Bob Herbert's vision
I'm late to this, but I can't let it pass by: I'm really going to miss Bob Herbert's op-eds in the New York Times. I think E.J. Dionne edges him out as my favorite big-paper columnist; I appreciate Dionne's faith-based angle and elegant prose. Herbert's writing is more workmanlike--some would say formulaic. (If you haven't played Automatic Bob Herbert, you should.)
Still, Herbert stands out for his sustained attention to actual struggling Americans, not just Washington abstractions of them. In a job that can tempt an opinion writer to phone it in, he dug deep for column ideas and sources.
Most importantly, Herbert's writing sparkles with moral clarity. Here's an excerpt from his final column:
