I have often said one of the reasons more blacks don't support Republicans is because they don't trust the GOP establishment.
The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.
Drill everything mine everything roll back regulations tweak the science expedite permits. Sound familiar? The Republicans offer up more 19th-Century solutions to our 21st-Century energy problems.
So I really would like to see both parties respond to the poor with greater commitment. But I've got to tell you the Democrats I feel are doing a better job in that respect than Republicans are.
I've thought about it not a lot but I thought my relationship with Congress - the Democrats and Republicans - would help me get some things done. Not everything but at least they'd be willing to try.
In reality Republicans have long been at war with clean energy. They have ridiculed investments in solar and wind power bashed energy-efficiency standards attacked state moves to promote renewable energy and championed laws that would enshrine taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuels while stripping them from wind and solar.
While only about half of the voters feel they know very much about Reagan or what he stands for the Republicans who do have a very positive perception of him.
But I think there was a sense amongst the House Republicans especially that we didn't just want to be opposed to Bill Clinton that we wanted to tell the country what we were for and to brand ourselves in a more positive manner.
Political consultants are pugilists masters in the dark art of negativity. Which is why it's surprising to hear Democrats such as Steve McMahon and Republicans like Rich Galen urging their presidential candidates to be more well positive.
I was in the room with you know more than a dozen Republicans trying to negotiate the stimulus. Most of them decided the politics of the situation meant they should walk away even if it wasn't responsible in terms of what our country needed right then.