When one looks at the depths of U.S. presidential politics, there is a balance between who is perceived as having succeeded and who has failed. We write thick biographies and create college courses on the considerable accomplishments of our favorites. In pragmatic contrast, there is an old saw that means to convey how much federal [...]

When the inevitable annual news story comes out about the latest politician having cheated on his wife, people question why leaders cheat. There are some obvious reasons to me: Long campaign hours — Same as workaholics, being away from home offers a lot of opportunity for philandering. Lots of people interaction — When campaigning and [...]

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter gave an hour of his time this week to answer resident questions that came to host NBC 10 by way of email, Twitter and Facebook, as we reported on Technically Philly in sharing video of the event. Nutter has already been praised for use of Twitter – a move we had [...]

Back in July 2008, I finally got around to updating a WordPress.com I had been using to track the work I was doing on my undergraduate honors thesis researching the future of the beleaguered Philadelphia Republican Party. Two and a half years later, in looking to get a jump start on a 2011 resolution of [...]

I was in Washington D.C. on Saturday when the Rally for Sanity, put on by the crew at the satirical Daily Show, which is already been billed as the Woodstock for my generation. I didn’t really see or hear much,  as there were some big audio problems and, well, maybe as many as 215,000 people [...]

Major contentious midterm elections take place the nation over today. Despite the enthusiasm, I’m the reason why getting 60 percent of 170 million registered U.S. voters out there would be a triumph. I’m fairly politically aware — even my interests are more in local policy than national — and have been involved in government and [...]

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright seemed to enjoy the production just fine. That was the lede I submitted to Philadelphia events blog uwishunu in my review of last month’s U.S. premiere of ‘Leaving,’ the first piece in a generation from acclaimed playwright and former Czech President Vaclav Havel, at the Wilma Theater on [...]

Gov. Ed Rendell walked onto the stage in front of several hundred guests at the Committee of Seventy‘s annual breakfast and made a joke at the expense of the political oversight group’s president, Zach Stalberg. “Don’t you think Zach was a lot more fun when he at the Daily News?” Rendell asked of Stalberg, who [...]

Every Election Day since November 2004, with an occasional exception, I’ve worked with the Committee of Seventy, a more than century-old political oversight nonprofit in Philadelphia. I always come away with stories. As I did in last April’s primary, below, I’ll share some of the best from last Tuesday’s election, a relatively low-profile affair, including [...]

Whether Web technology and social media can have a major impact on local politics in a place like Philadelphia or if they remain secondary tools, became the major topic and a divided one at a panel that served as the November Refresh Philly meeting. The hour-long panel discussion, which I moderated, was entitled the Future [...]