Syndicated columns

The headlines this election cycle have been dominated by unprecedented events, among them former President Donald Trump’s criminal conviction, the attempt on his life, President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance and his replacement on the Democratic ticket by Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s no wonder other important political developments have been drowned out, including the steady ...

Being drunk on hubris and narcissism is the surest way to lose a confrontation to a clever, clearheaded opponent. It’s a story that’s been repeated throughout history.

The Babylon Bee, which is like The Onion for conservative Christians, last month ran a despairing story about the presidential options anti-abortion voters have before them. “Pro-Lifers Excited to Choose Between Moderate Amount of Baby Murder and High Amount of Baby Murder,” said the headline. It was a dark joke, but it spoke to something real: a disquiet among some anti-abortion activists over Donald Trump’s attempts to distance himself from the abortion bans enabled by his Supreme Court appointees. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told my New York Times colleague Astead W. Herndon that declining evangelical enthusiasm for Trump could be a “grave danger” to his campaign.

Kamala Harris exceeded my expectations in her debate with Donald Trump on Tuesday. I knew that she was smart, but for whatever reason, many insiders have questioned her political talent. I assume that her remarkable skill at baiting Trump into one trap after another has ended those questions.

The 2024 presidential campaign is shaping to be a racial reckoning for America.

Political speeches are often worth skipping, not conveying much new information. But Donald Trump’s speech last week at the Economic Club of New York was quite newsworthy, in several ways.

Last Sunday, Dustin Grage, a columnist for the conservative website Townhall and a Republican strategist who describes himself as a “Minnesota GOP hype man,” posted on X a clip from a 2012 speech by Tim Walz to the American Legion. In the clip, Walz says: “When I was in Afghanistan, you know what our troops were worried about? They were worried about their family’s health care, and they were worried about their pensions.”

To say Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the economy is an understatement. Polls since late 2021 have consistently shown majority disapproval on the economy, usually citing the related problems of high prices and inflation.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp stood before television cameras Wednesday night and said the cowardly words we always hear from Republican officials in such moments. Hours after two students and two teachers had been killed in a school shooting, allegedly committed by a 14-year-old boy with an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon, Kemp declared: “Today is not the day for politics or policy.”

Once upon a time there was an emperor who loved being fashion-forward. So he was receptive to some fast-talking tailors who promised to make him a suit out of new, high-technology fabric – a suit so comfortable that it would feel as if he were wearing nothing at all. “Fortune favors the brave,” they told him.

There were local elections in several German states a few days ago, and the results – a strong showing by the Alliance for Germany, or AfD, a right-wing extremist party – were shocking but not surprising. Shocking because, given their history, Germans more than anyone else should fear the rise of anti-democratic right-wing forces. Not surprising because the AfD has been rising for a while, especially in the former East Germany, where the elections were held.

Donald Trump has surrounded himself with ideological shape-shifters – former Democrats and former anti-Trumpers willing to profess a fawning loyalty to him.

Kamala Harris didn’t hurt herself in her interview Thursday with CNN’s Dana Bash. She didn’t particularly help herself, either.

Of all the world’s injustices, perhaps the saddest is that so many of them are simply ignored.

If you left the U.S. for a summer vacation, you may have encountered a strange and refreshing custom: not tipping. Or at least not tipping everyone in sight.

As the mom of a child with autism and ADHD, watching Gus Walz, son of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, mouth “That’s my dad!” during his father’s speech at the Democratic National Convention filled me with emotion.

My political awakening came when I was a 21-year-old intern at the New York Times. It was the summer of 1992, and I was assisting the Times’ political staff at the Democratic National Convention in Madison Square Garden, in Manhattan.

Americans are facing a cost-of-living crisis. A family of four in the five most expensive U.S. states needs an annual income of $270,000 to live comfortably – nearly four times the median household income. Folks are falling hopelessly behind. Why?