Am I the only person wondering why Israel isn't included in the G20? Could it be the extra cost of the Kosher food?

According to their own description, the G20 is composed of "systemically important industrialized and developing economies" that come together to "discuss key issues in the global...

Hillary Clinton didn't get what she wanted.

Neither do most Americans.

As I watched Tuesday night's overflow of ecstasy and disbelief, I couldn't help but think of her -- in that intensely lonely and painful moment.

If president-elect Obama re-animated the American mythology that anything is possible...

On Tuesday we gain a president but lose a narrative.

No matter what happens tomorrow -- and despite the freeway collision of an economic crisis and two wars -- that narrative is possessed by Barack Obama.

His unexpected, mythic journey has turned the past twenty-two months into a national...

Richard Nixon has been reborn -- in heels, with a pregnant unmarried daughter.

Despite the media's near-erotic obsession with Sarah Palin, conspicuously absent from the commentariat has been any chatter about the many parallels between her, and the original culture warrior Richard M. Nixon.

Yes, there are differences. So let...

The debate confirmed what we've down for a long time: plumbers have a curious way of focusing cultural anxiety and cultural tensions.

Last night, Joe Wurzelbacher became an instant media God because he was name-checked by John McCain and then meme-morphed throughout the evening into a roving symbol of whatever...

For a generation, conservative culture warriors have raged at liberals for orchestrating the dumbing-down of America. From the new math to whole language to even affirmative action, they argue, progressives have emasculated our educational standards. Through a morally and ethically dangerous relativism, the left has destroyed...

Here's what must be said to the American people.

"For a long time there have been two economies in America -- the Elite Economy and the Everyday Economy.

Let me define the Elite Economy for you, because it might not be what you think. It isn't all of...

"Celebrity" is a loaded concept today. "Celebrity culture" has become shorthand for everything we love to hate -- and hate to love -- about the sensationalist, exploitative, superficial contours of American life.

When John McCain's strategists were looking for a kung-fu move that would turn Barack Obama's popularity and ability...

The debate is raging over whether or not the government should take equity positions in the financial firms whose subprime sewage it is purchasing with our squeaky clean taxpayer money.

Is there any question? In my world, there's a fundamental rule of the free market: he who can write the...

The new Obama spot that mocks McCain for being so out-of-touch that he can't send an email is another miscalculation. McCain's narrative has nothing to do with being a cool, with-it, tech-savvy counter-Luddite who spends his free time on Slashdot. In fact, the Republicans know enough NOT to attempt...

If the Wall Street Journal had set a team of researchers to find a more gloriously ironic statement of print's dark struggle for survival, they couldn't have found a better one than their very own story featuring Governor Sarah Palin which appeared in the launch edition of their new...

You were never seduced by the promise of one of those mortgages that let you borrow up to 100 percent of the income you planned to be making in five years.

It doesn't matter. With the bailout of Fannie and Freddie you and every taxpayer are proud owners of your...

YouTube + Yahoo! Answers + Twitter + Unremitting Blogging = Sarah Palin.

Last night, we saw the debut of a politician who was made possible by the last 5 years of the Internet. Those in the game call it Web 2.0, and it carries in its wake many variants of...

Here's John McCain's story as told last night, if anyone actually listened to the unadorned narrative:

Even though I was born into a life of privilege and patriotism, until I was 30 I was a spoiled wastrel.

Long before Tom Wolfe wrote the Me Generation, I lived it. I...

Michelle Obama was persuasive, powerful and elegant last night. It was a better speech, delivered with more oratorical finesse, than most professional politicians could muster. But the one thing I haven't read in all the praise and accolades is the simple fact that this was a speech she should never...

The likelihood of the 24-hour tchochke mill churning out buttons, placards and key chains screaming Obama/Clinton '08 is about zero.

That's a huge loss and a big mistake. Normally, as we know, the choice of the vice-presidential candidate is far from an election-maker. But this is no ordinary year, as...

President Bush, I know how tempting it is for you to use your platform as president of what is - at least so far - the most powerful nation on earth, to lecture others about their internal policies.

The problem, though, is that this posture is based on a profound...

Ever meet anyone who staggered through the Great Depression? Most people alive today probably haven't. So here's some insight. They've never really gotten over it. Never. They're the ones with an IMAX imprint of a society on the brink. The cheap ones who won't throw out a bar of soap...

The curious Britney-Paris-Obama triangle in John McCain's much opined-upon new TV spot is an advance in besmirchment, a vituperative leap in the evolution of the attack commercial. Give credit where credit is due: It's a shift in battle strategy, a jump from the cannonball to nerve gas.

Of course,...

"Know thyself," urged the ancient Greeks. It's an admonition to self-discovery that in many ways is the basis of modern consciousness. But it's on the ropes in modern California.

As the New York Times reported yesterday, the California Department of Public Health is attempting to stop companies like Navigenics...