Archive: The Wall Street Journal

The Fight of Trump’s Political Life Kamala Harris has the wind at her back. Her strengths became clearer in the past two weeks.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

Those who think about politics and history as a profession can’t resist comparing presidential years. “This is 1968 all over again.” “We’re back to the dynamics of ’72.” We do this because we know political history and love it, and because there are always parallels and lessons to be learned. But it should be said […]

A Trumpian Triumph in Milwaukee A movement that was a joke nine years ago is a party now. Its members are certain they will win.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

I will make something clear before sharing some honest, perhaps startling thoughts. I did not support either of the major party presidential candidates in 2016 and wrote about it here. I could not endorse either in 2020, and explained why here. I fully expect my third consecutive write-in this November, for the same reasons as […]

If Democrats Are Wise, They’ll Embrace the Chaos The romantics see things clearly. Biden can’t go on, and anointing Harris would be a mistake.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

Everything is about to change. It won’t stay stuck. We don’t know exactly how the change will come but it will come, because what we have now can’t continue. Joe Biden can’t sustain a demanding campaign and is incapable of functioning for 4½ more years as the American president. We all know this. Only three […]

Biden Can’t Spin His Way Out of This The president’s handlers think he can plow ahead, but his position will only get worse. What a tragedy.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

We are living big history. We do that so often we don’t always notice. But a proud president is hunkered down in the White House, and his party is frantically trying to decide whether to press him to step aside from his bid for re-election after a catastrophic 90 minutes revealing that he is neurologically […]

The Most Important Presidential Debate Ever It was an unmitigated disaster for Biden and a rout for Trump. Democrats will have to face reality.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

In the weeks before CNN’s presidential debate I was skeptical of its significance. I didn’t see a dramatic, high-stakes, pivotal showdown coming, only a moderately sized, pro forma moment in a long, drawn-out campaign. The format had too many prohibitions—muted mics, no open discussion, no live audience, no opening statements, no talking to aides during […]

The Purpose of Journalism Is to Get the Story People love and need real reporting, but reporters have decided their job is something else entirely.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

We are talking about journalism this week, about newspapers and warring newsrooms and lost readership and what to do. At bottom, though this gets lost, all the arguments are really about what journalism is. Here is what it is. It is a dark night on a vast plain. There are wild sounds—the hiss of prehistoric […]

The Dishonorable Attack on the Alitos A left-wing activist impressed her comrades, hardened her foes, and got attention. So what?

-- The Wall Street Journal:

I suppose this is about being an honorable combatant in the middle of a culture war, which entails seeing the humanity of your perceived foe and, in the seeing of it, preserving your own. The story, which you’ve already heard, is that a left-wing activist who calls herself an “advocacy journalist” went to the June […]