Barack Obama has proven that an American black man can win the support of the majority.... ...more

September 11, 2008

Knut's private digs are in the southwest corner of the Tiergarten, a densely-wooded park that is Berlin's downtown oasis much as Central Park is to Manhattan in New York City. The entire zoo, a maze of footpaths among 1,400 species of 20,000 fenced-in animals, covers some 80 acres. Only the 500 species of birds and snakes are caged. ...more

September 7, 2008

When Barack Obama feeds rhetorical fishes and loaves to the multitudes in the football stadium tonight, he should deliver a message of sufficient particularity that it seems particularly suited to Americans. One more inspirational oration, one general enough to please Berliners or even his fellow "citizens of the world," will confirm Pascal's point that "continuous eloquence wearies." That is so because it is not really eloquent. If it is continuous, it is necessarily formulaic and abstract, vague enough for any time and place, hence truly apposite for none. ...more

August 28, 2008

Just when you think you've got the presidential race figured out, something comes along to upend your carefully wrought conclusions. ...more

August 4, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama stood before a sea of cheering admirers on Thursday and sought to inspire fresh cooperation among American allies to defeat terrorism and other threats. ...more

July 25, 2008

Sixty years ago this month, the top story in campaign year 1948 was not the big poll lead of Republican nominee Thomas Dewey or the plight of President Harry Truman. It was the Berlin Airlift. ...more

July 23, 2008