As Thanksgiving approaches and I watch the dire economic situation in Detroit unfold,  I keep having a recurrent thought:  Washington must try to prevent economic disaster for Michigan workers, but GM executives should get their gooses cooked.

There is no question that the collapse of the Big Three manufacturers in...

With half the state yet again in flames, I find myself of two minds with respect to the residents of California. On the one hand, my heart aches or this latest crop of Californians to lose their homes in this month's out-of-control brush fires.  On the other  hand, it amazes...

Up to this point in our history, when Americans imagined 'the future,' they thought about cars that could fly, a cognitive frame inherited from old time TV shows like Flash Gordon and The Jetsons.   Instead of that cartoon image, we would be wise to start seeing our future in terms...

While the 2008 election finished with a great celebration at the victory of Barack Obama, it also dragged a grisly hard-right nationalism into the bright light of American politics. The GOP had flirted with nationalism in the 1992 and 1996 Presidential bids of Pat Buchanan, but this time, the hard-right...

Prior to the 2008 election, never did I imagine that my Jewish community would be targeted by manipulative propaganda designed to make my family and others like mine afraid.  Never did I imagine that such a campaign would be tacitly endorsed by one of the most prominent and visible Jewish...

On Monday afternoon a day before the election, after placing Obama-Biden signs on doors in Northeast Philadelphia for nine hours, I sat down on a stranger's stoop, by myself, and cried.

It is hard to translate any feeling into words, but in this case--for the tears that I cried, like...

Read more Election Day Liveblogs, Reaction and Analysis from HuffPost Bloggers

What was billed as Obama's 'ad' or 'infomercial,' was in fact a short documentary about the struggle to achieve the American dream.  More than that, the film switched the central focus of Obama's candidacy from his story to the story of voters, transformed him from protagonist into narrator, and

The panic whipped up by the McCain campaign in PA sounds horrific because of the ugliness and hate that it pours into the election, but the real threat it poses is to our ability to get things done.  If John McCain were to win the election by kicking up enough...

With 8-days remaining, John McCain has intensified his effort to frame Barack Obama as a communist.  McCain's latest ad uses classic cold war arguments to spread fear that America's savings accounts 'under siege.'   While McCain continues to drop in the polls, but his anti-communist framing has left part of his...

Yesterday, a horrible incident took place in Pittsburgh: a young woman was robbed; and then, after the assailant noticed that her car had a McCain sticker, he returned to brutalize her, including scratching a backwards 'B' in her cheek with a knife. Although horrible by itself, what makes this story...

The GOP smear du jour of Barack Obama is that he is 'anti-American.'  In a video circulating the Internet, House Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is shown repeatedly branding Obama and all liberals with the nasty, McCarthyite epithet in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews.  But...wait a second -- haven't we...

When Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president, MSNBC's Pat Buchanan ignored foreign policy and focused on the color of their skin.

While it is pathetic all by itself for Buchanan to talk about two of the most prominent men in American civic life as if they are brainless...

In the first debate, John McCain said 'pork barrel' four times; in the second debate: three times.  In the economic 'plan' on McCain's campaign website, he repeats 'pork barrel' twice.  Chances are McCain will repeat 'pork barrel' in the last debate enough times for it to be noticed, probably three...

According to Time, McCain campaign staffers in Virginia are teaching volunteers to see Barack Obama as having terrorist 'friends,' and then providing these volunteers with arguments for persuading voters that Sen. Obama, like Osama Bin Laden, shares responsibility for bombings of the Pentagon.

The report from inside the...

Because I published a book recently on the harm done to U.S. democracy by violent rhetoric, I get lots of calls for comment on whichever right-wing shock jock uttered the most menacing words on air in any given week. Lately, however, those questions have shifted in a very noticeable...

In presidential elections, winning and losing results less from the facts presented, than the keywords and key phrases repeated.  At no time was this more true than last night's debate in Tennessee.

Second Debate Turns McCain-isms into Major Problem for Republican Chances
More than clarifying John McCain's policy positions, the...

MCCAIN CAMP TALKS 'CHARACTER ASSASSINATION,'  SUPPORTERS SHOUT FOR REAL ASSASSINATION
At her last rally in Florida, Sarah Palin told the audience that Barack Obama "palled around with terrorists" adding,"I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America."  Upon hearing...

In the wake of John McCain's 'pig' ploy scandal, I wanted to draw attention to a new frame that is taking shape at break neck speed in the debate.

I call this the 'Solve Real Problems' frame and it has the potential to set the stage for Democrats to...

Why is it that a Republican campaign filled with blunders, chaos, gimmicks, an out-of-touch candidate, scandals, and lies -- succeeds? Believe it or not, the answer is probably not the RNC convention or John McCain's vice presidential candidate or any of the tabloid nonsense that has taken over the media's...