South Dakota Senator George McGovern's 1972 run for the White House was the last Presidential campaign I ever worked on. My journalistic career appropriately barred political involvement. But, as a good and decent man who stood up for what he believed in and never wavered, he remained in my heart. His shattering loss to Richard …
Continue reading George McGovern a rare model of courage and commitment:R.I.P.
Recently I wrote a blog indicating I was tilting yes on Question 3 on medical marijuana. I'm still leaning that way, but I was given pause by a response I received from an individual in law enforcement in California whom I respect but who, because of his position, does not want to be identified. According …
President Obama woke up. In last night's debate, he was feisty and factual, conveying that he actually wants another four years and that he is engaged enough to do the job. Mitt Romney, stylistically, didn't give an inch. He was aggressive, bordering on rude and offensive (to the President and the moderator) but, on most issues, …
When it comes down to the last weeks and days of an excruciating dying process, it's all about options. If I am terminally ill, determined by my physician to be within six months of dying from an incurable and irreversible disease, then I want my physician to be able to prescribe medication that will allow …
Last night's vice presidential debate, expertly moderated by ABC's Martha Raddatz (a former Channel 5 colleague), was engaging, high energy, substantively revealing, stylistically contrasting, and reassuring to partisans on both sides. (David Brooks' piece in today's NY Times see this as a generational divide.) Vice President Joe Biden had facts, passion, authenticity, and an often …
Elizabeth Warren turned in her best performance yet in last night's debate against Senator Scott Brown, and he, in turn, also largely focused on the issues, with just half the snarky "professor" labels as in the last debate and, thankfully, no return to the tired Cherokee attacks of past encounters. The result was a distillation …
For years, as an editorialist, I supported the medical use of marijuana. I anguished when a cancer-stricken friend, deathly ill from the side effects of chemotherapy, was afraid to smoke pot because it was illegal, notwithstanding reports that doing so could significantly alleviate her symptoms. That's just not fair. Access to marijuana for medical purposes …
Continue reading Tilting yes on medical marijuana referendum
Someone shook the Etch-a-Sketch, and Mitt Romney 1.0 showed up at last night's debate. After years of running away from his time as Massachusetts governor, he re-embraced his home state. He bragged about its #1 ranking in education and said Romneycare (though he didn't name it as such) would be a good model for the …
After last night's Brown-Warren debate at UMass Lowell, co-sponsored by the Boston Herald, supporters of the two spilled into parking lots outside Tsongas Arena, arguing over which candidate won, but they were agreed that the clear loser was moderator David Gregory. As Dan Kennedy observed, it was "a miserable performance." Gregory spent a third of the time …
Continue reading Corrected post: Brown, Warren debate; Gregory the loser
Fourth congressional district candidates Sean Bielat (R) and Joe Kennedy III (D) finally met in their only televised debate, on Channel 5's On the Record. It's hard to know how many viewers they had, but it's easy to see how foolish Joe Kennedy has been in avoiding face-to-face televised debates. While Kennedy initially came across as young and …
Continue reading Kennedy versus Bielat in only televised debate
Marjorie Arons-Barron 