ArcaMax

WASHINGTON -- Tall and strikingly handsome, he's the coolest guy in the Situation Room, on the dance floor and on the planet. His blockbuster memoir is out, "A Promised Land."

His name is Barack Obama. My blue world loves him. There's no question I'd fall under the beam if I met the man. But you tell me, are we living in a promised land?

Obama...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Autumn sun lights the city after President Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden, except the civil war he started isn't over yet. The part Trump's playing in this tragic drama: the traitor, like despicable Jefferson Davis, who conducted the Civil War over slavery.

Trump's historic refusal to concede is the perfect parallel to the ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Joe Biden inspired nonviolent resistance across America and met the moment of leading an anguished nation.

Nonviolent resistance happens when masses of people rise up and change the world -- to protest a president, war or injustice -- with no arms. You could see determination in their eyes and jaws -- their faces covered by masks,...Read more

After 30 hours, the Senate barely approved Republican Amy Coney Barrett, its 52-48 vote on the Supreme Court nominee followed by a Trumpian party in the dark, ruined Rose Garden.

But "a change is gonna come," as the song says. Color it blue. We just watched Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's final act in the Bard's American tragedy, "...Read more

Even if President Donald Trump loses his bid to be a two-term president, he'll likely bequeath us three of the nine members of the Supreme Court. The Trump Three are the youngest, so his fingerprints will mark the scene of American politics for years to come.

In a flat monotone, Amy Coney Barrett, 48, told us too much of nothing in her Senate ...Read more

President Donald Trump isn't making American history; he's breaking it.

From the first day, he's broken every rule in the book for presidents. Aren't we broken now? The state of the nation is hurting, grieving for lives lost in 2020.

We the people should brace for a vexing time after Nov. 3, 2020, Election Day, and before Jan. 20, 2021, ...Read more

Washington -- I'm a liberal, and I love Eisenhower Republicans after viewing the new memorial for the 34th president. There are few such moderates left in President Donald Trump's deadly wake.

The dedication ceremony happened on a rainy September night. It made me proud to be an American for the first time in four years. Most Americans, in fact...Read more

WASHINGTON -- So much drama: death and taxes, a Supreme Court vacancy and the beastly election looming over us all. Color in conservative religion to confuse things. All the public players are onstage except for one offstage, an actor who did not play his part as president well in 2016.

His name is Barack Obama. He lives within the city limits....Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Senate is a hard place to keep a secret, especially when a Supreme Court seat is at stake six weeks before a hotly contested presidential election. Reporters swoop on senators, the talkative types. Like ancient Rome, everyone exchanges news from the Forum. But, reader, it feels like daggers drawn. Tempers are short and getting ...Read more

As sure as sunflowers fade fast, America's summer of burn is counting days to a close. Autumn arrives any moment.

How starved we are for a new season after a summer of hot air blasting from the White House, wildfires blazing in the West and another hurricane hitting near New Orleans. In all her fury, Mother Nature seems to act out 2020 human ...Read more

Above Pennsylvania, civilians saved our citadel on the cruel morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Strangers to one another, they boarded a plane bound for San Francisco -- so their tickets said.

High in a turquoise sky, the aircraft turned around and thundered east, zeroing in on Washington. Their memorial is as stark as the lonely landscape where they ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Conquering his Democratic foes for president, freshman Sen. Barack Obama cast Joe Biden as his No. 2. Obama was a star rookie next to veteran Biden, who spent 35 years in the clubby Senate.

This hard summer, Biden picked Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate. He's 77, and she's 55, a Gen Xer. In an inspired rhyme across 12 years ...Read more

The laziest first lady in American history paved over parts of the White House Rose Garden for her husband's four addresses to the Republican National Convention.

So, why should we care in a summer of sorrow and woe, wildfires and hurricanes, a reckoning on race and the pandemic? What are crab apple trees to thee and me?

Ruining the Rose ...Read more