Gary Hart, 10/07/12

President, Hart International, Ltd.

Myths play a central role as metaphor in many world religions, but myths in politics are dangerous. They are a conscious hiding place from a changing, challenging, and often uncomfortable new world.

Jared Bernstein, 10/07/12

Fmr. Obama administration economist; CNBC and MSNBC contributor

There's a time for larger deficits and a time to be moving toward budget surplus. We want and need cyclical budget deficits to offset slumps; we do not want structural budget deficits that get larger when the economy hits its expansionary stride, which it has not as of yet.

HuffPost Radio, 10/07/12

Arianna and Nicolle Wallace debate why Romney won and how Obama adjusts. But if your opponent is a quick-change artist and fibber, how should you reply in a non-whiny way? The women then agree about "media bias" and Fox's 2007 Obama "too black" tape.

Katla McGlynn, 10/01/12

Comedy Editor, The Huffington Post

When Seinfeld disappeared in 1998, he left America in a feel-good era, hungry for more sublime chatter about nothing. We welcome him back not as a comedian whose material has gotten better with age -- or one recovering from a period of decline -- but as we would a 90s time capsule.

Raymond J. Learsy, 10/07/12

Author, 'Oil and Finance: The Epic Corruption Continues'

Governor Romney may call himself a Republican, but he is not a Republican of the iconic stature of President Reagan. President Reagan fully understood the importance of the arts to the formation of the nation's character.

Susan McBride, 10/06/12

Author, 'IN THE PINK: How I Met the Perfect (Younger) Man, Survived Breast Cancer, and Found True Happiness After 40'

Will I ever take my health for granted again? No. That's why I get nervous every six months when I have my regular boobal check-ups and why I see my doctors whenever anything feels the slightest bit wonky.

Michael Hogan, 10/07/12

Executive Arts and Entertainment Editor, The Huffington Post Media Group

You've got to hand it to the writers of "Homeland": They don't play it safe. Now we're left with a whole host of what-next questions, and that's just the beginning of what happened in this tense, eventful hour of television.

John Pavley, 10/06/12

CTO @ The Huffington Post, Mgt Hckr

I've crudely plotted Facebook's user growth in an old notebook, ignoring all sorts of factors that I don't know: attrition rate, macroeconomics, tech scalability, global warming, and the number of cat videos on the Internet.

Lorraine Devon Wilke, 10/07/12

Writer; Photographer; Rock & Roll Vet

We're bombarded with all manner of tugging and pulling from this side or the other, right down to those who suggest it's all so dark there's really no point in voting anyway. So what do we do?

Alan Schroeder, 10/07/12

Professor of Journalism, Northeastern University

Reportedly it was the Obama campaign that insisted on lecterns, deeming them more presidential. Yet in several ways this preference ended up hurting Barack Obama.

Michael Shank, 10/07/12

George Mason University Adjunct Professor

Our founding fathers and mothers would be ashamed at how we're using free speech to freely and openly hate on each other. This gross manifestation is not what they fought for, nor should it be what we fight for now.

Edward Goldberg, 10/07/12

Professor, Zicklin Graduate School of Business, Baruch College; President, Annisa Group

Romney's statements on foreign affairs are at best strangely naïve or overtly political. They ignore a basic rule of decision making, that when there are no precedents, leadership needs to be based on the understanding of the current realities and not on the past or on fears of one's constituents.

Mike Ryan, 10/07/12

Senior Entertainment Writer, The Huffington Post

As host of Saturday Night Live, Daniel Craig seemed raring to go -- he was practically screaming, "I want to prove to you that I am funny! No, really, I am!" Unfortunately, for the most part, the material just wasn't there.

Benjamin Knoll, 10/07/12

Assistant Professor of Government, Centre College

For Congressman Ryan, this debate will provide several important opportunities. And for Vice President Biden, the pressure is high to halt the Romney-Ryan debate momentum.

John Lundberg, 10/07/12

Writer, Poetry teacher

Even those who don't love poetry should take some time to reflect on the courageous life and works of Nguyen Chi Thien, who passed away on Tuesday at a hospital in Santa Ana, California at the age of 73.

George Heymont, 10/07/12

San Francisco-based arts critic

Every body needs a buddy. That buddy may come in the form of a coroner who is totally dedicated to his work or a mortician who loves the smell of formaldehyde.

Jane Devin, 10/07/12

Cultural critic, essayist, and author

Guiliani says he's never seen a guy change his mind on so many things. Brit Hume thinks Romney has exhausted his quota for flip-flops. Santorum believes he has no core. Newt thinks he's a liar. That was then.

Gene Marks, 10/07/12

Small business management columnist, author, speaker, and business owner

We all work as hard as those guys last century. But our working conditions are cleaner and healthier. Sure, we've got challenges. But would you prefer to be running a business in 2012 or 1906?

Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, 10/07/12

President, Interfaith Alliance

Ignoring the First Amendment's protections of religious freedom that have allowed faith to flourish in this country, some members of the clergy are participating in an event called "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," organized by the so-called Alliance Defending Freedom.

Don McNay, 10/07/12

Bestselling author, 'What to Do When You Win the Lottery' and 'Wealth Without Wall Street'

As the vice presidential debates take place this week near my home in Kentucky, one thought keeps going through my head. Mitt Romney would have a better chance of winning if he had chosen Senator Rob Portman as his running mate.

Yoani Sanchez, 10/06/12

Award-winning Cuban blogger

By the time they told me I was "being transferred to Havana," I could barely raise my eyelids and my tongue was practically hanging out of my mouth from the effects of prolonged thirst. However, I felt that I had won.

Lea Lane, 10/07/12

Award-winning author, world traveler

I was thinking about my earliest feelings of sexuality because I'm hooked on the new Sunday PBS series Call the Midwife, set in slummy East-End London in the 1950s.

Jamie McGonnigal, 10/07/12

Founder, TalkAboutEquality.com

Aaron Kreifels was riding his bike through a field in Wyoming. He wasn't expecting that day to be different from any other beautiful sunny afternoon in the vast plains surrounding Laramie, but that day would change many lives.

Vicki Abeles, 10/07/12

Director, Race to Nowhere

The release of the new education film, Won't Back Down, starring Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal, adds another voice to the clamoring debate about education. Sadly, it's another voice of blame.