Americans don't want leadership. They want alchemy.

If sexual intercourse, as the poets tell us, began in 1963, it was another decade and a half before the American political system began to take notice.

The takings clause of the Fifth Amendment is for conservatives what the equal protection clause of the 14th is for liberals.

Is there any other democracy where the voters are as spoiled as they are in the United States? Especially, of course, in certain states, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where the old joke is literally true about the citizens who say they haven't yet formed an opinion about a candidate because they've only met the fellow a few times.

Journalistic conventions make it hard for reporters to deal with a big, complicated lie.

The solution when you don't like someone's speech is not to silence that person, or that corporation. It's more and louder speech of your own.

In those days, the late 1970s, one of the leading politicians was a soon-to-be uncle by marriage of Arnold Schwarzenegger, named Ted Kennedy.