"More than 15 years after Barbara Ehrenreich wrote those words, the tall tale of President Clinton’s lurch to the left is still in the air. Warning Democratic politicians against being “liberal” or moving “left” remains a time-honored -- even compulsive -- media ritual. But as Barack Obama fills key economic posts in his administration, the left-leery and corporate-friendly press is likely to be quite content."

"If the settlers can make property claims in East Jerusalem based on title deeds that pre-exist 1948, why cannot Palestinians make similar claims in West Jerusalem?"

"There is nearly universal agreement that the United States needs urgently to rebuild its image in the world. Volunteers, as good neighbors and in their dedication to meeting human needs, contribute to public diplomacy and to goodwill among nations."

"Libertarians routinely trot out horror stories about government waste, fraud, and abuse, and measure these troublesome anecdotes alongside an unrealizable ideal of a "perfectly functioning market." However, this argument commits the fallacy of disparate comparison by comparing what the perfect market would do in theory with what imperfect governmental agencies, at their worst, have done in fact. No thoughtful liberal defender of public regulation of the environment in liberal democracies will pretend that this approach is perfect."

"I believe that the Israeli Obama will find fertile ground for peace. I would like to be present at his victory rally at Rabin Square."

"These behind the scene appointments of unelected people have been setting the stage for a dramatic escalation of military conflict with Iran as soon as the new administration takes office."

"Barack Obama is inheriting a godawful mess as he prepares to move into the presidency, virtually none of it of his making. The governmental/corporate looting system that was the CheneyBush Administration, with greed as its organizing principle and lack of oversight as its all-clear authorization, has broken the back of the American economy. And because when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold, the situation is even more dangerous and desperate."

"If anything, America’s unquestioning identification of Obama as a ‘black’ candidate is deeply problematic. It demonstrates that the United States remains firmly rooted in ideas of race that go back to the era of slavery and Jim Crow Laws."