Topic - John Adams

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  LAMBRO: Squeezing optimism from dubious statistics

  In the high stakes of political combat, perceptions can matter as much or more than reality, and maybe that's why President Obama's numbers are creeping up in some polls.

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  BOOK REVIEW: 'The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents'

  There can be little doubt that Americans today consider the presidency to be the most captivating and meaningful institution in American politics. Creative works devoted to the presidency have enjoyed special popularity in recent years.

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  FIELDS: Race and racist screeds

  Presidential campaigns are notorious for unleashing scurrilous rhetoric. Only George Washington was elected as an uncontroversial reflection of the nation's will. Then we got political parties, and it was downhill after that.

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  COLE: Obama should quit emulating others

  Pundits and politicians, perhaps struggling to make sense of their own era, are fond of finding parallels between contemporary figures and those

• NBA lockout hitting some cities hard

  Across the street from Quicken Loans Arena, a building that rocks and rolls from November until April as home to the Cavaliers, reality is posted on a wall.

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  BOOK REVIEW: 'James Madison'

  In the efforts to illuminate our nation's beginnings either via epic cable series or expertly written biographies - it seems James Madison, proverbial "Father of the Constitution," often gets pushed to the sidelines.

• LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Hollywood should recall Hamilton

  As we prepare for the second act of President Obama's "fundamental transformation" of a country he and his wife find lacking, I challenge Hollywood to remind us of exactly what he would see undone: merely the greatest application of liberty among humans forever tempted to abuse power.

• HICKS: One more reason the out years are too late

  Here's a fact that was not lost on my teenage daughter: The infamous debt-ceiling deal doesn't actually reduce much of our debt until she finishes high school, graduates from college, and has potentially purchased a minivan and a pair of mom jeans.

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  RAHN: Democracy's spending curse

  Many a democracy has been upended by excessive government spending - and, unfortunately, America, despite the latest budget agreement, is well on its way to fiscal and, perhaps, democratic collapse. The American Founding Fathers well understood that democracy could destroy liberty through both excessive spending and oppressive actions by democratic majorities. This is why the U.S. Constitution creates a federal republic and not a parliamentary democracy.

• HICKS: Only in California? Don't bet on it

  I recently heard the first radio ad of the season for school supplies, so it won't be long before the bell rings and America's children file back into the classroom for another year.

• EDITORIAL: Bachmann was right

  Quotations from the Founding Fathers confirm their fight against slavery.

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  BOOK REVIEW: 'Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?'

  Well, was it? Um, er, ah ... it depends - the Christian Founding question, as John Fea addresses it, depends on more things in heaven and earth than are readily summarized in a bumper sticker. And if that doesn't answer the question the author boldly proposes in his title, he still gives readers the raw data wherewith to draw conclusions that will likely differ from each other in large measure.

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  WINDCHY: Congress must place a check on executive war-making

  The United States of America is in a constitutional crisis. Will Congress regain the sole authority to initiate war as specified by the Constitution, or will the executive branch continue to assume that right for itself?

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  PRUDEN: Dead mules and the Big Sleep

  Ours may be remembered as the era of the Big Sleep. Barack Obama and the Democrats lie comatose at the switch as the federal government continues to swell up like a dead mule in the heat of late July. Air-traffic controllers doze off with airliners circling airports, frantically trying to get landing instructions.

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  NCAA fails to keep up with matters of the clock

  This was a familiar scene during the first week of the NCAA tournament: Officials huddled around the scorer's table, looking over replays to determine just how much time should be on the clock.

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