Columns, pieces and posts
After great pain, a formal feeling comes— The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs— In the days after Paris Emily Dickinson’s poem kept ringing through my mind as I tried to figure out what I felt—and, surprisingly, didn’t feel. I did not, as the facts emerged and the story took its full size, feel surprised. Nor […]
During a week of book-tour talks, meetings and conversations in New York, Southern California and Washington, a question consistently emerged: What is going on in the Republican Party? My thoughts as they evolved through seven days of thinking aloud: What is going on, and not only with Republicans, is that American voters are surveying the […]
We’ll begin with what went wrong with the Republican debate in Boulder, Colo., then look at what went wrong with Jeb Bush. CNBC’s debate moderators have famously come under fire for questions, statements and a tone that were obnoxious. They were. The moderators seemed intent on trivializing the field. When you say, “Candidate A, you […]
An interesting question for history is who was the real leader of the West the past half-dozen years, Angela Merkel of Germany or Canada’s Stephen Harper, voted out this week after almost 10 years as prime minister. His great success was in helping bring his country through and past the global meltdown of 2008. He […]
Something big happened at the Democratic debate. It didn’t have to do with Hillary Clinton besting Bernie Sanders or Jim Webb. What she had to do, after the long, battering summer, was show she is up to the battle, ready for it, capable—that she can do this. She did. She was crisp, lively, a presence. […]
Thoughts on two strongmen: Donald Trump has entered his second act. His polls, sometimes characterized as weakening, are in fact strong. As Bloomberg’s John Heilemann said on “Morning Joe,” if Jeb Bush had Mr. Trump’s numbers everyone would declare the race over. This week Quinnipiac had Mr. Trump solidly leading his GOP rivals in Florida, […]
It’s been a week of shocks, failures and gaffes, different in severity but all revealing. In Washington Rep. Kevin McCarthy, presumed successor to Speaker John Boehner, seemed to be acting out what he understands to be the anger and aggression of the GOP base. He’s grim-visaged, stern. He says “frustrated” a lot. I guess when […]
Washington The pope I love embraces the hideously deformed man. He sees the modern world for what it is, “a field hospital after battle.” We’re in triage: “The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds.” This pope calls the woman who wrote him that her lover had left but she […]
Simi Valley, Calif. By the time you see this you will have seen the soundbites, quips and cuts. You’ll have seen the clashes. So, quickly: Did the undercard debate suffer for the absence of Carly Fiorina? No. It was substantive and thoughtful and there were sparks without her. Each of the four candidates had his […]
The other day I saw Jeb Bush looking comfortable. It was startling. He was on TV, in a modest midday interview on Fox News Channel, answering a question about the pope’s comments on abortion and forgiveness. He said we all should be more merciful. He didn’t look like the Unhappy Warrior. Normally he sort of […]