Commentary

By BILL MAXWELL
Thursday, November 16, 2006
When I read about Lakewood High School football coach Otis Dixon last week in the St. Petersburg Times, I was so impressed that I visited him in his office.

An editorial / By Dale McFeatters
Thursday, November 16, 2006
After a major electoral defeat for his party and his policies it's not the best time for a president to be taking a major foreign visit, but President Bush is off Tuesday for eight days in Southeast Asia.

It is one of those events only a career diplomat or irredeemable wonk could love, sessions of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, APEC and ASEAN in diplospeak.

And it is filled with those formal events _ meetings, speeches, receptions _ that Bush does not enjoy but dutifully endures.

There are significant issues on the table, particularly trade, health and security.

An editorial / By Dale McFeatters
Thursday, November 16, 2006
A good reason for voters to turn as they did on the old Congress is that it didn't work very much or very hard when it did. As a result, the lawmakers return Monday to face a ton of unfinished business.

MARSHA MERCER
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Poor George. Life in a bubble has consequences.

President Bush says he was surprised and disappointed by the midterm election results.

"I thought we were going to do fine," he said at his post-election news conference last week.

By STAR PARKER
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
There's already plenty of punditry about what went wrong. What did the president and the Republican Party do and when did they do it.

Robert Novak summed up the consensus view of the Republican wipeout well, writing that, "opposition to the war and the president had produced a virulent anti-Republican mood."

My point of departure from most of the analysis that I've read would be to disagree that this election was about any single issue.

I think this election was about trust.

By THOMAS P. M. BARNETT
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Barack Obama should run for president in 2008 for all the tactical reasons cited by pundits, but primarily because the baby boomers need serious competition from "below" on the vision thing.

By BOB KERR
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
There was a brief course in Marine Corps history at Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Va. It included familiar things _ Iwo Jima, Chesty Puller, the Chosin Reservoir.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Given the costs of brand-name drugs and our increasing reliance on pharmaceuticals for health, Congress should pass the Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act.

This measure would stop big drug companies from essentially bribing generic-drug makers to refrain from selling medications whose patent protections have run out.

Patent law permits pharmaceutical companies to make mountainous piles of money from developing and selling new drugs.

An editorial / By Dale McFeatters
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Thomas Jefferson is getting around a lot more than he used to these days.

No, not the third president. He died in 1826. But the $2 bill which bears his picture is undergoing a surge in popularity and nobody seems really sure why.

The $2 bill, even though it's as old as the country, has always been America's forgotten currency.

By JOHN HALL
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Remarkably, world reaction to the murder conviction and death penalty imposed by an Iraqi court against Saddam Hussein a week ago has been mainly adverse.

One of the tyrants of the age has been held to account for his crimes.