Good morning. It’s November 14, 2019. Sixty years ago today, TV Guide published an essay written by an ambitious young U.S. senator from Massachusetts. The provocative piece would prove to be a predictive roadmap for future American political campaigns. John F. Kennedy was a war hero who’d risen quickly through Boston politics and arrived on the national stage in the […]

Good morning, it’s Monday, Oct. 28, 2019. Wendy Marx, a native New Yorker, found personal love and professional fulfillment in my hometown of San Francisco. She also found hepatitis B out there — or, rather, it found her. It was a foe she would fight the rest of life. Wendy was born in 1967, the same year that hepatitis B […]

Good morning, it’s Saturday, October 26, 2019. If you live on the East Coast and went to bed at a reasonable hour last night, you might have missed one hell of a baseball game. If you stayed up late, as I did, you’re probably dragging a bit this morning, so I’ll keep today’s missive relatively short. On this date in […]

Good morning, it’s Friday, Oct. 25, 2019, the day of the week when I pass along a quote designed to uplift our spirits, notwithstanding the current state of Americans politics. Today’s line comes from “the Babe.” Which Babe, you ask? Well, that’s a story in itself. It’s not true, although she made the claim herself, that the great Babe Didrikson […]

Good morning. It’s Friday, October 25, 2019. America is heading toward national elections, next year, and regardless of the outcome, it reminds us of the strength of our system of self-government. Unfortunately, this year is having almost the opposite effect: the stalking and harassment of members of Congress at their homes and in restaurants; physical and verbal assaults, including death […]

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. Well, the nation’s capital finally has a baseball team in the World Series. It’s only been 86 years. The last time, during the Great Depression, the Washington Senators represented the American League in the autumn classic and played the New York Giants. This year’s Washington club, with its throwback starting rotation, racing presidents, […]

Good morning, it’s Monday, Oct. 14, 2019. Thirty-nine years ago today, a Republican presidential candidate made a momentous campaign promise. It was a pledge originating, as most of them do, from the exigencies of trying to fashion a winning message. This particular bit of campaign-trail theater had its origins in a conversation between former California Gov. Ronald Reagan and his […]

Trump Gets Personal in Minn., Rips Bidens, Omar, Springsteen. Susan Crabtree reports on the president’s remarks at a Minneapolis rally last night. Democrats Making a Big Mistake by Rushing Impeachment. A.B. Stoddard explains why moving too quickly could backfire. Warren’s Transgender Inmate Stance Counters Her 2012 Position. Phil Wegmann has the story. Trump’s Lightweight Alternative to “Medicare for All.” In […]

Good morning. It’s Friday, Oct. 11, 2019, the day of the week for parsing an inspirational historical quotation. Today’s comes from an unlikely source: the only U.S. president driven from office in the face of impeachment proceedings — just as he began to contemplate the possibility of not finishing his second term in the White House. The Watergate scandal was […]

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. By the time you read this newsletter, I hope to be on an airplane to California. Why am I going there? If I were a politician holding a fundraiser, the smart-alecky answer would be to paraphrase notorious mid-20th century bank robber Willie Sutton: because that’s where the money is. I’m not a bank […]

If Trump Goes Down, He’s Taking Everyone With Him Frank Bruni, New York Times   Trump’s Transparency Is Messing Up Democrats’ Script Jason Chaffetz, FOX News   The Whistleblower Is Credible, Trump’s Attacks Are Dangerous Elie Honig, CNN   Admission of Whistleblower Changes Raises Big Questions Sean Davis, Federalist   Poll: K-12 Education Falls Short, & Hope for Gains Lags […]

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. Last night, the Washington Nationals (or the Washington “Internationals,” as Tom Boswell dubbed them) pulled off a win so thrilling that baseball fans in this area will be talking about it for years. On paper, the Nats are better than the Milwaukee Brewers, especially when the visiting team was without its best player. […]

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. On this date in 2015, distinguished New York-based classical music conductor Michael Barrett posted a classic Christian hymn as his “song of the day.” The singer was Jessye Norman, who passed away yesterday at age 74. The song, “Let Us Break Bread Together,” is much older. An African American spiritual first put on […]

Good morning, it’s Sept. 27, 2019, a Friday, the day of the week when I reprise an inspiring quotation. Today’s comes from a red-haired denizen of late-night television, a talk show host who eloquently amplified on a core concept in the American experiment — the right to pursue happiness. One of our nation’s foundational ideas is the pursuit of happiness. […]

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, September 25, 2018. On this date in 1867, Texas cattleman Oliver Loving died at Fort Sumner in territorial New Mexico after being wounded by a Comanche arrow along the Pecos River. Texas’ agriculture had been devastated by the Civil War — the Confederacy left vast unpaid debts to the state’s ranchers — but business improved afterward […]

Good morning. It’s Saturday, September 14, 2019. On this date in 1959, at a few minutes after midnight Moscow time, a rocket named Luna 2 crash-landed on the moon. Why do we care what time it was in Russia? Here’s why: Luna 2 was created in the Soviet Union and launched from the massive Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility on the […]

Good morning. It’s Thursday, September 5, 2019. On this date in 1847, the Rev. Robert S. James and his wife, Zerelda, welcomed their second son into the world. The infant’s older brother was named Alexander Franklin. The baby was christened Jesse Woodson. The world would come to know them as Jesse James and Frank James — or, sometimes, just the […]

Good morning. It’s Thursday, August 29, 2019. Fifty-six years ago today, an impressive collection of Hollywood stars made their way back to Los Angeles. These A-listers had come to the nation’s capital in support of civil rights. At the March on Washington, some had performed songs, others had given interviews, and all had listened to Martin Luther King Jr. and […]

Good morning. It’s Friday, August 24, 2018. On this date in 1979, two Las Vegas-based defense lawyers filed an emergency application for a stay of execution in the case of a Western outlaw and gunsel named Jesse Walter Bishop. “Stay of execution” is legal jargon, but in this case it was literal language: The state of Nevada intended to send […]

Ranking the 2020 Democratic Candidates by Media Coverage. Kalev Leetaru compares the number of mentions on TV news and online. John Durham Must Investigate “Unmasking.” Gene Schaerr urges the prosecutor appointed to examine how the FBI came to investigate suspected Russia-Trump collusion to focus on surveillance abuses under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Why the GOP Should Pay Attention to Gen Z. Hannah Scherlacher Blair […]