Columns, pieces and posts
One year ago he stood before us, right hand raised, a new president chosen by a shade less than half the American adults who are responsible enough to bother to vote. He had been certain of victory and shocked by the closeness and the Florida aftermath. The weekend before the polls opened, Al Gore strained […]
I have not read a newspaper in seven days, nor heard a news report, gone online, or called the States in four. Apparently you’re all well, or I would have heard about it on the beach. I find it very easy, for the first time in three months, not to know what is going on. […]
We wind up the year. It has been full of drama. We now prepare for fun. Christmas is coming, very soon, and whatever religious holiday you celebrate, you’ve probably got some cheer and downtime coming. And this is good. Shall we have some fun? One thing we could do, together, is sit down for a […]
Some presidents have come from families of property and high renown—or notoriety. Think only of the Roosevelts and Kennedys. And other presidents come from humble circumstances, sometimes very humble. Ronald Reagan belongs to the second group. His family moved from one rented apartment to another as his alcoholic, shoe-salesman father struggled to hold a job. […]
My friends, this is the kind of column I used to do now and then before the world changed. I tell you what I’ve been doing and thinking and if you’re interested you get a cup of coffee and sit down and read along, and if you’re not you can go back to OpinionJournal’s main […]
For America for Christmas this year there’s only one gift, a history book. And we should all get busy writing it. Today is the 60th anniversary of “the day that will live in infamy,” the sneak attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. We know a lot about what happened on Dec. 7, 1941, […]
I flew this week. It was A-OK. I flew from LaGuardia airport in New York to Chicago’s O’Hare and then back, and it was good. In New York, scene of three air disasters in six weeks, everyone asks everyone else, “Have you flown yet?” They don’t have to say, “since Sept. 11.” Up till today […]
“We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing,” the old hymn says and children still sing. This Thanksgiving some of us have felt a greater than usual desire to gather, and ask. Our first big national coming together since the attacks on America has taken on a heightened feel. There’s a lot of tenderness out […]
He walked into history an obscure, flat footed, bantamy little fellow in a light gray suit, the inhabitant of an eloquence-free zone who gave boring speeches in a flat voice. He was not compelling. This was more obvious because he followed a charismatic leader who did big things and filled the screen. He was quickly […]
That was an interesting speech President Bush gave last night in Georgia. Its subject was homeland security, and in terms of content, style and tone it seemed to be, essentially, nothing new. And yet by the end and after reading it, I thought: He’s telling us a great deal here. The terrorists “want to kill […]