It's a great country. Don't let the hucksters and charlatans take it
away.

John Leonard edited and wrote the introduction to These United
States: Portraits of America (Nation Books).

It lacks beaches, but it does have the most mixed neighborhoods in California.

At some point or another in their careers, just about every governor in the union faces some sort of recall effort.

New Mexico is on the verge of joining
those happy few states that have acted to rein in the
extreme influence of corporate money on US politics.

Minnesota's new senator, Norm Coleman, is a dealmaker with
ambitions.

Minnesota's Dean Barkley represents a movement with a strong state foothold.

America remains a global shopping center for terrorists and others.

For some of progressive cast, there was at least one thin silver lining to Tuesday's crushing Democratic defeat: For the first time in decades, Jesse Helms wasn't running, and come January he'll

The Republican wave that swept the country seemed to crash and recede
right at the California border, but only barely.