Obama’s Delicate Balancing Act

It would be lovely for there to be — if not a full honeymoon period — just a quiet reflective day or two to take stock of what just happened. Whatever the reason, a tanking economy and a wildly unpopular incumbent no doubt high on the list, America just voted More…

The Torch Is Passed

No question, Sarah Palin is a trip. We have all been watching her and arguing about her since she appeared on the national scene. For women she is an More…

Clinton’s Inner Fight Goes Public

All eyes were focused last week—or most of them anyway—on the bailout negotiations, more specifically on the shenanigans of Sen. John McCain as he sought to swoop in and be the white knight of the whole mess. Will he, won’t he, will he, won’t he go to the debates?

He More…

Shades of Reagan

The idea floating around is that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is popular and exciting because she is something so new. Yes, she is the first woman to run as a Republican vice presidential candidate — and a gun-toting hockey mom to boot.

But her real More…

No Experience Necessary

The astonishing thing about the lack of experience of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor selected by Sen. John McCain to be his running mate on the GOP ticket, is that no one much seems astonished. Oh sure, there was partisan carping, James Carville and company making More…

Hillary Clinton Holds Back

This night was Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s. Eyes welled up as she appeared, luminous, still so strangely lit up with loss. There in the stands, gazing at her with adoration, was her husband — her complex, clearly emotional and, we are assured, still angry, ex-president of a husband — mouthing More…

Haunted by Elizabeth

What what she thinking?

That’s the question that continues to haunt the painful saga of John and Elizabeth Edwards. Not that she loves him and stayed with him after he confessed to having an affair (and possible lust child; though whether he told her about that we don’t know).

If More…

A (Mostly) Graceful Exit

Exits are hard.

When to leave. How to leave. Should you leave them laughing? Or crying? Or both? Should you be sentimental but dry-eyed? Self-celebrative but self-deprecating? No question, quitting the game is a tough moment, especially when and if it all comes down to the wire, and you are More…

Life as a Campaign

She can’t seem to stop.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is still making the grueling campaign rounds in hopes of what? Some miracle, some last-ditch suicidal revelation or gaffe from the other side? Is she, in fact, even thinking anymore? Or is she just going on trussed-up rote—hair coiffed, colorful jackets More…

What’s Wrong With Perseverance?

We like always to think of it as a virtue, the head-down, tortoise-beats-the-hare tenaciousness that exemplifies the admirable victors, the artists, the lovers, and — yes — the powerful, who persist in their goals long after the fleet and fleeting have taken their seats. Which, of course, brings us to More…