Nevermore

The whole campaign was a sham. It pitted a well-known Washington insider, an incumbent too smart for his own good, against a candidate from the Western boondocks whom many felt was simply not up to the job, and whom others suspected of having used mind-altering substances. Read More

What Happened to Hubert

The miseries of the VP who goes after his boss’s job. Pity Al Gore. No matter how many times the Democrats’ nominee has switched campaign strategies, advisers, and locales, he has still found himself facing the same basic conundrum: how to run for President from the Vice President’s office. It is a deceptively difficult problem. If the outgoing President is not popular, how to distance yourself from him. And if he is popular, how to grab some of the reflected glory without offending him, lame-duck Presidents being notoriously touchy, very concerned about their places in history. Gore’s problem has been Read More

The Nun’s Story

A look at one of America’s most resilient prejudices. Those fortified with enough caffeine to follow our presidential race, may have noticed the frequent presence of a priest behind George W. Bush. Not so long ago, such an escort would have been unthinkable in American politics—particularly for a Republican candidate—but unfortunately the sudden appearance of the clerical collar does not mean that the issue of an old prejudice has been put to rest. Indeed, perhaps the biggest surprise of the 2000 campaign is that the issue of anti-Catholicism has again raised its ugly head, in the wake of the now-infamous Read More

That Flag

Now that the presidential campaign is speeding along with all the joyful noise and unpredictability of a woodchipper, it seems unlikely we will encounter any more surprises as unsettling as the great Confederate flag controversy. Read More

The Temper Thing

The rumor first began to spread around Washington last year: Senator John McCain had a skeleton in his closet. Was it something to do with his past as a war hero in Vietnam? Read More

How To Lose the Next Election

Americans won’t choose a President who chides them. “I no longer believe that there is a moral majority. I do not believe that a majority of Americans actually shares our values,” lamented Paul Weyrich, the conservative activist—and coiner of the very phrase moral majority —soon after the effort to impeach President Clinton collapsed. William Bennett, the former Education Secretary who made virtue a profit-making concern, announced that he was giving up on the American people: “I will not defend the public. Absolutely not. If people want to pander to the public and say they’re right they can. But they’re not Read More

The Riot That Remade A City

How a mass killing 150 years ago made                               today’s New York a better place.   The children are back at Columbine High School now— if they can still truly be called children after the terrible violence perpetrated upon them. We can only hope that the murder of twelve of their classmates was a random moment of madness. We can only hope, that is, for in the time since the killings in Littleton, Colorado, we have proved ourselves unable to address whether or not they reflect any Read More

The Carpetbaggers

New Yorkers knew they were in for a long hot summer this year when Hillary Rodham Clinton made an early political foray into their state and was greeted by demonstrators dressed as black flies. Read More

Capitol Punishment

Our recent politics have brought the editorial handwringers out in force, decrying a new outbreak of “partisanship,” as when Read More