baltimoresun.com - C. Fraser Smith

Marylanders want to know: Where's my bailout?

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

A Prince George's County state senator says the Wall Street bailout came up a lot last weekend at the Maryland City Volunteer Fire Department's fall bazaar. People were wondering why they weren't getting bailed out.

First District no longer a Shore thing for GOP

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

M aybe they should call it the Fractured First. The political terrain is splintered, politics are fractious, and the price of dissent is spiking.

Good timing for bad move

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

M y friend Elizabeth, who used to clean my office, would occasionally ask what I was doing on the coming weekend. I'd respond, and then ask her the same question. Sometimes she'd smile a little mischievously and say, "I'm going up to Delaware to donate."

'Sarah who?' steals the spotlight in St. Paul

Sun, 7 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

S ometimes, as we all know, it's better to be lucky than good. The most compelling, contemporary case in point: Sen. John McCain.

Marylanders helped pave the way for Obama's journey

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

S en. Barack Obama is the Democratic Party's presidential nominee by virtue of his own talent, but he stands on the shoulders of Americans who built, over many decades, a more welcoming social and political landscape in this country.

Celeb sightings in Denver: Bunk, Biff — and Stalin?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

F ree speech at the Democratic National Convention this week is where you find it. Near Market Street, maybe, not far from the Pepsi Center, where delegates hear party pronouncements in well-scripted speeches. Here, a nicely dressed man reads aloud feverishly from the Bible, as if the end were near. No one seems to be listening.

She's going the extra mile (or so) for Barack Obama

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

S he's not Obama Girl, but Cheryl A. McLeod may be the essence of the national phenomenon generated by Sen. Barack Obama.

Majorette missing, but 50th reunion still worth the trip

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

It's been some months since my high school reunion. I don't know why I waited so long. The determination slipped away with almost the same momentum as the passing years.

'Everyone deserves a place to sleep at night'

Sun, 3 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

In the beginning, city officials asked these homeless activists if they could avoid calling attention to themselves: no high-visibility signs or big lettering at the front door of the old bank building they had rented. This was back in the day when critics of help for the homeless had a kind of reverse Field of Dreams view of things: If you don't build a refuge, they said, maybe they won't come.

An awakening on the banks of the Potomac River

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

A brief anecdote illustrates the shift of political power in Maryland away from Baltimore and south toward Prince George's and Montgomery counties.