Our ability to govern ourselves is being brought low by a brew of right-wing ideology and a shockingly cruel attitude toward the poor on the part of the GOP.
It's not an all-or-nothing debate: We can be far more mindful of privacy than we have been without gutting the government's ability to stop future attacks.
Libertarians have the virtue of a clear creed. They can keep hold up their dream of perfection because, as a practical matter, it will never be tried in full.
Immigration reform is in the hands of moderately conservative Republican senators who have to choose between solving a problem and facing right-wing retaliation.
What is President Obama fighting for? How he answers will have more to do with his success or failure than all the Republican congressional investigations combined.
Nuclear weapons have no real utility to North Korea other than as deterrence of attack or invasion. The threat of their development is a propaganda asset.
You wonder if the president might find himself singing a variant on Kermit the Frog's anthem about the burdens of being green: It's not easy being Barack Obama.
