Charles Krauthammer Passes Away at 68

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer passed away Thursday from cancer at the age of 68.

Earlier this month, he announced publicly that he had “only a few weeks left to live.” Though the news was shocking, Krauthammer delivered it with characteristic elegance and charm. “I leave this life with no regrets,” he concluded in an open letter. “It was a wonderful life — full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.” And, true to form, Krauthammer’s note gave something more of himself to the American public than words alone. Though he will be remembered as a great columnist, Krauthammer made a wider impact as the resident sage of Fox News’ Special Report panel. Conservatives around the country literally stopped what they were doing at 6:40 p.m. Eastern Time daily to hear whatever Krauthammer’s insights on the issues of the day might happen to be. Krauthammer’s greatness had been his ability to salvage grand themes from the muddle of everyday politics, and — the hardest part — to explain them in ordinary language. Consider his October 2009 essay, “Decline Is a Choice.” In the first word — “decline” — Krauthammer distilled the essence of Barack Obama’s many policies. And in the second — “choice” — he argued for the alternative: “We can reverse the slide, we can undo dependence if we will it.” In that sense, Krauthammer anticipated Donald Trump, who promised to “Make America Great Again.” But he also opposed Trump — and Trump returned the favor, using Krauthammer as a rhetorical foil on the campaign trail, the symbol of the establishment. In that, Trump was mistaken: while Krauthammer was admired by the establishment, he was neither its creation nor its tribune. He understood — better than most in Washington — America’s populists. (Read more)

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