The second debate has now assumed far more significance after a strong performance by the Republican challenger in Round 1 appears to have altered the dynamics of the race. President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will faceoff for the second time in 13 days in a crucial presidential debate on Tuesday night at the Hofstra University campus, just 25 miles to the east of New York City. The second debate has now assumed far more significance after a strong performance by the Republican challenger … [Read more...]
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Frank blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and writes occasional columns and articles for publications such as the International Business Times and The Economic Times of India.
Frank writes on a wide variety of topics that are critical to shaping the future of America and the American dream and to making the United States and the world a better place. These include: Business; education; poverty and inequality; politics and public policy; immigration; manufacturing; innovation; leadership; citizenship; and social commentary.
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The Importance of Beating Earnest: Lessons From the Vice Presidential Debate
From the Democratic perspective, the vice presidential debate was completely different in tone and style from the first presidential debate. Where the president was passive in his debate, the vice president was aggressive in his -- some people thought too much so. We think not because he got the job done. He accomplished his mission. In the debate, Congressman Ryan was sincere and earnest. Vice President Biden was bemused, bothered but not bewildered. He knew he had to win the fight in the … [Read more...]
US Presidential poll: A wink & a nod, all for the Oval office
Even before the current presidential election cycle began, the conventional wisdom was that the 2012 race to the White House would boil down to one issue and one issue only: the economy. The consensus among the political class all along has been that President Obama's reelection would depend on convincing enough voters that the American economy, in the midst of one of the slowest recoveries in history, has finally turned the corner. And on that all-important issue, the US president may have, at … [Read more...]
Play Mystified for Me
By the vote of the twitter universe, the most memorable moment of the first Presidential debate was Governor Romney's Big Bird comment. The same group and almost everyone declared the most memorable moment of the Republican convention as Clint Eastwood's appearance. We're not certain what the full impact of Big Bird will be - although it's generated some great tweets and you tubes. We have had sufficient time and distance from the event, however, to reflect on Mr. Eastwood's stage time in … [Read more...]
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy and Military Force
The death of Ambassador Chris Stevens at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the breaching of our embassy walls in Cairo, Egypt, might have unified our politicians in a common cause similar to the way they came together for the short time right after 9/11. Unfortunately, because this is a presidential election year, this was not the case. Instead, these tragic and terrible incidents have been made into the basis for political fodder and sloganeering by the Republican opposition to … [Read more...]
US presidential polls: On primetime TV, Barack Obama has edge over Romney
President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will square off on Wednesday night in the first of their three presidential debates at the University of Denver in Colorado. Many see the first debate as the last chance for Romney's floundering campaign to convince the American voters that the former Massachusetts governor with a stellar business background is the best person to lead the country in the next four years, as it slowly pulls itself out of a prolonged economic … [Read more...]
The Not-So-Great Redistribution Debate: Makers, Takers, Shakers and Fakers
Redistribution is a bad thing because it moves wealth from the makers to the takers, right? Conservatives and libertarians would probably think that way. Progressives and liberals would probably not. This needs to move beyond an ideological or linguistic argument, however. Every now and then, facts should intervene. A standard definition of redistribution is that it is reallocating wealth to reduce inequalities in income. The current political argument has centered on the conception that it … [Read more...]
The Divine Right: Conservatives, God, Politics and Policy
Whose side is God on in the presidential election? The Republicans -- both at and subsequent to their convention -- have actively laid claim to God's mantle and given the Almighty credit for most things American. The Democrats only begrudgingly acknowledged God in the platform at their convention -- after a contested three vote fight of the delegates. Still, we're of the opinion that God being omniscient, omnipotent and all-caring -- is on neither side and is upstairs rooting for the party … [Read more...]
It’s Time for21st-century Citizenship
Who is the good citizen and what does the good citizen do? That question is as old as and has been debated since Aristotle's Politics. President Barack Obama brought the issue of citizenship front and center in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention when he declared, "But we also believe in something called citizenship, a word at the very heart of our founding, at the very essence of our democracy; the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one … [Read more...]
The Unconventional: The Political Conventions in Perspective
Now that the Republican and Democratic national conventions are over, it's time to see what impact they had on the truly independent voter. And, the answer is very little. That's because most independent voters are "unconventional". They don't watch the conventions or only catch snippets when they are channel surfing and forget to hit the "change channels" button on their remote control quickly enough. Conventions are not what they once were. Today they serve three primary purposes: … [Read more...]