As the TV showed George Bush’s helicopter lifting off soon after the inauguration, cheers went up from those sharing this moment with me – and, I’m sure, from people across the land and around the world.      But is that it? Do we just sigh in passionate relief that the Wicked Witch is finally dead? […]

OK. The honeymoon’s over. With the election a month behind us, I must take up a serious issue with our president-elect.      It’s become commonplace to hear Republicans – who, if you’ll forgive the linguistic stereotyping, are adept at mangling the English language (think of our still-president) – talk of “growing” the economy. Such usage […]

Come on. The campaign’s over. There’s no more need to pander to the knee-jerk patriots, those who measure love of country by size of flag. Can’t we put away all the flags and the flag lapel pins? On the morning after, they’re just an ugly reminder of all the “pro-America” and “anti-America” and “real America” […]

There were many heroes in last week’s glorious election triumph. Barack Obama himself, of course, who maintained his cool, honesty, eloquence and vision in the face of nasty attacks and lies. But don’t forget his vast campaign staff, down to the numerous field organizers. I met two of them – Lindsay Randall and Isaac Goldberg, […]

Hold on a second. Exactly what is wrong with “spreading the wealth”? Are those really dirty words?       The desperate McCain campaign is trying to score last-minute points by suggesting that a candidate who would “spread the wealth,” who would take your money and decide how to spend it, is somehow a dangerous radical, possibly […]