Columns, pieces and posts
“Nothing is written.” That was T.E. Lawrence to the Arab tribesmen in Robert Bolt’s screenplay, a masterpiece, of “Lawrence of Arabia.” You write no one off. Nothing is inevitable. Life is news—”What happened today?” And news is surprise—”You’re kidding!” But you have to look at the landscape and see the shape of the land. You […]
What should Mitt Romney do now? He should peer deep into the abyss. He should look straight into the heart of darkness where lies a Republican defeat in a year the Republican presidential candidate almost couldn’t lose. He should imagine what it will mean for the country, for a great political philosophy, conservatism, for his […]
No American leader’s public statements were up to the task or equal to the moment this week. Both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama were appropriately full of high praise and sentiment for the four U.S. diplomats gruesomely murdered in Libya. The four can’t be praised enough: They put themselves in harm’s way […]
It was a beautiful day, that’s what everyone remembers. So clear, so crisp, so bright. It sparkled as I walked my 14-year-old son out to go to the subway that would take him to his new high school, in Brooklyn. He was now a commuter: a walk to the 86th Street subway station and then […]
Some preliminary thoughts on the coming presidential debates, the first of which is Oct. 3, in 3½ weeks: 1. People will be watching. Convention viewership may have been down, but almost every voter who can, will watch at least some of the debates. Three reasons. First, nothing else has moved the needle, the race has […]
Barack Obama is deeply overexposed and often boring. He never seems to be saying what he’s thinking. His speech Thursday was weirdly anticlimactic. There’s too much buildup, the crowd was tired, it all felt flat. He was somber, and his message was essentially banal: We’ve done better than you think. Who are you going to […]
The Democrats killed. The first night of their convention was a great success. The question is: Killed in the room or killed also in the country? We’ll get a sense of that through polls and comments over the next few weeks. The elements of last night’s success: The crowd was happy, attentive, responsive and moved. […]
I was out of the room when I heard the phrase ‘savage disparities’ and knew it was Cory Booker, mayor of Newark. He spoke in favor of the platform. He had the kind of speech that you really agree with if you really agree with him. He is an obviously bright man who respects the […]
“A small cog in a giant inanity machine.” “Pretraumatic gaffe anxiety.” “A morsel of gotcha chum bobbing in the water.” “Brangelina.” The great Mark Leibovich at work.
Best new website of the season: Yiddish Curses for Republican Jews. Keep hitting “Show me another curse.” The ones from this weekend are going to make you laugh.