I know, because admirers of Barack Obama tell me, that this year's election poses a choice between a candidate who represents a fresh approach to problems and one who offers a dreary continuation of the status quo. That much I understand. What I sometimes have trouble keeping straight is which candidate is which. ...more

July 22, 2008

With 68 percent of Americans believing George Bush has done a poor job, and 82 percent saying the country is on the wrong track, the election of 2008 will turn on one issue: Barack Obama. ...more

July 12, 2008

With 68 percent of Americans believing George Bush has done a poor job, and 82 percent saying the country is on the wrong track, the election of 2008 will turn on one issue: Barack Obama. ...more

July 9, 2008

America's cities and towns will fill with parades, fireworks, and barbecues in celebration of the Fourth of July, the 232nd birthday of America. But one hopes that the speeches will contain fewer bromides and more attention to exactly what is being celebrated. The Fourth of July is Independence Day, but America's leaders and intellectuals have been trying to move us further and further away from the meaning of Independence Day, away from the philosophy that created this country. ...more

July 4, 2008

All over the country, newspapers large and small customarily endorse candidates for public office, from the local town or city council right up to the White House. That's not news. But it is news when a paper publishes what amounts to a rare, perhaps even unique, anti-endorsement, and it is national news when the repudiated candidate is running for president. ...more

December 28, 2007