I was hoping more would have been written, marking the demise of the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau last week It certainly deserved more than a few lines of copy; more than a "30" to mark the end of a distinguished chapter of journalism. Try the loss of pride, dignity...

Until November 4th, the prospect of recovering America's battered image around the world seemed dismal at best. The prospect of recovering it seemed unlikely until the day that millions of citizens went to the polls freely to elect an articulate and charismatic black man as their next president.

The...

Big news! What a way to emerge from the excitement of last Tuesday's election than to read about the three major automakers plea for another handout. Not a handout, they insist, only a loan of $25 billion from the Federal government to get rid of their debt. Ah yes, another...

In an analysis of the foreign policy approaches of both John McCain and Barack Obama, the New York Times says "both men have been forced into surprising detours." McCain's perspective is drawn from his experience as a prisoner of war in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. The question rarely...

Over the past weekend, sold-out audiences in Los Angeles attended an L.A. Theater Works production of Norman Corwin's The Rivalry, a radio play about the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Lincoln was the anti-slavery candidate of the newly-formed Republican Party that stood for racial equality through the end of the...

At a time when the U.S. economy seemed to be going into the tank, the question no one seemed to be asking the past two weeks was what about the press... the talking press? For years, everything seemed quite rosy if you watched or listened to the broadcast media. Rukeyser,...

The past two weeks in election year politics resemble a script that might have been written by Woody Allen or the late Peter Sellers. But the story has lent itself more to tragedy than comedy. What was on John McCain's mind except his own desperate need to be president when...

It is not Sarah Palin's shortage of experience, but her lack of sophistication that is most troubling. It was a cute applause line, describing herself as a pit bull with lipstick. She and her political handlers on the night of her nationwide television debut may have thought her message would...

Tears of nostalgia filled my eyes Monday evening, watching Caroline and Ted Kennedy open the Democratic National Convention in Denver. It reminded me of a reporting assignment I had at the so-called Kennedy Convention that was convened in Los Angeles 48 years ago.

The setting was concentrated in the...

The latest campaign twister from John McCain is that he is not questioning Barack Obama's patriotism, only his judgment. But what kind of judgment has McCain been exercising the past several months by calling for the ouster of Russia from the G-8, the group of economic powers that is essential...

MOSCOW -- This is no time for blustering in the Caucusus, not by the president of Georgia, by Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin or George Bush and Condoleezza Rice in Washington. That's because everyone can share the blame for what's been happening in Georgia and South Ossetia.

Rice, whose credentials...

Thirty-six years ago I was in Georgia and Abkhasia on assignment for CBS News. Last Friday, I was in the network's Moscow bureau watching the war unfold between Russia and Georgia. In between repetitive scenes of bombing, shelling and chaos, I switched channels to absorb the spectacular unveiling of the...

Hearing John McCain complain about the media treatment he's been getting or not getting lately reminds me of the 1964 presidential campaign of another Republican senator from Arizona.

I was the CBS News producer responsible for supervising coverage of Barry Goldwater's campaign when he and his aides maintained a...

A few days ago, I wrote critically about continuing U.S. support for Afghanistan that was being endorsed by both presidential candidates. I was perhaps more tougher on Barack Obama who I reasoned was advocating getting out of one war and involving ourselves even more deeply in another, the drug...

The speculation about Barack Obama's running mate seems to overlook the candidate most likely to challenge John McCain's credentials as a national security expert. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia enticed the pundits for weeks, but he dismissed himself from consideration. The focus then turned on other candidates with limited wartime...