For me, a really radical position for journalism to take is to stop being cynical. Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre.

Affirmative action was always racial justice on the cheap.

If there was one fact that sent me hurtling off to write 'Politics Lost,' it was when I learned that John Kerry had focus-grouped Abu Ghraib. We knew about the Justice Department memo in June of 2004, and Kerry didn't raise that in any one of his three debates with George Bush.

Bush the Elder's stature as president grows with every passing year. He was the finest foreign policy president I've ever covered and a man who defied his party on tax increases while imposing budget restrictions on the Democrats.

I was crushingly bored talking about politics 30 hours a week.

Well, I think the president is going to do well in terms of his influence for positive change here in the Congress, making sure that we don't overspend, making sure that we spend for only those programs that are justified.

A military or government hierarchy is anathema to the dispersed population and diverse tribes of mountainous Afghanistan.

The truth is that for a Democrat to triumph in a presidential election, it needs to come on the heels of 'the dark times' of an unpopular Republican administration. Carter followed the Nixon era, Clinton succeeded after 12 years of Reagan/Bush, and Obama was a direct result of eight years of Bush/Cheney.