Abortion Is Either Ok Or It's Not.

The 2008 Election Settled Nothing, Not Even For A While. Our National Politics Are Reflecting What Appears To Be Going On Geologically, On The Bottom Of The Oceans And Beneath The Crust Of The Earth: The Tectonic Plates Are Moving.

Our Patriotic Fervor Was The Result Of The Old And Widespread Belief In The Idea Of American Exceptionalism, The Idea That America Was A New Thing In History, Different From Other Countries. Other Nations Had Evolved One Way Or Another, Evolved From Tribes From A Gathering Of Clans, From Inevitabilities Of Language And Tradition And Geography. But America Was Born, And Born Of Ideas: That All Men Are Created Equal, That They Have Been Given By God Certain Rights That Can Be Taken From Them By No Man, And That Those Rights Combine To Create A Thing Called Freedom.

Speeches Are More Important In Politics Than Talking Points, As A Rule, And Are Better Remembered.

I Love Eulogies. They Are The Most Moving Kind Of Speech Because They Attempt To Pluck Meaning From The Fog, And On Short Order, When The Emotions Are Still Ragged And Raw And Susceptible To Leaps.

No News Conferences? Interviews Now Only With Friendly Journalists? You Can't Be President Or Vice President And Govern In That Style, As A Sequestered Figure. This Has Been Mr. Bush's Style The Past Few Years, And See Where It Got Us. You Must Address America In Its Entirety, Not As A Sliver Or A Series Of Slivers But As A Full And Whole Entity, A Great Nation Trying To Hold Together. When You Don't, When You Play Only To Your Little Piece, You Contribute To Its Fracturing.