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The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, includes a wall that contains part of the improvised speech Kennedy made before a Black crowd in Indianapolis on the night the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, April 4, 1968. It’s considered one of the great empathetic speeches of the modern era. *Photograph by* *Rob Miller.*

Ron DeSantis and 'the awful grace of God'

September 5, 2023

What are we to make of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ bid for the presidency? After he was overwhelmingly reelected governor last November, the New York Post dubbed him “De Future.” But he stumbled early on the campaign trail — bleeding money and staffers, hardly confidence-inspiring in a man looking to become the most powerful executive in the world; sliding in the polls; and turning in a mediocre performance in the Republicans debate, after which everyone was talking about irritating, more-Trump-than-vous Vivek Ramaswamy and, to a lesser extent, disapproving schoolmarm Nikki Haley, Christian milquetoast Mike Pence, blustery Jersey boy Chris Christie and steel magnolia Asa Hutchinson.

Novak Djokovic poised to return Emil Ruusuvuori’s serve during practice on Media Day, Friday, Aug. 25, ahead of the US Open, which runs Monday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Sept. 10, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens. *Photograph by Georgette Gouveia.*

Media Day 2023: On the job at the US Open

August 27, 2023

What was Media Day (Friday, Aug. 25) like for me at the US Open, having not attended for the past three years?

The same thing only different. Everything at the Media Center is digital now. And there seem to be a few new tournament sponsors, including now LVMH-owned Tiffany & Co., maker of the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Singles Championship trophies, and Mount Sinai Health System -- which also has a booth at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, where the US Open runs Monday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Sept. 10.

Winslow Homer’s “Summer Night” (1890), oil on canvas. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Each summer, I dream of spending part of it by the sea as I did as a child. Never happens. Maybe summer disappoints, because we expect too much of it.

The summer of our discontent

September 21, 2021

Winter, it is generally agreed, is the harshest season. But summer may be the cruelest. It offers its promises with soft, welcoming arms only to snatch them away.

From left, Champ Biden, seen with daddy Joe and baby brother Major, has taken a hit from Newsmax’s Greg Kelly, who said he looked uncared for. But we think the 12 year old, who posed for this group portrait on Feb. 9, looks good. Photograph by Adam … — From left, Champ Biden, seen with daddy Joe and baby brother Major, has taken a hit from Newsmax’s Greg Kelly, who said he looked uncared for. But we think the 12 year old, who posed for this group portrait on Feb. 9, looks good. Photograph by Adam Schultz/White House.

The political dog days of winter

February 25, 2021

February is, as everyone knows, the August of winter. Just as August is famed as “the dog days of summer,” February, too, has its dog days — literally.

There was the bizarre story about Newsmax host Greg Kelly intimating that the Bidens’ 12-year-old German Shepherd Champ was uncared for. (Hey, he’s 12. That’s like 84 in dog years. Maybe Kelly’s just jealous that Champ and kid brother Major are the stars of the delightful new children’s book “First Dogs.” More likely Kelly’s jealous that their daddy is president of the United States.)

The 'D' list -- Hurricane Dorian and the Donald

September 4, 2019

Some leaders rise to the occasion of a crisis. Others sink. And then others add a whole new category of chaos.

For the last two weeks, much of the nation — make that much of the media — has been gripped by a Category 5 hurricane that leveled parts of the Bahamas before churning toward the East Coast of the United States. Hurricane season has not been President Donald J. Trump’s forte, as the Hurricane Maria-Puerto Rico debacle two years ago can attest. That salient point has been underscored in recent days by Dorian, the latest in a series of Cat. 5 storms that are becoming a yearly event.

When Donnie meets Kimmie, a preview

March 11, 2018

As spring approaches, everyone is abuzz at the prospect of a thaw in relations between the “my button is bigger than your button” guys – President Donald J. Trumpet and L’il Kim Jong-un.

It was South Korea that actually announced the rapprochement on the White House lawn Thursday and, if you think that was unusual (having an intermediary make an announcement of a major foreign policy step involving the American people that has thus far included no actual address to the American people), well, you have to remember that nothing is usual with the act unilaterally (he wishes) Trump. ...

Fighting through the ‘Fire and Fury’

January 7, 2018

The nor’easter that raged this week from the Gulf of Mexico to Rhode Island isn’t the only storm that broke. There were gale force winds at the White House as Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” hit bookstores, with Wolff, an author-reporter known for playing fast and loose with the truth, and former kingmaker Steve Bannon portraying President Donald J. Trump as a baby who must be coddled by a staff that is alternately self-sacrificing and opportunistic. ...

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