Let's say that you enjoyed watching last week's Republican National Convention on television. Let's say you drank in the almost uniformly white faces and the regimented revivalism, you clapped when speakers belittled Barack Obama's work organizing impoverished communities, indeed, you cheered with Rudy Giuliani's zinger, "Drill, baby, drill!&q...

Hillary Rodham Clinton recently jumped on Barack Obama for what her aides called "a pretty big flip-flop" as Obama began to backpedal from a pledge to participate in the federal public campaign financing program in the general election. The program would limit each presidential nominee's spending to $85 million in taxpayer-donated dollars...

It's a presidential election year, in case you hadn't noticed. Candidates are talking about health care, education, day care, economic stimulus packages, unemployment benefits — you name it. Almost every political issue imaginable is on the radar screen, including all of the above and dozens of others that have nothing to do with constitution...

As candidates keep dropping out, or getting trounced, in the race for president, the walls are caving in for those seeking to elect an anti-immigrant zealot. After all, those candidates who have practiced the politics of xenophobia are not doing too well. Of the three people who have the best shot at becoming our next president — Sen. Hillary...

With Mike Huckabee winning Iowa, John McCain winning New Hampshire and Mitt Romney winning Michigan, all in 12 days, pundits are saying the GOP is in chaos. That prognosis is premature. Undoubtedly, with the nation in the fifth year of an unpopular war and the economy tanking along with President Bush's poll numbers, GOP prospects for holding the W...

For the past few months, it seemed as if Latino voters had lost their leverage. When the polls and the pundits gave Sen. John McCain of Arizona up for dead, when they said his presidential campaign was on life-support, Latinos lost their ability to threaten Democrats with a viable GOP alternative. They could not tell Democrats that they had the opt...

In a strange way, I was almost sorry to see Rep. Tom Tancredo drop out of the race for president last week. The immigrant-bashing Colorado Republican had proved to be such an extremist that he was hurting his own cause. Even other immigrant bashers refused to go as far as Tancredo, who came out against multilingualism and even legal immigration. He...

A peek under the Christmas tree, 2007: For GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee: a Christmas CD featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Ten million lumps of coal to the Miami husband who skipped out on his wife after he and his buddies hit the lottery for $10.2 million. To polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Chr...

What in the world is going on with these Christmas ads from the candidates for president? First, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee garners a ton of attention for what his critics called an over-the-top, cross-lovin' Christmas ad. Forget the fact that it was a bookshelf. They suggested it was lit to look like a cross and that's wrong. Wow. A Southe...