Big Banks Likely Profited Off Bailouts
At the moment, the White House seems to be following the standard Washington playbook, which is premised on two dubious assumptions: a) elections are decided by "independents" b) "independents" are always to be found in the middle of the road. So, the Beltway thinking goes, count on those in your base to come out, and run a middle-of-the-road campaign to win over those independents before your opponent can. It's the classic way to run a campaign. And it was proven completely wrong in 2008 by the winning coalition that swept Obama to victory. He didn't win by swerving to the middle. Instead of fighting for the ever-dwindling number of swing voters, Obama fought to win over the much larger number of voters who had turned their backs on the process. It was audacious -- and it worked. But what will happen to all those 2008 first-time voters, many of whom have been disproportionately hurt by the recession?
If you're a GOP insider, you could patiently wait for Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty to officially enter the race and start debating people. Or, you could call in the ringer! And could that ringer be Paul Ryan?
America's jobless recovery is becoming a wageless recovery. That puts the odds of another recession greater than the risk of inflation. Wall Street and its representatives in Washington don't understand -- or don't want to.
One would think that as a society we would have gained knowledge and wisdom and learned a thing or two about kindness and tolerance over time. But check the news, and you'll see that sadly, we haven't learned enough.
In the past, when the caps and gown disappeared after graduation day, so did health care coverage for millions of young Americans. But with last year's health care reform, that is no longer the case.
That the female element in the Arab Spring has drawn so little comment in the West suggests that our own narratives of the Arab world -- religion, oil, Israel -- have blinded us to the big social forces that are altering the lives of 300 million people.
The challenge of Fukushima today, as with Chernobyl 25 years ago, is to recognize that the circumference of our human responsibility has become the earth itself.
The U.S. has shaped its policy toward the Middle East according to the Chinese proverb of "killing the chicken to scare the monkey." Gaddafi is the undead chicken. Bashar al-Assad and Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa are the unscared monkeys.
Federal officials say they do not know what is causing the unusual dolphin and turtle die-offs along the Gulf coast. They continue to investigate many potential causes, including the oil spill. No one knows when they may come up with an answer, if ever.
What we're seeing play out in Las Vegas is simply basic supply-and-demand economics. For every hardworking homeowner who took their bank's advice and paid the price, there were plenty of others who fell victim to their own greed.
Rolling into places like Marjah with lots of troops and TV cameras hasn't done a thing to increase security nation-wide for Afghans or blunt the growth in insurgent-initiated attacks. We're not "turning a corner" in Afghanistan. We're turning in circles.
Republican legislators in Texas are in the process of passing a law that would refuse to recognize sex change operations, without thinking through how the law may actually legalize same-sex marriages for some.
The Allen Telescope Array, a major instrument designed to speed up our hunt for intelligent beings, has been turned off. It's as if Columbus's armada of ships, having barely cleared Cadiz, were suddenly ordered back to Spain.
Artist and feminist icon Alice Neel was a woman ahead of her time: "If she had been satisfied with the paragon of what women were supposed to be in her era, she would have accomplished nothing!"
Donald Trump has now totally, undeniably injected race into presidential contest with his attack on Barack Obama's educational credentials.
The United States must protect its economy in order to compete in globalization, just as China and Japan do. Washington, with its free trade nonsense, has no credibility.
Every day on TV you can tune in and see a hair makeover, a body makeover, even a house makeover. But what does any of it matter when it's really your life that needs the makeover?
If you've tried Pandora and Last.fm and are looking for another way to discover new music online, try the sites and apps on this list. Some are brand new, while others have been hiding in plain sight all along.
If Donald Trump thought that he or any other GOP presidential contender had a decent shot at beating President Obama on the issues he would be talking about those issues instead of "the birth certificate."
Someone had the unfortunate idea to hire a camera crew to document American TV producer Phil Rosenthal's adventures as a consultant to Russian television. The result is Exporting Raymond, a curious vanity production.
In these troubled economic times, the American people are looking for principled leadership, not someone who is constantly checking the polls, figuring out how to compromise on longstanding beliefs, and worrying about the next election.
I sat down with Bloomberg, and asked him to assess Obama -- and whether or not he believes the president deserves a second term.
The rising popularity of video chat is both good news and bad. Seeing the person you are talking to is definitely more intimate, but are you ready to look good 24/7? Here are some suggestions to take the pressure off.
Trump's celebrity value is showing up loud and clear on the straw polls. But this doesn't mean he is even going to run -- and if he does, it's likely not going to get him very far.
When I was a teen, my preferred reading material was Star Wars or Wonder Woman comic books, and anything I could find in the spinning paperback rack at my town's library that featured a girl on the cover who looked like she was running away from trouble.
The president and his party should consider the fate of Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrats before committing themselves to a coalition government that's doomed to fail.
