columns

WASHINGTON — The apparent unmasking of pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante feels like an occasion not for outrage so much as for sadness, and regret at...

The late Jerry Falwell, leader of the Moral Majority and founder of Liberty University, built the religious right into a major political force. His so...

If someone were to make a movie about the 2016 Bradford High football team, what would be the title? Perhaps “The Curious Case of the Bradford Owls” m...

WASHINGTON — A man comes out of a church after a fire-and-brimstone sermon on the Ten Commandments, pauses a moment, and then tells his wife, "At leas...

"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose." — "Me and Bobby McGee” WASHINGTON — What did Donald Trump have left to lose Sunday night? His ...

WASHINGTON — Vladimir Putin's serial humiliations of America's bewildered secretary of state regarding Syria indicate Putin's determination to destabi...

ELON, N.C. — When I first heard that some Elon University students were protesting my invitation to speak on campus and saying my thoughts were "dange...

WASHINGTON — Having sat down to produce a column about the vice presidential debate, I found that any topic, even death from cancer, was preferable. S...

Now that the GOP is the Party of Trump, could Democrats become the party of ... Reagan? That’s a stretch. But Democrats are making a bid for the title...

Man, it’s archery season and perhaps you’re wondering, as I am, what’s happen to 2016? It’s flying by and shows no sign of slowing. I did manage to ch...

I received two responses that surprised me concerning the player numbers issue that I touched on in last week’s picks column or “Crystal Ball” as Joe ...

WASHINGTON — Only amid the most bizarre, most tawdry, most addictive election campaign in memory could the real story of 2016 be so effectively oblite...

With a month left before the November general election, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are trash-talking each other in a financial race to the White...

WASHINGTON — The "quiet catastrophe" is particularly dismaying because it is so quiet, without social turmoil or even debate. It is this: After 88 con...

Tim Kaine’s strategy in Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate was to go after Donald Trump frontally, over and over again, and to challenge Mike Pe...

ELON, North Carolina — My favorite bumper sticker I've never seen: Commas matter. So I've always thought, and do still believe with the passion of one...

WASHINGTON — What do most of the chief advisers and surrogates of the Trump campaign have in common? I'm thinking of: Chris Christie, Roger Ailes, Ste...

WASHINGTON — Perhaps the best way to understand Donald Trump is as a case of arrested development. In terms of personality and worldview, Trump is stu...

It’s been a crazy week in sports. First, the Pirates and Cubs had their rain-shortened game deemed a draw (there’s no tying in baseball!), the Red Sox...

"Lots o' folks confuse bad management with destiny." — Kin Hubbard WASHINGTON — The good news, a commodity in short supply, is that Americans are abou...