Maureen Dowd

Everyone is frantically hunting for clues about whether Joe Biden will run again. His State of the Union speech was dissected for intimations. When he kept using the phrase “finish the job,” was that a hint? Where is Daniel Craig’s “Knives Out” detective when we need him? Asked about his…

The alien invasion has begun. Some experts say that when artificial intelligence takes off, it’s going to be like Martians landing on the National Mall. So far, our mind children, as the roboticist Hans Moravec called our artificially intelligent offspring, are in the toddler phase, as we ooh…

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never. That was Winston Churchill’s famous mantra. Liz Truss, another Tory prime minister trying to lead a battered Britain, couldn’t follow that bulldog advice. She wilted fast. She lasted only 44 days before resigning. The Storm didn’t even have time…

His whole life, King Charles has been in the shadow of women with more star power. First, his mother, the queen. Next, his first wife, Diana. Then, in recent years, Meghan Markle, with her breakaway from Buckingham Palace and her sensational Oprah interview alleging racism in the royal family. …

There have been two surreal visitations in Washington that left people quivering with excitement. The first was seven decades ago, when a spaceship landed on the Mall and an alien and a large silver robot got out. Hollywood moviemakers had come to do location filming for the 1951 sci-fi classic …

Once, when I thought of child sacrifice, I thought of ancient shibboleths. In Aeschylus, Agamemnon lures his daughter Iphigenia to a spot she thinks is for her wedding, as the chorus urges: “Hoist her over the altar like a yearling, give it all your strength … gag her hard.” Agamemnon agonized…

For actors, it is the most gripping, feared line ever written. “It is the Mona Lisa of literature,” said Simon Godwin, the director of the Shakespeare Theater Company here. “It is something we’re so deeply familiar with, it is hard to bring new context to, and to make it live again.” So it…

When pigs fly. That’s the kind of surreal day Thursday was at the Capitol. Donald Trump has so malignantly scrambled his party and this country that we keep seeing tableaus that defy belief and flout history. The last time we took note of Dick Cheney and Patrick Leahy at the Capitol was in…

When I got the invitation from the French ambassador for a black-tie gala called “Améthyste,” I wondered what that name meant. Was it a promotional party for a French jewelry company or maybe a new perfume? I didn’t go to the Thursday fête, because I’m studying for a master’s at Columbia…

I’m not one of those people who think women make naturally better leaders than men, more collegial and collaborative. I’ve covered enough women in the upper ranks, and worked for and with enough women, to know that it depends on the individual. Yet when I look back at 9/11 and the torrent of…