So, now he's said it. President Biden told Howard Stern recently that he'd be willing to debate Donald Trump. With all due respect, I disagree. I just don't think there's anything to be gained. I have always embraced the high-minded goals of candidate debate: well-reasoned,fact-based discussion; values-driven argumentation; clarification, prioritization of positions. Dignified dialogue serves …
Continue reading To debate or not debate: new rules are the question
You had to be a 32nd degree political junkie to find and watch the last Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses. Thanks to Hillary godmother and DNC chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, last night's Democratic debate had 7.8 million voters, about half the audience for the first Democratic debate in October. While, as my friend Dan …
Continue reading Dems debate hidden between football and Downton Abbey
We don't need a Rockwell painting to remind us that Thanksgiving is all about those who came to this nation as immigrants. Everyone, of course, except the Native Americans. The Pilgrims came to escape religious persecution. My great grandparents did it in the 1800's. At some point, your forebears did it as well. Wave after …
Continue reading On immigration, who’s the turkey this Thanksgiving?
The talking heads are calling this year's snafus in the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act Obama's Katrina, likening it to the FEMA debacle in responding to the deadly 2005 hurricane that wasted Louisiana. I think the handling of the ACA roll-out is worse. Katrina is a code word for an epic bureaucratic screw-up, a failed response to …
Continue reading If ACA is a turkey, then Obama’s a lame duck
If President Obama loses his reelection bid in 2012, it may be because he has disappointed so many who had such high hopes for him in 2008. This surely is not true for a relative handful of individuals, who bundled campaign contributions and raised a lot of money for the President, and who were richly …
Continue reading Obama’s real deficit problem is the lack of enthusiasm among his supporters
Condoleezza Rice was in Boston yesterday promoting her new family memoir, Extraordinary, Ordinary People. Often lampooned on Saturday Night Live, the former Secretary of State under George W. Bush is anything but a stick figure. She is charming, highly intelligent, thoughtful and articulate. And the lessons she has learned along the way help explain her …
Continue reading Condoleezza Rice still has national potential
The case of Eric Balderas would make a great movie. The child brought to the United States by his Mexican mother, fleeing an abusive father, when he was just four years old. She struggles as a factory worker to care for him. He studies hard, becomes valedictorian of his high school class, and miraculously gets …
Continue reading Harvard illegal puts face on immigration problem
Marjorie Arons-Barron 