Opinion

Political consultant Mark Penn came in for a lot of outrage last week when a March 2007 strategy memo for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign surfaced. In it, Penn suggested exploiting Barack Obama’s “multicultural, diverse” boyhood as a “very strong weakness.” According to Penn, Obama’s ties to “basic American values and culture are at best…

Now that it’s obvious Sen. Barack Obama will be the Democratic candidate for president, GOP nominee-apparent Sen. John McCain and the Republican attack machine predictably have already started in on the Illinois senator as a callow youth with scant foreign policy experience and a resultant na?ve view of the world. Hillary Clinton herself tried…

While the once-imperiled California condor has made a striking comeback, there is another ailing bird in the state that should probably be considered for the endangered species list: California Republicans. As the 2008 Republican presidential contenders turn their sights toward California on Feb. 5, they might want to take stock of the sorry state of…

I have watched with interest as Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has been pummeled over his use of campaign funds to pay for foreign trips and their related costs. I didn’t accompany Nunez on his travels, and hence don’t know the purpose of all the expenditures. But I do have enough firsthand experience in this area…

Will the Terminator-turned-the-Governator turn into the Sen-â-tor? Although I can’t predict the ultimate outcome, I suspect the former muscleman will indeed take on U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2010. The standard line among Republican insiders is that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, accustomed to being on center stage as a bodybuilder, movie star and governor, would…

Karl Rove’s recent resignation as George W. Bush’s political Rasputin (aka “Bush’s brain”) has prompted the inevitable avalanche of commentary and analysis about Rove’s role and influence — the good, the bad and the ugly — in 43rd’s White House. But there is a much more fundamental question about Rove that ought to be…

For centuries, virulent anti-Semites have groused about “the Jews owning all the banks.” But, in recent years, equally unfair allegations have been leveled against banks originally established to serve the Asian American community. My first experience with this was in 1993, when I served as campaign communications director for Michael Woo, the first Asian…

Well, girls and boys, here we are with another major election just around the corner. No, I’m not referring to the 2008 presidential race — that’s already bearing right down on us. I mean the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, the primary for which is just three short years away. Who will run? Who will win?…

Everyone knows the old saying about never discussing politics or religion at a dinner party. But sometimes both subjects deserve an airing, even if it makes dinner guests stare uncomfortably at their plates. Now may be one of those times. In the current presidential campaign, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a lifelong Mormon, is…

Can Rudy Giuliani go from running the Big Apple to successfully running to be the Top Banana, president of the United States? Current polls suggest the answer may be yes, but one thing is for sure: History decidedly is not on Hizzoner’s side. Giuliani, a national hero to many for his role in leading…