Viewsday
Analysis, discussion and opinions by members of Newsday's editorial board.
Filler: What's in the swag bag? The perks of being a delegate to the Democratic National Convention
Photo credit: Lane Filler
Charlotte, N.C. — One of the great joys of covering big news events is the “swag bag” — the collection of free stuff organizers hand out to attendees. Planned events, anyway. You rarely get good swag covering a 27-car collision or a three-alarm fire.
Since the Democratic National Convention is the second one we’re covering in a short span, and Walt Handelsman and I have been sharing a room...
Read more »Bessent: Democrats in Charlotte set out to convince voters that the nation is a better place
Charlotte, N.C. — Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
When Ronald Reagan famously asked voters that question in 1980, he went on to beat incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Now that same question is dogging President Barack Obama’s re-election bid.
Republicans say the answer is no, Democrats at their convention in Charlotte say an emphatic yes. Of course, voters will have...
Read more »Filler: Nanny staters invade N.C., and get to order the rare, rare burger
Photo credit: Photo by Walt Handelsman
Democrats, the nation’s pre-eminent guardians of the nanny state, began arriving in Charlotte for their national convention Saturday, just as North Carolina restaurants regained the right to serve the delicious medium-rare and rare burgers that can, on occasion, sicken or kill.
They can even serve them with 128-ounce Mountain Dew Mega Monster Gulps.
Burgercide is rarer than a pound of...
Read more »McKinstry: Will Democrats at the convention give us more details?
Photo credit: Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara
The GOP teed it up for the Democrats. Mitt Romney’s omission of any real economic recovery plan during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last week in Tampa creates an opening for Democrats as they kick off their big party in Charlotte, N.C., today.
If the Democrats want to pounce, now's their chance. That’s the advantage of going second, I suppose.
Much like...
Read more »Bessent: On Labor Day, Democrats kick off convention with nod to union base
Photo credit: AP
Democrats in Charlotte are all about labor. Republicans in Tampa were all about business ownership. That difference in perspective has always been a political fault line, but now it has become a gaping, Grand Canyon of a divide.
It is Labor Day, and at breakfast for the New York delegates to the Democratic National Convention more than than a little union tub-thumping was de rigueur....
Read more »Gallery: Matt Bodkin's Long Island
Traffic, politics, education, sports and more through the imagination of Long Island cartoonist Matt Bodkin, as seen on Saturdays in Newsday.
CLICK HERE for Matt Bodkin cartoons.
Filler: Marathon runners don't forget their time. What was Paul Ryan thinking?
If someone were to poke me out of a sound sleep and whisper, “What was your time in that marathon you ran,” I would immediately respond, “My gun time was 4:48 but my chip time was 4:44, because I started from the back, so runners faster than me (octogenarians, grandmothers, a guy carrying an enormous American flag) wouldn’t run over me as I shambled along. It was an 11-minute per mile pace. I ran...
Read more »Gallery: Clint Eastwood makes cartoonists' day
Editorial cartoonists dashed to their drawing boards after Clint Eastwood's quirky appearance at the Republican National Convention to support Mitt Romney, and Eastwood's attack on President Barack Obama in the form of an empty chair.
