For the past eight years, the right has been better at working the refs. Now the left is learning how to play the game.

Liberals do not appear to address potential solutions with anything like the far right's aura of God-given self-confidence.

Americans have always evinced some distrust of government, but the current situation has exacerbated this to a degree that may be unprecedented.

So was it a political mistake for Obama to put so many eggs in the health-care-reform basket? Well, a negative decision from the Supreme Court will certainly make it appear so.

Ironically, tendency to ignore inconvenient facts and unwelcome evidence is actually President Reagan's true legacy, as I noted in 'The Nation' back in 2000, before the current right-wing mania for President Reagan gained its full force.

While history never repeats itself, political patterns do.

Apple is a wonderful company for its customers and investors. So, too, Pixar. (NeXT, not so much...) But Apple is also an engine of misery for its subcontracted Chinese workers.