Every four years, Catholics matter. We get a lot of non-Catholics telling us how we have to vote, what issues matter most and why we will go to hell if we don’t listen to their advice. Bishops and priests weigh in, telling us in letters and from the altar that we should vote. Sometimes they [...]

So sad, and so predictable. Retired general Colin Powell makes a detailed and reasoned case for his support of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. He praises his friend John McCain, but laments the direction of the Republican Party, the negative tone of its campaign and the readiness of Sarah Palin. The Republican military [...]

It can’t be easy for Joe Biden. After all, how can years of Senate experience match up against the biggest celebrity on the political scene? When Biden came to Charlotte, N.C., Sunday night, his tone sometimes veered toward the dramatic, but his message was meat and potatoes. Even the crowd’s chant of “Let’s go, Joe!” [...]

Forty-five years ago, when the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his `I Have a Dream` speech at the March on Washington, four members of my family witnessed history. On August, 28, 1963, my mother boarded a bus with other members of our Catholic Church, dressed as though she were headed to Sunday Mass instead [...]

DENVER – Coming off her Monday speech at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama didn’t pause to wait for the reviews, although she admitted the day after that she had heard about positive comments from friends. She stopped listening to reports — good and bad — sometime after the Iowa primary, she said, when so [...]

At the Democratic National Convention on Monday night, it was family night. The featured families challenged stereotypes of what family is and is not in America. It was no surprise to me. When Barack Obama’s family took the stage, it was the United Nations. It was all-American. Attacks on Obama’s politics don’t bother me. If [...]

DENVER — Covering a political convention is a little like covering a Super Bowl. Thousands of people gather in one place, and not all of them are there for the main event. Each day of the week builds excitement, with receptions and parties. Celebrities and protestors collide, using the ready-made televised stage. At the Democratic [...]

Something’s been bothering me this presidential primary season, and I know just what it is. “Soccer moms” and “football dads.” Not them, really, but the fact that they get to have colorful and descriptive nicknames. And I don’t. I’ve been waiting for something intriguing and multi-syllabic. Maybe a phrase that rhymes. If you look at [...]

In the much-criticized Pennsylvania debate, a voter challenged Barack Obama in a videotaped comment: “I want to know if you believe in the American flag.” He doesn’t wear a flag pin, you know. His former minister takes America to task for its racist past. His wife says she’s never been so proud of America. They [...]

Today is the 40th anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In January, to mark his birthday, this country celebrates a day off and snippets of racial reconciliation in “I Have a Dream.” It would be fitting that on the day of his violent death, the country look to the pain in [...]