ArcaMax

It’s already been a week. But I can’t get out of my head the last stanza of Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s magnificent “Casey at the Bat.”

“Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,

But there...Read more

The late, great Senator John McCain, who knew his share of tragedy, once famously quipped: “It’s always darkest – before it turns pitch black.” Which is how most of us felt Tuesday night. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did.

It was hard to process the pain of watching Donald Trump win – after the most negative, ...Read more

With so many twists and turns, this presidential campaign is unlike any other: the incumbent president dropping out and endorsing his vice president; two assassination attempts against the former president; the Democratic candidate endorsed by a former Republican vice president, three former Republican members of Congress, the former Republican ...Read more

Most people today have never even heard of him, but I remember Pogo. During the ’50s and ’60s, cartoonist Walt Kelly’s weekly account of the little opossum Pogo was the most popular comic strip in America, syndicated in more than 450 newspapers.

If Pogo’s remembered at all, it’s for one episode created by Kelly in 1970 to mark the ...Read more

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who are you calling “fickle?”

Repeatedly labeling former President Donald Trump as a man of “fickle leadership” was a go-to line for Walz during the first and only debate between the vice president running mates of Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But it was Walz who came off as unsteady, wavering and ...Read more

You must admit, this is a campaign unlike any we’ve seen before. The incumbent Democratic president suddenly drops out and endorses his vice president. The Republican candidate survives two assassination attempts. Two back-to-back hurricanes wipe the presidential race off the front pages.

But history will show that one of the most crucial ...Read more

It probably didn’t change that many votes, but this week’s vice presidential debate offered an interesting contrast. If slick, smooth, and slippery counts over wobbly, J.D. Vance won. If truth and common sense count over total baseless assertions (Wait? Donald Trump SAVED Obamacare?), Tim Walz won.

It's just too bad CBS News didn’t ...Read more

Who could ever forget that moment? On Aug. 6, 2015, Fox News Host Megyn Kelly kicked off the first Republican primary debate by asking candidate Donald Trump: “You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals.’ Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as ...Read more

Sure, it’s a cold day in Hell when I’d ever agree with Donald Trump on anything. But I must admit, he’s right about this. He’s right when he says the election is rigged. Except he’s got it backward.

Yes, the 2024 election is rigged. But it’s not rigged against Donald Trump. It’s actually rigged in his favor – because of ...Read more

You can bet the farm on this one: In every future campaign, for any office, political strategists will prep candidates for campaign debates by having them watch one video and one video only: Kamala Harris’ performance against Donald Trump.

On Sept. 10, Harris not only destroyed Trump, she gave a master class in political debate. Rule #1: ...Read more

You can bet the farm on this one: In every future campaign, for any office, political strategists will prep candidates for campaign debates by having them watch one video and one video only: Kamala Harris’ performance against Donald Trump.

On Sept. 10, Harris not only destroyed Trump, she gave a master class in political debate. Rule #1: ...Read more

It seems like it’s been dragging on for three years – which it has! – but now, with Labor Day behind us, the 2024 presidential campaign is officially underway. And it’s a totally different campaign than any of us expected, just two months ago.

So much has changed in so short a time. It was only on June 27 that Joe Biden totally blew his...Read more

As proud as I am to be part of the national press corps, at times I’m embarrassed by some of the nutty stuff I see or read in the media by people who should know better.

After the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, for example, it was widely asserted as an article of faith that the election was, in effect, already over. Nope! Later...Read more

Greetings from Chicago and, as Rep. Jamie Raskin called it, “The Democracy Convention.”

My first convention, as a staffer for then-governor and presidential candidate Jerry Brown, was in 1976. As a delegate, volunteer, or reporter, I’d attended every Democratic convention since, but I decided to skip this one - until Joe Biden stepped ...Read more