Politics

An analysis of the latest news from the presidential campaign, and tonight's debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, with our political panel.

We weigh in on Thursday night's first and only Vice Presidential debate with Richard Cross, a former GOP press secretary and gubernatorial speechwriter, and Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and co-editor of "The Obama Effect."

An analysis of the latest news from the Maryland referendum and presidential campaigns with panelists Karen Hosler, WYPR news contributor;Dedrick Muhammad, executive director of the NAACP's Financial Freedom Center, and Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and co-editor of "The Obama Effect."

After 14 years with NPR and nearly a decade covering Congress, Andrea Seabrook left to start a blog and podcast called DecodeDC, in large part because she got fed up. Capitol Hill has become such a spin-zone that Seabrook wants to cut through the lies she felt she was being told as a reporter and to “stop coddling the lawmakers.” What’s really going on in Washington, what it all really means, ans a new approach to political journalism in the digital age.

In the aftermath of the recession, income inequality in the U.S. reached a new high, according to the Census Bureau, and no surprise to political economist and commentator Robert Reich. He says our political and economic systems are rigged against average working people. But what to do about it? Reich, former U.S. labor secretary, is just out with an ebook, “Beyond Outrage: What has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix it.”

Midday_100312_Hr_1_RobertReich.mp3

Garrett Epps, a journalist and legal scholar based at the University of Baltimore, tackles what he calls the most prevalent myths about the U.S. Constitution advanced by Fox News, radio hosts, conservative think tanks and so-called tea party patriots and the politicians who pander to them. Epps, a frequent contributor to The Atlantic, describes how this misinformation is playing out on the campaign trail and suggests ways of countering right-wing myth-making about the law of the land.

Midday092412_Hr_1_ConstitutionalMyths.mp3

Bestselling science/tech writer and popular TED talker Steven Johnson makes the case for political progress in a networked age, arguing that the key to breaking partisan gridlock lies in cooperative thinking, encouraged by both digital and human networks. Johnson is the author of “Future Perfect.”
Guest host: Korva Coleman