Christopher Nolan's astounding third Batman feature, 'The Dark Knight Rises,' represents the true maturation of the superhero movie - and provides the key to understanding the bottomless craving moviegoers have for these films, 34 years after the Christopher Reeve Superman gave birth to the genre.

She needs to seem tough, and whatever Hillary's weaknesses, tough is a pretty good word to describe her.

Nixon in 1968, unlike Obama 2008, was elected as a minority president with only 43 percent of the vote. Yet, in 1972, he won what, in some measures, was the most lopsided election in American history with 61 percent.

Barack Obama is one of the greatest politicians in American history.

I think making a pretense of civility toward Eric Alterman is like making a pretense of civility to a scorpion.

Unquestionably, American political rhetoric can be repugnant, and the Right can certainly be as guilty as the Left.

Memories of the last nine years have turned Ground Zero from a site of horror, to a reminder of grief, to an occasion for ludicrous artistic posturing - and now to something very close to parody.