Author: Lance Garrison
Both Michael Dukakis and John Kerry were distressingly saintly in their presidential campaigns, failing to respond to Republican attack ads. Hillary Clinton endured a classic “Recount” moment in her second debate against Donald Trump. Mr. Trump stalked her around the stage. “He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled,” Mrs. Clinton later wrote. “Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on,” she wondered. “Or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, ‘Back up, you creep. Get away from me. I know you love to intimidate women, but you can’t intimidate me.”…
Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. I think it’s safe to say that Joe Biden’s confident performance at the State of the Union has put to rest any doubts that he’ll be the Democratic nominee, with Kamala Harris as his running mate.My questions are two: Did he change anyone’s mind? And can he maintain the momentum?Gail Collins: Well, he probably won over some reluctant Trumpians. But the great thing about the speech, Bret, wasn’t that he changed people’s minds about who to vote for in November. It’s that it moved a ton of Biden voters who had been saying all along they…
On the foreign front, change could result in a nuclear deal with the U.S., a quiet winding down of the hostility to America and maybe even a re-establishment of diplomatic relations. Iran could reduce support to anti-Western militias in the region, establish deals with regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt and might even put an end to threatening Israel with destruction, finally acquiescing to its existence in the region. All of these policies are central tenets of Ayatollah Khamenei’s Iran.Stripped away, it would lead to the lifting of sanctions, more foreign investment and thus a marked improvement to…
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that Colorado could not keep Donald Trump off its presidential primary ballot, it proved at least one thing: The court can decide a case both quickly and with a keen eye to the political calendar.The court handed down its decision just one day before Super Tuesday, when voters in Colorado (and Maine) were slated to cast their primary ballots. Through different processes, both states determined that Mr. Trump had engaged in insurrection, and therefore that he was constitutionally ineligible to serve as president and could not appear on the ballot. The states…
Last year I transplanted a patch of wild pansies from an elderly neighbor’s yard, one of the few nearby that isn’t treated with poisons, but so far I have seen no sign of them here this year, although they are already blooming profusely in hers. I’ll try again to transplant a clump, preparing for the day when her house, too, falls to developers, the lot scraped one end to the other.Most newly emerged native bees are generalists, happy to make use of any native flower at hand, but some are specialists, able to feed on only one flower or flower…
For Richard it started with a pituitary tumor. Surgeons removed it, but the result, a few years later, was a cranial bleed and brain damage that worsened over time.As a kid I found my uncle kind but intimidating, a larger-than-life mix of showman’s bravado and military rigor. After the bleed, all that was gone. He moved slowly and said little. He could still play musical instruments, but in the documentary, it’s my aunt who speaks. Richard sits, silent. He died three months later.For five decades, atomic veterans were forbidden to tell anyone about their experience, not even a spouse or…
Walking through the intensive care unit is often a lesson in how much there is to fear.Just a few years ago, I walked through these halls thinking constantly of Covid, afraid that I would contract the virus in a patient room or in a conversation with a colleague. The fear was distracting, sometimes all consuming. But now I am no longer afraid that the virus will leave me seriously ill, and the pandemic is a receding memory. Sometimes it is hard for me to believe that it even happened.Nearly four years after the World Health Organization’s declaration of a pandemic,…
Nearly 400 years ago, Walloon-speaking religious refugees from near what is today roughly the French-Belgian border arrived in a Lenape-speaking archipelago, marking the colonial founding of Manhattan as we know it. Ever more global waves of migration have arrived since, enriching the city not just in practical ways, but also adding to its cultural and artistic texture. Today New York City is the most linguistically diverse urban area in the world.Now Donald Trump is warning about this linguistic diversity, arguing that New York’s classrooms are overwhelmed by foreign students who speak obscure languages. “They have languages that nobody in this…
For the thousandth time, the Republican Party refused an off-ramp that would free itself from Donald Trump. As long as he’s around, it never will.In this year’s presidential primary campaign, the party had the chance to nominate Nikki Haley, a successful, conservative former two-term governor of South Carolina. Unlike Mr. Trump’s, her public career hasn’t been characterized by a lifetime of moral squalor. And many polls show she would be a more formidable candidate against President Biden than Mr. Trump. No matter. Mr. Trump decimated Ms. Haley, most recently on Super Tuesday. She suspended her campaign the next day. But…
To the Editor:Re “A Life Without a Home” (Sunday Opinion, Feb. 25):When was the last time you heard a politician, any politician, make a speech about solving homelessness?When was the last time any of us, regardless of our ideological stance in this politically supercharged time, have had an impassioned discussion about homelessness?When was the last time we as a country were willing to spend on our homeless even a fraction of the billions we commit to everything from sports and entertainment to defense?How many times in each of our lives — how many times? — have we turned away from…