One of the best features of my career is that I have gotten to meet and work with some of the most stellar people in the business. From Tim Russert and Jim Lehrer to Bryant Gumbel, Andrea Mitchell and Judy Woodruff, I have learned from the leading lights.
Hyperbole is not easily dealt with. Usually, it collapses under its own weight.
It's been years, decades, since a president has lost a major trade initiative. That would be bad headlines.
I'm a preacher's kid, and we were always told, Act right all the time, because someone's always watching.
Barack Obama's historic 2008 presidential campaign touched on all the themes I have covered throughout my career and all of the layers of meaning that run through black politics. Ambition. Aspiration. Fear. Folly. It was all on display as Obama boarded the roller coaster that ultimately led to the White House.
If there is anything good to be said about my particular line of work, it's that we get to tell people the news they need to hear, and to put it in context. To get to that - for one hour every night on the 'PBS NewsHour,' and for an additional half-hour every Friday night on 'Washington Week,' we have to slog through a lot of tough stuff.
Simply as an exercise in efficient politics, Obama '08 rewrote the textbook. His accomplishment was historic and one that transformed how race and politics intersect in our society. Obama is the leading edge of this change, but his success is merely the ripple in a pond that grows deeper every day.
Hope springs eternal, even in politics.
Journalists are accused of being lapdogs when they don't ask the hard questions, but then accused of being rude when they do. Good thing we have tough hides.
Whatever their motivations, lawmakers on both side of the aisle have certainly discovered that immigration is one of those issues that resonate strongly with the public.
I was taught that the search for truth and the search for justice are not incompatible and are, in fact, essential.
I recognize that it often serves competitors best to talk past each other - especially when you are trying to claim the fleeting attentions of voters on a debate stage or on social media. But think how much more clarity we could get if the people who wanted to be president clearly explained why he or she is the better choice.
There seems to be more abiding interest in unearthing old memos abroad than there is here.
If you start to catalog Hillary Clinton's positions between now and 2008, we're going to have a lot of conversations because there are a lot of places for her to go.
People do still cheer for the President. And some of the military audiences are more likely to cheer than others. I have seen him speak lately in front of groups like Freedom House, where the applause was a long time coming.
The President has launched a very agressive campaign of self-defense, with the goal of getting Americans to buy into his vision of America on the world stage.
You would like me to say that the veil will be ripped from the voters' eyes sometime between now and November, thereby restoring the proper version of Democracy to the House and Senate. I won't say that, of course. The simple reason is, I don't know.
One of the things that Africa needs, everybody seems to agree, is some measure of debt relief.
The common agenda both sides seem to share is: Whatever works.
Can't disagree with the need for a grasp of history.
