Lizard Brains

The blogosphere exploded on Tuesday with the rumor that President-Elect Barack Obama might ask Sen. Hillary Clinton to be our next secretary of state.

Immediately, pro- and anti-Hillary comments lit up the Web. Personally, I can't wait for her to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but in the meantime, welcome to the next eight (I hope) years, where fractious Democrats, liberals, progressives, libertarians and even a few conservatives -- opinionators each and every one of them -- create a cacophony of comment over every move Obama does or doesn't make.

Hobbes Is Dead (or at least on life support) . . . and I Feel Fine

It has been said that the election of Barack Obama as the next President may serve to redress the four-century-old stain of racism in America.  While the symbolic poignancy of his ascent no doubt will dispel some demons and open new vistas of opportunity for many, there is another deep-seated ideology of nearly the same historical age that Obama's election may confront, one that perhaps even underlies the overt machinations of race and caste: to wit, fear itself.

In Memory of Bubbling Bob

Barack Obama has inspired a generation and a nation. It's a wonderful thing.

But please allow me to be the crotchety old lady next door screaming "Get off my lawn!" for just one moment longer.

From what we're hearing, Obama is listening to good people and making good moves. He can't close Guantanamo or get our soldiers out of Iraq fast enough for me. If he could convince George W. Bush to move out of the White House tomorrow and take that toad of a vice president with him, I'd be thrilled.

Obama's Chance to End the Fantasy That Is Star Wars

The world is still pleasurably suffering from Woah-bama whiplash. Did he really win? Are we all awake? And would anybody mind if he starts a few months early? The need for decisions is rapidly piling up – and one of Obama's first choices is whether to bring to an end one of the strangest episodes in American political history.

Recalling Checks and Balances

"D'oh!"

That's Homer Simpson, who could now be hired as a spokesman by the Republican national leadership.

The only problem is that once you've led a country to unjustified war and commingled that evil blunder with economic catastrophe, you don't just get an automatic do-over.

The Disenfranchisement of My Daughter

Organizer in Chief

You could almost hear the world’s collective sigh of relief. This year’s U.S. presidential election was a global event in every sense. Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, represents to so many a living bridge—between continents and cultures. Perhaps the job that qualified him most for the presidency was not senator or lawyer, but the one most vilified by his opponents: community organizer, on the South Side of Chicago. As Alaska Gov.