Charles Lipson

When government officials are threatened, they deserve protection 

25 January 2025 8:21 am

When US officials and former officials face lethal dangers for the work they did in office, they deserve protection from…

Donald Trump is a president in a hurry

22 January 2025 5:32 pm

“The First Hundred Days” was the iconic phrase for Franklin Roosevelt’s rapid-fire acts as the new president. Donald Trump intends…

Biden opens the jailhouse door

18 January 2025 5:54 am

Joe Biden is not going gently into that dark night, politically or cognitively. He is going down with large, bold…

When is a fire an earthquake?

14 January 2025 1:50 am

The fire now engulfing whole neighborhoods in Los Angeles will soon engulf the politicians who failed to protect them. The…

The legacy of Jimmy Carter

31 December 2024 10:40 am

Jimmy Carter will be remembered as a decent, honorable man of faith, who lived a productive life according to those…

The winners and losers in the fight to keep the government open

24 December 2024 12:32 am

As the clock ticked down late Friday night, the US House and Senate finally passed a stopgap funding bill to…

What’s flying over New Jersey?

16 December 2024 11:33 am

The nightly news is replicating Orson Welles’s 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds, which scared Americans by describing an…

What Trump’s appointments tell us

23 November 2024 2:42 am

Donald Trump may have a four-year term, but he has far less time to make a real difference. In practice,…

What disputes about trans athletes say about Democratic politics

14 November 2024 1:29 am

In the minds of many progressive Democrats, Representative Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Dem, just committed an unpardonable sin. He told…

What comes after Trump’s decisive victory?

7 November 2024 1:02 pm

The candidate who said Americans should be “unburdened by what has been” is now a has-been. The irony will be…

A consequential, divisive, troubling election about big issues

6 November 2024 1:17 am

Republicans and Democrats, who disagree so virulently on so much, at least agree on two things. Both say it is…

Biden scores another ‘own goal’ over Trump’s ‘garbage’ supporters

2 November 2024 9:00 am

The latest wisdom from our tottering, angry president was to call Donald Trump’s supporters “garbage.” He was responding to the…

Contrasting the candidates’ closing arguments 

28 October 2024 10:22 am

It’s easy to summarize the two sides’ closing arguments. For Kamala Harris, the closing argument is “Trump is really, really…

Can Kamala Harris escape the ‘Hubert Humphrey problem’?

8 October 2024 9:00 am

When the sitting president is not running for reelection, the party typically turns to his vice president as the “natural”…

Vance vs Walz was what a debate should look like

2 October 2024 4:34 pm

The most important takeaway from the vice-presidential debate between Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz is that this is…

What if the Electoral College vote is tied? 

26 September 2024 11:50 pm

America has a peculiar — indeed, unique — way of deciding national elections. Instead of a cumulative national vote, the…

How Donald Trump lost the debate

11 September 2024 3:59 pm

If Kamala Harris is elected president – and that’s a big ‘if’ since the race is still tight – she won it…

How to score the Trump-Harris debate

10 September 2024 4:06 am

This Tuesday’s debate is the most consequential moment of the “second” campaign, just as Trump’s debate with Biden was the…

Two successive 2024 campaigns in a very strange election year

26 August 2024 8:29 pm

This is one very strange presidential campaign. That’s not just because it seems to go on forever. This one seemed…

A glitchy X/Twitter conversation between Donald Trump and Elon Musk

13 August 2024 2:32 pm

The great Dr. Johnson was once asked what he thought about John Milton’s famous work, Paradise Lost. His reply, “None…

Kamala Harris and that new car smell

12 August 2024 11:44 pm

If you felt the ground shaking, it was Democrats jumping for joy after dumping Joe Biden and settling on a…

How Trump and Kamala can have a good debate

10 August 2024 5:19 am

On Thursday, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agreed to debate September 10 on ABC. That’s good news for voters. They…

Joe Biden delivers his own eulogy

25 July 2024 5:50 pm

Joe Biden delivered a eulogy for his presidency and his political career from the Oval Office Wednesday evening. It was…

Biden withdraws from the 2024 race

22 July 2024 5:00 am

After weeks of pressure from Democratic party insiders, Joe Biden has finally said he won’t seek re-election. ‘I have decided…

The logic of the J.D. Vance selection

19 July 2024 5:38 am

The best way to understand Donald Trump’s choice of J.D. Vance for vice president is to ask how different choices…