Rick Wade on Corporations

Served in Obama's U.S. Commerce Department

This won't be Wade's first bid for elected office. In 2002 he was handily defeated by Republican Mark Hammond in the race for S.C. Secretary of State--although at that point he had yet to build a national network of supporters.

We also expect Wade--who helped lead Obama's 2008 minority turnout effort--to help mobilize black voters in a big way in 2014.

Last 10 years were good for rich, but not for middle class

The reality is that if you worked on Wall Street or daytraded technology stocks or flipped houses, the last 10 years may have looked pretty good to you. But if you got up every day trying to carve out a living in a factory or a retail store or a restaurant, your life probably wasn't materially better than it was at the turn of the century.

We should have known, even before the recession hit, that something was wrong. But we ignored the warning signals, and by the time President Obama took office, the economy was in free fall. Everyone knows what followed. This administration took some difficult and sometimes unpopular steps.