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For the last eight years Arianna has been writing a nationally syndicated column. The most recent columns are listed below; the rest can be found by typing a word or phrase into the search box to the right or browsing the archives. If she hasn't written on a topic you're looking for, just wait awhile, she'll get to it eventually.
Fortress Boston: The Happiest Place on Earth?
(July 27, 2004)
BOSTON -- Forget Disneyland, for the next few days, Beantown is the happiest place on earth. Or at least the most civil. The Kerry campaign has put the kibosh on Bush-bashing, preferring to make their candidate's positive vision for the country the overriding theme of the convention. [ read more ]
In Praise of Unruly Women
(July 21, 2004)
Teresa Heinz Kerry is a breath of fresh air, so why are the media choking on it?
Almost every story about her these days includes at least one snarky remark — usually attacking her for her refusal to endlessly regurgitate the same preapproved talking points.
[ read more ]
George W. Bush: Presidential or Pathological?
(July 13, 2004)
That is the highly provocative question being asked in “Bush on the Couch,” a new book in which psychoanalyst and George Washington University professor Dr. Justin Frank uses the president’s public pronouncements and behavior, along with biographical data, to craft a comprehensive psychological profile of Bush 43.
It’s not a pretty picture, but it goes a long way in explaining how exactly our country got itself into the mess we are in: an intractable war, the loss of allies and international goodwill, a half-trillion-dollar deficit. [ read more ]
The First Great Decision of the Kerry Presidency
(July 07, 2004)
The choice of John Edwards as No. 2 on the Democratic ticket is the first great decision of the Kerry presidency — a mature, self-confident choice that bodes well for the Kerry campaign as it kicks into high gear.
[ read more ]
Political Real Estate: John Kerry's Room With A View
(June 30, 2004)
Among the headline-grabbing disclosures from the Clinton Rock and Roll Revival World Tour — ranging from the former president once dreaming of being a doorman at the Plaza Hotel to his being on the South Beach diet — was a little noticed morsel in the Boston Globe noting that Clinton has advised John Kerry to “campaign as though Iraq was stable, the economy was going great guns, and bin Laden was dead… concentrating on selling himself.” [ read more ]
Bush Ducks for Cover as NRA Opens Fire on Assault Weapons Ban
(June 23, 2004)
Attention al-Qaida sleeper cells, domestic terrorists, school shooters, David Koresh wannabes and bloodthirsty lunatics everywhere: Be sure to mark Sept. 13 in your day planners because — thanks to President Bush and his GOP pals in Congress — your murderous missions are about to get a whole lot easier. [ read more ]
Graduation 2004: Pomp and Crummy Circumstances
(June 16, 2004)
It's that time. And I’m not talking about cicadas. It's graduation time, and all across the country high school seniors are tossing their mortarboards into the air and heading off to face a future filled with hope, promise -
and soaring college tuition and fees. [ read more ]
Ronald Reagan, Hedgehogs and the November Election
(June 08, 2004)
Since Ronald Reagan’s passing, the media have been filled with a celebration of his youthful spirit, his indomitable optimism, his faith in America’s greatness and in America’s goodness. His words have been reverberating: “morning again in America,” “springtime of hope,” “a promised land,” “the last best hope of man on earth.”
The imagery varied, but a single, overarching principle remained: Reagan’s pledge to return America to its essential role as “a shining city on a hill,” a place of goodness, promise and hope.
In other words, Ronald Reagan was one hell of a hedgehog. [ read more ]
Shakespeare Turns A Spotlight On Bush And Iraq
(June 02, 2004)
As our anger, anguish and anxiety about Iraq continue to mount, I find myself looking for clarity and understanding not in the media’s daily play-by-play, which confuses more than it illuminates (Did we win in Fallujah or get our butts kicked?), but rather in Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” I’ve found it contains far more truth about our present situation than anything coming out of the White House or the Pentagon. [ read more ]
Oil Money And A Smart Energy Policy Don't Mix
(May 26, 2004)
Drivers, start your engines — and empty your wallets! As we gear up for the biggest driving weekend of the year, vacationers all across America are coming face to face with the highest average gas prices in history — up 42 cents a gallon since 2001 — and a bad case of "pump panic," a new malady in which your heart rate instantly matches the price of full-service high-test. Where I live, there are lots of folks palpitating at 325 beats a minute.
[ read more ]
John Kerry and Bobby Kennedy's Unfinished Mission
(May 19, 2004)
There is no shortage of comparisons between our current military misadventures and Vietnam. But after watching "RFK," David Grubin's powerful new documentary on the life of Robert F. Kennedy set to air on PBS's American Experience in October, I feel there is a more useful comparison -- not of the two wars but of two eras and two leaders. [ read more ]
See Rummy Spin. Spin, Rummy, Spin.
(May 12, 2004)
To hear Don Rumsfeld tell it, even though the Bush administration had been told back in January about the abuse and torture going on at Abu Ghraib — and that there were photos documenting it — the idea that this might be a very bad thing didn’t really hit home until recently because no one in the White House had actually laid eyes on the photos. [ read more ]
Bush Democracy: Do You Recognize His America?
(May 05, 2004)
Welcome to George W. Bush's version of America — Bush Democracy. Apparently, he's had his fanatical neo-con programmers working overtime to iron out all those bothersome bugs and kinks that have been holding the United States back for the last 228 years — exasperating glitches like openness, integrity, accountability, responsibility and the value of an informed public.
[ read more ]
Bush Is Running On 9/11; Kerry Should Run On 9/12
(April 28, 2004)
It's a puzzling paradox: Recent polls show that voters are more worried that we are losing the war on terror, more convinced that we're about to be attacked, and more certain that the invasion of Iraq has put America at greater risk from terrorists. And yet, these same voters overwhelmingly believe that President Bush will do a better job of protecting them from terrorists than John Kerry. [ read more ]
Fanatics and Fools: How the Dysfunctional White House Led Us to War
(April 21, 2004)
For the past year, I’ve been studying and writing about the Fanatics running the White House and the Fools on both sides of the aisle who have enabled them to prevail. Bob Woodward has now given us a chilling behind-the-scenes look at how this dysfunctional dynamic drove us to war in Iraq — providing devastating snapshots of both the evidence-be-damned zealotry of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their minions and the craven capitulation of White House enablers Powell, Tenet, Rice, and Hughes. [ read more ]
As The White House Whiffs, Kerry Needs To Swing For The Fences
(April 13, 2004)
Poor Karl Rove. He’s the George Steinbrenner of presidential politics. Here he’s assembled the best campaign team corporate money can buy, and his all-star lineup of heavy hitters is being mowed down like a bunch of bottom-of-the-batting-order chumps. [ read more ]
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