To own the dominant, or only, newspaper in a mid-sized American city was, for many decades, a kind of license to print money. In the Internet age, however, no one has figured out how to rescue the newspaper in the United States or abroad.

America's great newspapers have staffs that range from 50 percent to 70 percent of what they were just a few years ago.

While history never repeats itself, political patterns do.

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.

One of the many, many salutary aspects of Barack Obama's impending presidential nomination is the sea change his victory marks in the battle for the mind-set of the American foreign policy establishment.

Face it, the system is rigged, and it's rigged against us.

Over one in five American children is living in poverty, and the number is rising.