Republicans just don't get that their idea of scandal is not what the average American thinks is a serious scandal.
Jim Crow laws stripped blacks of basic rights. Despite landmark civil rights laws, many public schools were still segregated, blacks still faced barriers to voting, and violence by white racists continued. Such open racism is mostly gone in America, but covert racism is alive and well.
Rural voters believed the Democrats traded millions in campaign cash at their expense. Along came a guy named Trump to give these voters a political voice.
The U.S. military cannot fight Iraq's war for them.
It's time to review what damage the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has done to our political system.
If pluralism and academic freedom are to be used to defend liberal speakers and ideas, they ought to be equally valid for conservative views.
As tragic as Benghazi was, its importance pales next to killing Osama bin Laden.
Like many other Americans, I'm tired of the U.S. taxpayer paying for foreign wars, especially when the countries we defend have raked in huge oil profits.
The media role in highlighting racial incidents only serves to exacerbate tension. We rarely write about racial harmony.
Charter schools are not a panacea.
Ever since 9/11, our intelligence agencies, as part of the 'war on terror,' have expanded their operations to include American citizens. I was 'terrorized' when I learned that the National Security Agency was intercepting information on Americans.
Congress votes for things the military doesn't want, and planes and other weaponry that cost a lot but don't work.
In the black community, Trump's history of racial discrimination is deeply embedded.
When issues emerge that might harm a campaign, like the Clinton e-mails, you have to get all the facts out right away, but not before you have all the facts.
Trump is part of the reason you are suffering. Trump is the one playing on the not-so-level playing field where he wins and you lose.
It is Trump who plays with the tax code to pay no taxes; it is Trump whose Trump-brand products are made overseas by cheap labor; it is Trump who hires undocumented workers from Poland to work on his projects, then refuses to pay them minimum wages.
I do oppose repealing Obamacare, because it's working for growing numbers of previously uninsured Americans.
Many good journalists have attempted to confront Trump about his many lies and failures, and have failed.
I came from a dysfunctional family - very dysfunctional. And my father used to find great humor in throwing me down the stairs.
As a former presidential campaign manager, I remember the final week of the campaign as being the longest and most important week of the campaign. The week doesn't seem to end.
On the road to the GOP nomination, Trump earned the reputation as a good debater by slandering and bullying his opponents, knocking them out with cheap shots and lies. On a crowded stage, Trump got away with these deplorable tactics.
Money is at the root of most that is wrong in American politics.
In 1984, I managed Walter Mondale's campaign for president. Mondale won the nomination after a bruising battle with Colorado Senator Gary Hart and Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Too many younger people seem to prefer following celebrities instead of doing the work required to get an education that will someday lead to a job. If students today spent as much time on math and science and history as they do following these shallow celebrities, they might actually become contributors to society someday.
What I have learned over hundreds of campaigns is if you have lost voters who have supported you in the past, you can get them back. If you never had them, it is a very difficult sell.
Republicans want to use Obamacare in the 2014 elections against Democrats who voted for it. They want to see it fail, even at the expense of people's health.
An early attempt at education choice was charter schools. These were meant to attract the best and brightest students and provide them a level of education they often could not find in their local school districts. The problem is that, of the thousands of charter schools, many are outright failures.
I have long been an advocate of school choice, but I also believe the problem lies with school administrators and union leaders who refuse to believe there is such a thing as a bad school.
If I never hear of Kim Kardashian and Casey Anthony again, it would make my entire day.
I am not opposed to government efforts to stop terrorist plots. We are still seared by the memory of 9/11, and we should be.
The fact of the matter, it's that Trump is getting money from blue-collar workers who send him checks for $250. Why? Who is Donald Trump? It's not who he is, it's who he isn't. Not what he is for, what he is against - that is, everything Washington is doing.
My pop culture ended somewhere north of Elvis but not too far.
Trump has predicated his whole campaign on the unfairness of the playing field. Big corporations, rich donors, big media, and trade deals that punish the little guy.
I salute South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Lindsey Graham for their calls to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the Statehouse.
We've come a long way from the days of Jim Crow, and yes, we elected a black president, but racism lives.
When a black man is stopped by a cop for no apparent reason, that is covert racism. When a black woman shops in a fancy store and is followed by security guards, that is covert racism. It is more subtle than 1960s racism, but it is still racism.
If we have intelligence on the location of terrorist training centers, it is insane not to act.
Trump is going to be around a while.
The vast majority of Secret Service agents are incredibly competent people.
A few states have taken redistricting out of the hands of partisans and put them in the hands of fair-minded committees. Every state should do the same.
I don't have a problem with stepped-up surveillance as long as we follow the rule of law.
We need to gather intelligence, but we need to do so legally.
Politicos talk a big game about bringing jobs to devastated cities like Detroit, but rarely succeed.
Life is a series of chapters, and one leads to another to another to another, and God knows what it is.
When I worked in the White House in the 1970s and '80s, I was often stopped within the White House by agents checking my credentials. They were very observant and would stop anyone they didn't recognize.
Iranians have suffered economically under the U.S.-led sanctions.
When I came to faith, I was on pro-choice boards, and I dropped off of those because you couldn't read the Bible and be pro-choice.
Every time I think that political analysts and writers will finally recognize that most of them don't understand much about political polls, they prove me wrong. They don't know how to read them; they don't understand the importance of cross tabs within a given poll, and they don't know how to analyze them.
If politicians of both parties would spend more time legislating and less time attacking each other, we would all be better off.
