My Life as Barack Obama
Celebrity impersonators get a lot of strange press. They get blamed for crimes, sometimes falsely. In L.A., there have been recent stories about cop impersonators. Does this mean that the life of the...
View ArticleThe Stuff Made of Dreams
What defines glamour, and why do we need it? Bloomberg View columnist Virginia Postrel, author of The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion, offered her thoughts on what makes up...
View ArticleWhen Did Cuba Stop Being Sexy?
Barack Obama’s handshake with Raúl Castro at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service made headlines around the world, but it’s understandable that the president’s “selfie” with Danish leader Helle...
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Government Bureaucracy’s Fear of Failure Doomed HealthCare.Gov
Three months after the disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov, there are lessons to be learned. But what are those lessons? And can California citizens and local governments learn them? My concern for...
View ArticleWhy Obamacare Is Rocking My World
In July of last year I first began planning to buy insurance for my family under the federal Affordable Care Act. Since then, I’ve reviewed my options on the Covered California website, chosen my plan,...
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The President’s Coming to Town on Your Dime
The typical five-hour flight from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles costs anywhere from $300 to $500. This weekend, President Obama will be making that trip to deliver a commencement speech at UC...
View ArticleMr. President, Please Stop Visiting California
Bad news: President Obama is coming to California again. Mr. President, I realize such a statement may seem jarring to you and your strongest supporters. After all, our state (and this columnist) voted...
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Do Hugs Work Better than Quarantines?
The Constitution stipulates that the president is the commander-in-chief of the nation’s armed forces, but chief executives since Washington have accrued to the office a number of additional...
View ArticleAre Two Presidents Better Than One?
Does America need more than one president? The question comes to mind as we watch Barack Obama abandon cooperation in favor of strategies that bypass Republican obstruction on Capitol Hill. Obama’s...
View ArticleWill Globalization Be Obama’s Greatest Foreign Policy Legacy?
Battered by crises and maligned by critics, globalization is regaining momentum. And this is good news for America’s global leadership. Negotiations for an ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
View ArticleObama’s Unsung Legacy in the War on Income Inequality
You’d never know, from this year’s presidential campaign rhetoric, that anyone in Washington has been paying any attention to economic inequality. Donald Trump has hijacked the Republican Party with...
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My Hometown’s Rush to Honor Obama Says More About Us Than Him
I recently learned that, in the second grade, I was part of presidential history.Every morning during the 1980-1981 school year, I walked the five blocks between my family’s home in southwest Pasadena...
View ArticleBarack Obama Had an ‘Iron Will’ to Succeed—but What Was at His Core?
Historian David J. Garrow acknowledges that he’s “cynical” about Barack Obama, a conclusion that he reached while conducting 1,000 interviews and spending nine years researching the formation and...
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Government Bureaucracy’s Fear of Failure Doomed HealthCare.Gov
Three months after the disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov, there are lessons to be learned. But what are those lessons? And can California citizens and local governments learn them? My concern for...
View ArticleWhy Obamacare Is Rocking My World
In July of last year I first began planning to buy insurance for my family under the federal Affordable Care Act. Since then, I’ve reviewed my options on the Covered California website, chosen my plan,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The President’s Coming to Town on Your Dime
The typical five-hour flight from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles costs anywhere from $300 to $500. This weekend, President Obama will be making that trip to deliver a commencement speech at UC...
View ArticleMr. President, Please Stop Visiting California
Bad news: President Obama is coming to California again. Mr. President, I realize such a statement may seem jarring to you and your strongest supporters. After all, our state (and this columnist) voted...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Do Hugs Work Better than Quarantines?
The Constitution stipulates that the president is the commander-in-chief of the nation’s armed forces, but chief executives since Washington have accrued to the office a number of additional...
View ArticleAre Two Presidents Better Than One?
Does America need more than one president? The question comes to mind as we watch Barack Obama abandon cooperation in favor of strategies that bypass Republican obstruction on Capitol Hill. Obama’s...
View ArticleWill Globalization Be Obama’s Greatest Foreign Policy Legacy?
Battered by crises and maligned by critics, globalization is regaining momentum. And this is good news for America’s global leadership. Negotiations for an ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
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