2013)
There are days that call for history lessons, and while most liberals don’t realize it, we should definitely insist on May 22 being one of them. After all, it was 49 years ago yesterday that President Lyndon Baines Johnson intoned these words at a speech delivered to a graduating class at the University of Michigan:
“For a century we labored to settle and to subdue a continent.
Published: PolicyMic (November 30, 2012)
I have no idea whether Mitt Romney will ever see this editorial. While I do know at least one of my articles was noticed by the erstwhile Republican candidate’s inner circle (a piece from six months ago that drew complaints from his former foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell), that hardly assures that anything else I write will make its way to him.
Published: PolicyMic (November 27, 2012)
This may seem odd coming from the pen of a liberal Democrat (er, keyboard), but here it goes: Gerald Ford is my favorite president of the past forty years.
There are plenty of good reasons for liberals to admire Ford. Foremost among them is the fact that he was the last genuinely moderate Republican to inhabit the White House, with his battle against Ronald Reagan in the 1976 presidential primaries marking the final time a centrist obtained the top slot on the GOP national ticket without making egregious concessions to the party’s fringe elements (ironically, Reagan himself would be considered insufficiently conservative by many Republicans today).
Published: PolicyMic (November 7, 2012)
“When news of the surrender first reached our lines our men commenced firing a salute of a hundred guns in honor of the victory. I at once sent word, however, to have it stopped. The Confederates were now our prisoners, and we did not want to exult over their downfall.”
Published: PolicyMic (November 4, 2012)
There are two quotes that best sum up Pennsylvania’s role in American democracy today. One comes from legendary political consultant James Carville: “Pennsylvania is Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle.”
This adage will be useful when following Tuesday’s election returns in the Keystone State, although it’s a little oversimplified.
Published: PolicyMic (October 22, 2012)
Editor’s Note: This represents instant analysis of the presidential debate on Monday night. For the author’s thoughts in the hour immediately before the debate began, see here.
Here are my first impressions about the third debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on Monday evening:
1) The Big Points:
– Both men came across as confident and well-informed … and, most important of all, neither committed any serious gaffes.