The Patriots’ commitment to excellence extends all the way down the roster, which is why they are contenders year in and year out. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have already written themselves into the history books.
For Catholic bishops, freedom of religion apparently means something else. It means the freedom of the Catholic hierarchy to dictate decisions — for Catholics and non-Catholics alike — about child-bearing and reproductive health.
For every dollar spent by outside groups in the campaign on behalf of a candidate, the candidate will donate 50 cents to a charity of the opposing candidate’s choice. Thus, in theory at least, super PAC funding will hurt the candidate it’s trying to help.
President Barack Obama spent a significant chunk of his State of the Union address last week talking up energy independence for America, with applause lines - depending on one's predilections on the subject - for some of the following quotes:
Apple found, for instance, that it needed 8,700 engineers to oversee its iPhone production. China had them ready to work, but it would have taken 9 months to hire that many American engineers.
President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday night clocked in at a little more than an hour. To our ears, though, its essence was captured in a pair of quotes.
The President Obama who showed up Tuesday night to deliver the State of the Union Address was the energized, optimistic, Campaign Obama, itching for a fight, in full scold mode. In return Republicans were relatively subdued. Will those two ever get their moods in sync?
Three primary electoral tests for Republicans so far, three different winners. This nomination is up for grabs. If a Newt Gingrich of unparalleled personal baggage in this race can win a Republican primary in a South Carolina where such a large percentage of voters are evangelicals, well, that speaks volumes about supposed frontrunner Mitt Romney, who just can't seem to feel the love from parts of the GOP.
A man should be judged by the totality of his life. By that measure former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno lived a rich and rewarding one, and had a very positive impact on the lives of so many others whose paths he crossed. What happened in the last few months of his storied career and life does not change any of that.
If millions of Americans begin believing that the system doesn’t offer them any hope, that the doors to success are locked shut, one of the basic pillars of our society has been pulled away. More than income inequality, the lack of opportunity is the issue that all the candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, should be discussing.
"Not very much." With those three words, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney identified one of the really big mountains he must climb if he is to go from contender to occupant of the Oval Office.
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Citizens United decision two years ago, freeing corporations to donate unlimited sums in federal election campaigns, we’ve heard dire warnings about the corrupting effect this ruling would have on American politics.
Oh, the context of it all. "I want individuals to have their own insurance," GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney said recently in a speech before the Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce. "That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me."
The temperature is rising in the Middle East, with the U.S. and some allies tightening the noose on Iran as it continues its development of a nuclear weapons program. In response Tehran has, among other things, threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil now travels. Washington has indicated it will not let that happen for any length of time, even if it means military action. The ayatollah should not underestimate the Obama administration.
In pursuing the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney has chosen to put the emphasis on his record at Bain Capital, not his record as Massachusetts governor. So he shouldn’t be surprised that the campaign debate has turned to the practices of private equity firms like Bain in the creation — and destruction — of American jobs.
The worst part about the decades-long stalemate in Congress over immigration reform is that the big-issue politics keep practical problems from being solved. President Barack Obama has stepped into this vacuum.
Congress is broken. On that there appears to be rare bipartisan consensus, at least outside Washington. Consider the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.
The Iowa caucuses are overhyped and overrated in terms of determining America's choice for next leader of the free world, the attention they get saying more about the state of a beleaguered media than the Hawkeye State. What's an easier way to fill space and time in otherwise slow-news January than covering a political horse race?
There are other words — far more prosaic ones — that we’d like to hear more of in 2012, words that might signal improvement in our politics, culture and economy. For instance, our polarized civil discourse would benefit from more frequent use of the word “respect.”
Before the first Iowan cast the first vote of the presidential campaign, we saw what the Supreme Court’s evisceration of campaign finance laws has wrought.
