This week, the leaders of the G-20, representing about four-fifths of the world's economy, gather in Pittsburgh, for their annual talkfest. As they come together, experts are suggesting that the Great Recession is over, that the recovery has begun.

The health care debate seems upside down and inside out. The legislators who claim to be worried about costs are railing against the measures that would help get costs under control. The angry Tea Party protesters who feel they are getting shafted by the government are aligning themselves with the very folks who are selling them out. The seniors worried about Medicare are fearful of the changes best designed to protect Medicare. What we have here, despite the president's speeches, is a failure to communicate.

Bizarre headline of the year: "Obama's Plan for School Talk Ignites a Revolt." President Obama will speak today to public students across the country, urging them to work hard and to stay in school -- and somehow this has become a front-page controversy. Some things make you fear for this country's future.

As the final, somber sounds of the bugle playing taps echoed over the hills, we put Edward Kennedy to his final rest. The question now is whether we will fulfill the charge that he left us with: to make affordable, quality health care a right for all Americans, not a privilege for a few.