Los Angeles Times

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LATimes

For our part, we're fans of the president. We endorsed him for the job, and we greatly prefer him to his predecessor. But it's difficult to see why he deserves the peace prize so soon after taking office. The Nobel committee didn't just embarrass Obama, it diminished the credibility of the prize itself, which traditionally rotates among world leaders (Willy Brandt, Mikhail Gorbachev), charitable organizations (Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders) and humanitarians (Elie Wiesel, Mother Teresa).

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From an LA Times Editorial:

Obama maintains that Congress should overturn the law rather than his doing so by executive order, and he's right. That way, a President Romney or, say, President Palin could not reinstate "don't ask, don't tell" with his or her own stroke of the pen. Right now, Obama is moving cautiously, apparently aiming to avoid the experience of President Clinton, who wrestled clumsily with this issue early in his first term. But this is not 1993. Then, about 44% of Americans favored allowing gays to serve openly; last year, a Washington Post/ABC News poll put that number at 75%. And support is bipartisan: 64% of Republicans support a repeal.

The public is ready. The president should lead, and Congress should act.

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Los Angeles Times Editorial

This page agrees that race-conscious policies such as affirmative action should be temporary -- existing only until they are no longer necessary because society's inequities have been addressed. But it is naive to think we have arrived at that moment. Despite the enormously significant changes since the civil rights movement, the simple fact is that the great American race problem has not been resolved. To be sure, it's different today than it was when 14-year-old Emmett Till was beaten, shot and thrown into the Tallahatchie River for whistling at a white woman in 1955, or when Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were murdered by the Klan in 1964 for trying to register black voters in Mississippi. That doesn't mean it's gone.

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From this editorial:

"Food has to meet certain specifications to be labeled as 'light,' but there are no such restrictions on cigarettes. Consumers can read the label to find out the ingredients in shampoo that goes on their hair, but not in the smoke that goes in their lungs. If matters proceed as expected today, the U.S. Senate will pass legislation allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products in ways that it should have been doing for years."

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Los Angeles Times Editorial

So Republicans interested in self-preservation would seem wiser to heed the appeal for inclusiveness. But big-tent politics by both parties serves an interest larger than membership; it's good for the polity as a whole. Parties that must rely on voters with a range of views will be less in thrall to ideological interest groups. A diversity of opinion in both parties also encourages compromise and bipartisanship. Like the so-called Blue Dog Democrats, the shrinking cohort of moderate Republicans who once moved their party to the center are now less able to forge those compromises. Obviously, inclusiveness can be pushed to the point of incoherence. In general, however, political parties that aspire only to represent true believers run the risk of marginalizing themselves even if they benefit temporarily from the politics of polarization.

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From this editorial:

"It's impossible to fault any of the Americans involved in the hostage drama, from Phillips -- who heroically surrendered himself to save his crew -- to the negotiators who rightly refused to give in to the pirates' ransom demands, to President Obama, who gave the Navy orders to act if Phillips' life was judged to be threatened. But the gloves are off now, and ships passing within hundreds of miles of the Somali coast should be ready for a fight." 

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Editorial
Health before ideology
Obama is right to overturn a ban on U.S. foreign aid to groups that provide abortion services. The policy is good for global health and should be made permanent.

We're glad to see the pendulum swing back again, and we expect this to be just a first step toward correcting years of ineffective, moralistic policies that sought to roll back reproductive rights at the expense of women's health. Access to safe and legal abortion is one of those rights; better yet, when women have ready and affordable access to contraception, abortion rates drop. The best scenario would be congressional action that positions this country for the long term to favor global health over ideological convictions.
 

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LA Times

The 'Bradley effect' myth

....

There is no doubt that racism lingers in American politics, but much more has been made of the Bradley effect than is justified -- take it from us, we were here the night it was born. In fact, the lessons of the Bradley campaign against George Deukmejian have far less to do with the viability of black candidates than they do with the limits of polling.