Since Howard Schultz announced that he was considering running for president as an independent, there has been much speculation about how his potential entry might affect the race in 2020. Specifically, howls of Schultz “spoiling” the race have been heard from Democratic candidates and operatives.

Since Howard Schultz announced that he was considering running for president as an independent, there has been much speculation about how his potential entry might affect the race in 2020. Specifically, howls of Schultz “spoiling” the race have been heard from Democratic candidates and operatives.

Pat Benjamin, author of "The Perot Legacy: A New Political Path," discusses Ross Perot’s two presidential campaigns with T.J. O’Hara and what elements might apply to Howard Schultz’s potential presidential bid.

The lead story in Wednesday’s Washington Post, was written by two reporters telling us what might happen to Democratic candidates running for president, in a race that doesn’t end until November 3, 2020 — a mere 615 days away.

You might say I’m a political junkie, but I’m not reading speculative junk by two reporters about a subject I may know more about than they — if being in and around politics for 53 years counts for anything.

“The establishment of democracy on the American continent was scarcely as radical a break with the (European) past as was the necessity, which Americans faced, of broadening the concept to include black men.”-  James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son"

From the founding onward, race has been the American fulcrum, the nexus by which the country is united or divided, with the African American community pivotal in the long struggle for a broad-based inclusive American democracy. Race and place perpetually intertwine here.

It’s like déjà vu all over again: City Hall insiders asking politicians to leap before they look.

This time it’s proposals backed by the YIMBY (“yes in my back yard”) movement to lift height limits and eliminate parking requirements in order to promote even more high-density residential development, beyond what the law already allows.

I'm quite sure there are few things in this world Chicago Police superintendent Eddie Johnson has not seen, which makes his news conference this week on the Jussie Smollett case all the more remarkable.

In a time when over-the-top, inaccurate reports in the news and entertainment media are commonplace, Johnson's pointed comments on the latest manufactured hate hoax not only stood out, they will stand the test of time.

The Democratic National Committee has released its preliminary rules for the first two presidential primary debates to be held in June and July. The party has announced some format details, as well as polling and fundraising thresholds candidates need to meet to qualify for the debate stage.

Looking at a field that could expand beyond 20 candidates, the party wants to avoid repeating the same mistakes the Republican Party made in the 2016 primary. However, party officials at least want it to appear like they are learning from their own mistakes as well.

When President Donald Trump declared a national state of emergency to advance construction of a wall on the United States’ southern border, debate sparked over whether such use of broad executive power would come back to bite the Republican Party should a Democratic president do the same.  

And perhaps that president should: with a myriad of legitimate crises facing our nation and our world, perhaps we should be embracing innovative ideas to address them.

Bernie Sanders has officially announced his intentions to run in 2020 for the presidential nomination.