Ann Romney... looked to me like a corporate wife. The stories she told about struggles - eh! It's hard for me to believe. I mean, she's a very rich woman, and I know that, and America knows that.

In black America there's such a thing as passing, the black people who are light skinned and they will pass for white.

Beyond budget fights, the Obama second-term agenda was supposed to be about passing comprehensive immigration reform.

The teachers' unions that block school reform have done serious damage to the union brand. The public no longer views unions as their friend, much less their champion. They view them as corrupt, intransigent and more interested in protecting their political clout within the Democratic Party than protecting their members or even school children.

The 2012 presidential campaign's turn away from the classic, straight-up, American election - where the candidate who gets the most votes nationwide wins - is another sad reminder of the extreme political polarization distorting today's politics. No one talks about a 50-state strategy for winning the presidency these days.

I think, when you see kind of dysfunction among the Democrats of the Republicans, it impacts the whole country: the way we feel about each other, our ability to speak as one. And in this case, I think there are lots of Republicans who are worried about, does Donald Trump really represent conservatism?

Want to know the key to a long-lasting relationship? Don't go with your loved one to Ikea. One psychologist says the stress of a visit to the popular furniture store can cause serious friction between couples, whether it's disputes over what to buy or spats while you assemble the items that you bought there.