Columns, pieces and posts
Life is complicated, people are complicated, and most of us are a jumble of virtues, flaws and contradictions. I like to try to understand the past, try to put it together in a way that makes sense to me. This can involve judging not only your own actions and decisions but those of others, which […]
One night during the past campaign I made a speech at an annual county GOP meeting in Pennsylvania. I can’t remember the name of the county or where it was exactly; I was there at that moment of early darkness when Pennsylvania is New Jersey and New Jersey is Ohio: it all looks the same. […]
Well, I just can’t stop being happy. I don’t mean elated—it’s hard to get elated by big history, as opposed to by the birth of a baby, say, or a child’s being elected president of the debating club—but I continue to feel relief (the exit poll hives have gone down) and satisfaction (my countrymen, such […]
God bless our country. Hello, old friends. Let us savor. Let us get our heads around the size and scope of what happened Tuesday. George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States, became the first incumbent president to increase his majority in both the Senate and the House and to increase his own vote […]
Life should be fun. It should be satisfying and exciting. As much as possible one should do what one’s heart dictates, as long as it is constructive and helpful. (If it is not, one should take one’s heart to a minister, rabbi or therapist, and get one’s heart in order.) In this spirit, a slight […]
The major American political conventions have become like the party conferences of the conservative Tory and liberal Labour parties in England. The point is to showcase the party’s reigning and rising stars. There’s some arguing and maneuvering in the background but it’s in smoke-free green rooms, and it’s not between politicians but media consultants, and […]
No one takes conventions seriously. They’re not where democracy happens anymore. They’re mere enactments of politics, not the real and gritty thing. And yet we have to have them because they serve a purpose: They provide the platform for the big speech. The big speech—the acceptance speech of the presidential nominee—is always important. It can […]
Recently I wrote a column on a particular anxiety I’ve been feeling regarding the coming election and the prospects of President Bush. I stated that some voters may be feeling or come to feel that history has simply become too dramatic the past few years, and one way out of the drama might be to […]
The Kerry-Edwards rollout has been almost flawless, a triumph of image that obscured uncomfortable realities. The two senators are not, as the Boston Herald merrily front-paged yesterday morning, “THEY’RE LEFT OF TED!” They are the son of a mill worker and the husband of an ‘umble immigrant. Wednesday morning’s unveiling of the Kerry and Edwards […]
LONDON—There is much to be said about this city, where I am on vacation, but my first thought is that the English continue to love flowers, and Mayfair’s homes—windowsills, little garden areas created around front steps and between small shops—are bursting with them. I can never remember the names of flowers, but the ones I’m […]