Howard Fineman, 09/28/12

Editorial Director, Huffington Post Media Group

This election is unlike any other in recent memory. Despite a lot of huffing and puffing, it is not about grand ideological conflict in America. It is more prosaic, but in its own way more urgent.
It is about the viability of our democracy to make sensible economic decisions.

Greta Van Susteren, 09/28/12

Host of Fox News' 'On the Record with Greta Van Susteren'

Congressman Akin should skip the apologizing and instead have a frank talk with the voters in Missouri to explain exactly what he thought, exactly what he thinks now, and exactly how he arrived at his current thoughts about rape.

Bob Burnett, 09/28/12

Berkeley writer, retired Silicon Valley executive

Thirty-nine days before the Presidential election, Mitt Romney doesn't appear to be the formidable challenge to President Obama that many expected. Indeed, Romney's ineptness has turned the tide in Obama's favor. What happened?

Arianna Huffington, 09/28/12

In this week's issue of Huffington, Lila Shapiro puts the spotlight on the small but robust gay contingent within the GOP, Tom Zeller Jr. tracks the debate over the eastward migration of mountain lions, and Gazelle Emami interviews Ai Weiwei, bringing the dissident Chinese artist's passion and fearlessness into sharp focus in time for his first major show in the U.S.

Allen Frances, 09/28/12

Professor Emeritus, Duke University

I have an offer for David Brooks. If he promises to stop being an amateur psychologist, I promise to stop being an amateur columnist. What Brooks doesn't know about psychology is a lot. Everything he says about it has a shallow ring, is misinformed, and displays the same bias and ulterior motive.

Michael Vlahos, 09/28/12

Writer and National Security expert

We were an outsider civilization that was going to calm and shape the Arab Middle East. Today our enterprise is in ruin. The Ottoman metaphor is relevant because we tried, however unconsciously, to be like them.

Gordon Brown, 09/28/12

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; UN Special Envoy for Global Education

Education across the world must be a priority for us all -- an economic and of course a moral necessity. The challenge is not insurmountable; we know how to build schools and how to train teachers. And so the time for excuses is over, and action must begin today.

Pedro Almodóvar, 09/28/12

Film director and producer

It sometimes happens that when you're hard at work making fiction, you get invaded by the feeling that what's important is happening elsewhere -- something much more powerful than the story that you have been creating, with care and obsession. That's what happened to me on Tuesday.

Madeleine Crum, 09/28/12

Assistant Books editor

I packed my bags for college having read every single one of Shakespeare's plays and Twain's novels, but not knowing who Jorge Luis Borges or Doris Lessing were. This is a huge problem.

Jonathan Weiler, 09/28/12

Director of Undergraduate Studies in Global Studies, UNC Chapel Hill

With growing horror, the right-wing is watching the detested president take what appears to be a solid lead in virtually all major polls (including those of FOX). Its increasingly agitated response to that development? Insist that the polls are hopelessly biased.

Richard (RJ) Eskow, 09/26/12

Writer; host, 'The Breakdown'; Senior Fellow, Campaign for America's Future

What appears to be a sudden epidemic of magical thinking actually reflects something else: the rise of a financial sector whose economic incentives have tilted away from core business competencies -- and toward something like that looks a little more like madness.

Daniel R. Schwarz, 09/28/12

Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and Frederic J. Whiton Professor of English Literature at Cornell University

We all want to be quoted accurately, but that is very different from allowing sources to delete substantive remarks. We should be concerned about that practice in a democracy, and we should expect reporters to resist that kind of control.

Willow Bay, 09/28/12

Senior Editor of The Huffington Post

The "ultimate girls club," with some of the most talented women in Silicon Valley, takes on the toughest job in the Valley: combining high octane careers and hands-on motherhood.

Kate Auletta, 09/28/12

Travel Editor, Huffington Post

Before hitting the ground strolling, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about at the Walkway Over The Hudson, a 3-year-old project that is now the longest elevated pedestrian park in the world.

Robert Naiman, 09/28/12

Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy

Most Democrats want to get U.S. troops the hell out of Afghanistan (outside of Official Washington, most Republicans agree.) But, the story goes, these Democrats have to have an "alternative," and the "alternative" is drone strikes.

Marian Wright Edelman, 09/28/12

President, Children's Defense Fund

Citizens must demand that every political leader state what they will do now to invest in and protect vulnerable children from hunger, homelessness and poor education. It's way past time to eliminate epidemic child poverty and the child suffering, stress, homelessness and miseducation it spawns.

Matthew Dowd, 09/28/12

Political strategist

If Romney wants to win, this is the moment to focus on those three C's. Otherwise, he'll need to focus on another "C" on Nov. 6: concession.

Rep. Mike Honda, 09/28/12

U.S. Representative for California's 15th District

One out of every 7 dollars spent in the U.S. is spent containing violence. Is this really how we want to measure America's success, how we want to develop as a society, and how we want to leave the world for our children and our children's children?

Paul Rieckhoff, 09/28/12

Founder, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

With the stakes this high, service members, veterans and their families deserve transparency and accountability.

Gazelle Emami, 09/28/12

Culture editor, The Huffington Post

Don't go calling Sherman Alexie's stories universal. "When people say universal they mean white people get it," he argues. His assessment is even more damning when you consider his subject matter -- modern-day American Indians. If there's any group white people get, this is not it.

William J. Clancey, 09/28/12

Chief Scientist of Human-Centered Computing, NASA Ames Research Center; Senior Research Scientist, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.

Jake Matijevic, a mathematician-turned-rover-engineer who played an important role in the design of the Mars Science Laboratory, now appears in Wikipedia as "Jake Matijevic (rock). Who was Jake and what's so important about this rock that he would be honored in this way?

Jason Pinter, 09/28/12

Bestselling thriller writer

Dear Mrs. Rowling, let me state for the record that I have not read your new novel, The Casual Vacancy, and though I have not skimmed one single page, I must be honest about the depth of your deception, lies, and skullduggery.

Simon Jackman, 09/28/12

Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

Set against this context, it is not unreasonable to ask if the polls could be wrong. But based on the evidence, it would be unreasonable to conclude that the polls are giving us a qualitatively incorrect impression of how the election is shaping up.

John R. Talbott, 09/28/12

Author, "Survival Investing: How to Prosper Amid Thieving Banks and Corrupt Governments"

If you want to hold cash, make sure it is held as cash in either currency or a very liquid guaranteed instrument like an FDIC guaranteed bank CD. Don't take your broker's word for it, make him show you the documents.