Staff Member

Back when I was a rookie editor in ABC’s Manhattan newsroom we used to place bets - actual cash wagers - on how the New York Times would design the next day’s front page.

Thoughts and prayers, we are often reminded, only go so far. And politicians’ attention spans are alarmingly short.

Here’s the weather summary, as printed the other day on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Hot and sunny. Highs from 65 to 105.”

There was a clear message in Robert Mueller’s testimony last week before two House committees, but it wasn’t just about the danger Russia poses to our elections. It was the risk that aging presents for our public servants.

His portfolio of editorial cartoons in hand, Burris Jenkins Jr. arrived for a job interview at The New York American one day in 1931 and mistakenly got off the elevator at the wrong floor. He found himself in the sports department of the rival Evening Journal, where he was hired on the spot as a sports cartoonist.

Silly me. I thought one advantage of having a 76-year-old Democrat running for president is that his campaign would be refreshingly old school: a few lawn signs, a bus trip across Iowa and an occasional postcard to supporters through the U.S. Mail.

Is the bulging field of Democrats seeking the 2020 presidential nomination a sign of strength? Or is it a troubling indication that wresting the presidency from Donald Trump won’t be as easy as it ought to be.

Modern politics can be summed up this way: Republicans frequently refer to Ronald Reagan, while Democrats prefer to conjure memories of Franklin Roosevelt.

I wrote a column recently about lawmakers in East Tennessee voting to make Blount County a “Second Amendment Sanctuary.” They established a haven for gun owners seeking asylum from bothersome restrictions on firearms.

Lawmakers in this rural corner of Tennessee near Knoxville passed an interesting resolution the other night, making Blount County a sanctuary.