Catching glimpses of the movie musical “1776” on election eve is an inspiration and a reality check. It’s inspiring watching the Founding Fathers – or the actors playing them – struggle over the Declaration of Independence. It’s enlightening seeing these figures in a history book as flawed and feuding individuals who came together for a [...]

Some 2006 election questions and thoughts for reporters: What about voting machines? There wasn’t any way to hold a real recount in the Virginia Senate election, where the Democrat won by three-tenths of a percentage point; there could only have been a check on whether election officials correctly added up the numbers the machines gave [...]

It didn’t take long for the conventional wise guys of the media to jump on Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) for speaking the truth, however awkwardly. But the media types didn’t bother looking where they were jumping. Kerry, addressing a crowd of students, told them something they very well understand: “Education, if you make the most [...]

Every election cycle, Republicans lament their party’s lack of appeal to African American voters. They apologize – as Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman did last year – for the GOP’s Nixon-era “Southern strategy” of welcoming white voters resentful of black progress. They vow to do better. But then, Election Day nears. Exploiting white fear [...]

I propose that journalists who are pressed to use shorthand words to save space, and thus avoid complicated ideas, should be very suspicious of venerating as political virtues such simplistic expressions as “bipartisan,” “moderate” and “centrist.” These are said to be positive political attributes, the opposite of the more negative terms “partisan,” “extreme,” or “ideological.” [...]

Note to reporters covering House and Senate races: It’s not too late to raise some questions unrelated to the news-of-the-moment but very much related to people’s lives. For example: Is universal access to affordable, high-quality health care a human right and a public good, such as roads and fire and police protection? C.E.O.s of the [...]

By now, most everyone has a gay friend or relative. Does anyone alive still believe that bachelor Uncle Bernie – the one with the special friend – is just waiting for the right girl to come along? You would think that homosexuals would be considered simply human – good, bad, flawed – but ultimately human. [...]

Please, ladies and gentlemen of the media. Be very careful during this campaign cycle of using the word “reform,” even if it’s in quotes. I checked wth Google and there are 510,000 hits on “medicare reform,” and 1.7 million on on “social security reform,” and I’ll bet most of them are incorrect or misleading. Reform [...]