James Talarico Is a Christian X-Ray; The New York Times, March 8, 2026

 DAVID FRENCH , The New York Times; James Talarico Is a Christian X-Ray

"If you were to crack open Scripture today and start reading, one of the first things you should notice is that the Bible contains remarkably few political mandates. You can read it from cover to cover and not know the definitive biblical tax rate, welfare program or foreign policy.

But the next thing you’ll notice is that there is an immense amount of guidance describing how Christians should behave. Indeed, in the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul says that the fruit of the spirit is a set of virtues — “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”..

But what if the coming thermostatic reaction isn’t about ideology as much as about character and temperament? What if we’re seeing a 21st-century version of the American public’s movement away from the cruelty and corruption of Richard Nixon toward the ethics and integrity of Jimmy Carter — a man who won for all the right reasons in 1976, even if his presidency didn’t live up to his promise?

It’s too soon to be that optimistic, but that’s what I see in people’s attitudes toward Talarico. That’s what I see in Cornyn’s surprising plurality over Paxton. This miserable political moment won’t end when the left takes back the government from the right or if the right continues to beat the left. It will end when our politicians — especially Christian politicians — forsake cruelty for compassion and realize that we shall know Christians in politics not by their stridency and ideology, but by their integrity and love, including their love for, as Talarico put it, “all of our neighbors.”

That’s the significance of the Talarico moment: not the old news that a Christian can be progressive but, rather, that Christian politicians can actually act like Christians. Kindness still has a place in the public square, even if it doesn’t always seem that way."

Interview: 'Trump doesn't measure up': Doris Kearns Goodwin on leadership; The Guardian, October 7, 2018

David Smith, The Guardian; Interview: 'Trump doesn't measure up': Doris Kearns Goodwin on leadership

"Now she has delivered a book called Leadership in Turbulent Times. It is not, as the title implies, an opportunistic entry into the ever-expanding Trump canon. She began work on it five years ago, perhaps because a historian’s sixth sense told her leadership, or the lack of it, would become the story behind the story.

The book constructs Goodwin’s own version of Mount Rushmore by examining four presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. She considers what lessons they offer for transformational crisis management, turnaround and visionary leadership, but sugars the pill with telling details and funny anecdotes...

Having made the study of presidents her life’s work, does she think leaders are born or made?

“I would say mostly made,” Goodwin says. “Does the man make the times or the times make the man? It’s a mixture. I think you are born with certain qualities, of intelligence probably, memory and maybe even empathy. Some people, like Lincoln, were born with empathy. It was just a natural part of his temperament, and temperament may be inborn too: the way you look at the world and whether you’re optimistic or you’re pessimistic."
 

I’ve always voted Republican. Until now.; Washington Post, 8/17/16

Daniel Akerson, Washington Post; I’ve always voted Republican. Until now. :

"And I have always voted for Republicans for president. Not this year.

The compelling rationale behind this decision: leadership. A good leader must demonstrate such qualities as competence, integrity, empathy, character and temperament. Hillary Clinton has these essential qualities. Donald Trump does not.

Trump simply lacks the competence to serve as president of the United States...

Long ago, I learned an old Navy saying from a good friend and now-retired admiral: “Ship, shipmate, self.” This motto set the priorities for my life during my service. The civilian equivalent would be “country, fellow citizen, self.” As individuals and as a nation, we must aspire to serve the greater good. We must exhibit the empathy that places the greater good of the nation and its people above individual self-interest.

Unfortunately, Trump has appealed to the lowest common denominators in our society: prejudice, xenophobia and intolerance...

What kind of person equates the sacrifice of the loss of a child to that of creating jobs or making money?"

Hope Solo, tolerated and excused in victory, exposes herself in Olympic defeat; Washington Post, 8/12/16

Sally Jenkins, Washington Post; Hope Solo, tolerated and excused in victory, exposes herself in Olympic defeat:

"It’s called composure, and Hope Solo’s never been overburdened with a lot of that, or grace either. The U.S. women’s soccer team had their temperaments tested by a savvy, conservative Sweden in the Olympic quarterfinals and lost. Solo has spent years undermining their collective equilibrium, and this one’s on her.

She’s a chronically rattled and rattling soul, the American goalkeeper. Let’s face it: For every shiny marketing moment and big victory she’s been a part of, she’s given the U.S. a nasty unwanted drama. The victories usually smoothed over her behavior. Not this time. This time she went pure loser and lout.

After giving up the winning penalty kick to Sweden, Solo called her opponents “a bunch of cowards” for their conservative game plan. Now, who is the real coward here? Solo gave up three regulation goals in the past two games, between a draw with Colombia and this loss. She tried to ice Lisa Dahlkvist on the final kick by changing her gloves, and then couldn’t lay a hand on the ball. And she couldn’t take responsibility for any of it; she could only lash out."