Back in the days of the Cold War between the Communist bloc of nations and the Western democracies, the Communists maintained pervasive restrictions around Eastern Europe that were aptly called an "iron curtain," isolating the people in its bloc from the ideas of the West and physically obstructing their escape.
For the first time since Ohio rejected Kennedy in favor of Richard M. Nixon in 1960, it seems quite possible that the Buckeye State will find itself on the losing side of a presidential election this year.
Is America still a serious nation?
You've heard and read by now lots of spin and speculation about who won and where the polls are going to move after Monday's presidential debate. We'll know the answers to these questions soon. The more important question for the long run is how each of these candidates would govern. The debate provides no certain answers to that question, but it does offer some useful clues.
Something's wrong with me.
I watched Monday's presidential debate. But what I heard was different from what Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton seemed to say.
Monday night’s debate here was a tremendous victory for Donald Trump, but his performance left plenty of room for improvement.
Big picture: Polls show support for Hillary Clinton is collapsing, and she desperately needed to stanch the bleeding. She did nothing during the debate to change the trajectory of those increasingly bleak polls.
Whatever happened to "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar"? Whither "Girl Power"? When did Rosie the Riveter's "We Can Do It!" give way to Hillary the Haranguer's "We Can't Handle It"?
Celebrating the racial diversity of the Charlotte protesters last week, William Barber II, chairman of the North Carolina NAACP, proudly proclaimed, "This is what democracy looks like."
Back in the 1960s, as large numbers of black students were entering a certain Ivy League university for the first time, someone asked a chemistry professor -- off the record -- what his response to them was. He said, "I give them all A's and B's. To hell with them."
The first debate is over! At least everyone survived.
Hillary Clinton supporters are freaking out. And rightfully so! Eight weeks from Election Day, she and Trump are basically neck and neck. And that's before the three presidential debates, which I not only expect him to win, but can't imagine a scenario in which she does not lose.
On one of my first trips to New Hampshire in 1991, to challenge President George H. W. Bush, I ran into Sen. Eugene McCarthy.
There's been lots of speculation about the fate of the Republican Party if (as most of the prognosticators expect and hope) Donald Trump loses. There's been less speculation, though recent polling suggests it may be in order, about the fate of the Democratic Party if Hillary Clinton loses.
To slightly modify Ronald Reagan’s famous rejoinder to Jimmy Carter in their single debate in 1980 (“There you go again”), here we go again — into the debate season.
Another United Nations summit in New York. Another finger-wagging extravaganza. Another useless "historic declaration" (nonbinding, of course) to save the world (by holding another summit ... in two years).
She really should stick to lying.
Desperately trying to snatch attention away from Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton took a stab at some unvarnished “straight talk” Monday and accused the real estate mogul of “giving aid and comfort” to America’s enemies. In other words, “treason.”
Hillary Clinton and her fellow progressives shout things like "Health care is a right!" They've also said that education, decent housing and child care are "rights."
Alerting the press that he would deal with the birther issue at the opening of his new hotel, the Donald, after treating them to an hour of tributes to himself from Medal of Honor recipients, delivered.
Success breeds failure. That's one of the melancholy lessons you learn in life. The success of policymakers in stamping out inflation in the 1980s and minimizing recessions for two decades also produced policies that contributed to the collapse of the housing and financial markets in 2007-08
