Daily Debate

On the opening day of Congress, the elevator deposited me on the fifth floor of the Longworth House Office Building, where, as I expected, the parties celebrating the hard-fought November election victories had spilled out of the offices and filled the corridor with revelry worthy of New Year's Eve.

As the nation navigates through the most perilous straits it has seen since the 1930s, policy-makers are looking back to the '30s to see which of the paths that Depression-era America embarked upon actually led toward recovery. Well, some of our policy-makers. Others, it seems, have seized upon the very policies that deepened the Depression and are repackaging them as solutions for our time.

In America's ever-more-democratic society, egalitarianism seeps into everything, even the supposedly severe meritocracy of sport.

When it comes to the six Republicans competing for lead dog of the GOP leadership, all are on point: They love Ronald Reagan, are pro-life, advocate small government, and promise more diversity and fewer taxes.

Clint Eastwood has had it up to here with sensitivity.

The world is in crisis. But if you think that things couldn't get any worse, wait till the 2020s. The economic and geopolitical climate could become even more threatening by then — and this time the reason will be demographics.

Dear President-elect Obama: Among the first challenges you'll face when you take office is how to handle the Iraq drawdown.

Like pigs waiting in line to get their snouts in the feeding trough, come many of the nation's governors — on the heels of the mayors — asking Washington for bailout money.

The Cold War shaped world politics for half a century. But global warming may shape the patterns of global conflict for much longer than that — and help spark clashes that will be, in every sense of the word, hot wars.

I am supposed to be typing out words that articulate a highly audible and terribly alarmed tsk tsk. Instead, I am laughing with unrestrained amusement at the farce that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has engineered for what looks to be the flamboyant coda to his undistinguished career.

Armed robotic aircraft soar in the skies above Pakistan, hurling death down on America's enemies in the war on terrorism. Soon — years, not decades, from now — American armed robots will patrol on the ground as well, fundamentally transforming the face of battle.

Like pebbles tossed into ponds, Supreme Court rulings can radiate ripples of consequences. Consider a 1971 ruling that supposedly applied but actually altered the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

When the new Congress begins this week, many familiar faces will be missing. While the most notable absentees will be Barack Obama and Joe Biden, something tells me we will see plenty of them in coming months.

Christmas week is an appropriate time to write about a district in Iraq called Ameriyah.

Here's a debate that strikes a familiar chord. When do song lyrics that are meant to be entertaining hit a sour note and become offensive?

So, how's the Obama administration doing so far? It's a trick question: We're still three weeks away. But already, folks on the left and the right are furiously reading tea leaves, worrying about whether he's as progressive as promised or trying to turn lemons into lemonade.

If the FDA regulated the media, it would require all stories about the economy to carry this warning: "Dizziness and pangs of existential angst may result. Do not read if you suffer from gloominess or are prone to bouts of anxiety. If you are near retirement age or work in the auto industry, consult with a physician before reading."

BAGHDAD — Christmas week is an appropriate time to write about a district here called Ameriyah.

So, how's the Obama administration doing so far? It's a trick question: We're still three weeks away. But already, folks on the left and the right are furiously reading tea leaves, worrying about whether he's as progressive as promised or trying to turn lemons into lemonade ("Hillary Clinton at State: a victory for conservative foreign policy values"). Through all this, there's been surprisingly little focus on what may be the most important question Obama faces.