Helping the poor doesn't mean redistributing the wealth. It means removing the breaks that give the wealthy an advantage so huge that big chunks of the nation's income are automatically removed from individual economic competition.

Poverty is a national issue and needs a federal response. After all, U.S. federal government policies helped produce massive income inequality by lopsided breaks for the super wealthy.

The untold secret driving the obstruction to Obama's economic equality agenda is this: The opposition isn't really battling Big Government. The opposition is protecting an economic system that's putting more and more of the earned income out of reach for those aspiring to better themselves.

As a longtime political operative, I know firsthand how a vote here or a vote there can make a huge difference in a close election.

Since Bush has been in office, African-American women have fallen behind in terms of income and wages.

For a nation to be truly wealthy, it must possess a wealth of virtues.