Connect with us: Subscribe to the paper | View the mobile edition | Get daily e-mail news | Get mobile alerts | Share your photos | Report news | Place an ad | Contact us
Commentary
|
Newer stories | Older stories Frank Wooten
Latest South Carolina HeadlinesLatest HeadlinesTime to rethink the age to drinkSunday, Aug. 24, 2008Imagine your son or daughter joining the U.S. military at age 18. Imagine yourself, friends and family issuing parting toasts to your brave offspring with hearty beer, fine wine or smooth whiskey (or for those who eschew demon rum, iced tea, orange juice or lemonade). Imagine the absurdity of your young warrior being barred from legally choosing among all of those celebratory libations. Read story. McCain-Graham:Mutual-trust ticketSunday, July 20, 2008Americans should pick a president they think they can trust. John McCain should pick a running mate he knows he can trust. McCain knows he can trust Lindsey Graham. And though Graham told me Wednesday that "John knows I don't want it and I know he's not going to ask me," he also said: "I'm probably John's best and closest friend in the Senate. We're friends in a way that real people are friends." Read story. Beam up enterprising imagination for new energy generationSunday, July 13, 2008News flash: Gas now costs too much. It also generates too much carbon dioxide. Coal spews too much CO2, too, and enough mercury to rile environmentalists. Read story. Don't stall: Just makea call, y'allSunday, July 6, 2008United we stood after 9/11. But not for long. Now divided we fall ever further into blame-game, buck-passing acrimony over not just 9/11's causes and effects but other problems, real and perceived. Lots of folks on both the left and right are increasingly certain that those problems are virtually all the fault of folks on the other side. Read story. Behold energy enemy in the mirrorSunday, June 22, 2008Road rage is merely ugly. Pump rage, now virtually all the rage, is grotesque. Low-paid convenience-store workers didn't raise the average U.S. price for a gallon of regular gasoline from $2.57 in 2006 to $2.79 in 2007 to more than $4 today. But they catch rising grief for that alarming — and persisting? — ascent. Read story. Scary questions dilute comic reliefSunday, June 15, 2008Pardon the extended gloating. But eight days after Hillary Clinton's belated concession, the needlessly protracted, revealingly bitter and even racially insensitive Democratic presidential-nomination melodrama still stirs random fits of giddy hilarity in many conservatives, including this one. And the final outcome — finally — triggered not just comic relief but relief. Read story. Grim symptoms reveal Nanny State SyndromeSunday, May 25, 2008When did your medical bills become my problem? Or to put it more sensitively: When did my medical bills become your problem? Read story. Righten the ivory tower with free-speech powerSunday, May 18, 2008Even the uneducated should have learned by now that U.S. college faculties lean to the left. Read story. Don't play Hillary's losing blame gameSunday, May 11, 2008Hillary Clinton, six days before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries: "If we had the Republican rules, I would already be the nominee." Sure. And if I'd gone into show biz instead of the newspaper biz, I'd be a movie star. Most folks play stacked mind games with self-elevating "ifs." More on that, and on that Clintonian party-rules con, below. Read story. 'Raw' politics reconfirm 'rasslinization' of nationSunday, April 27, 2008Underhanded tactics ... blatant opportunism ... craven pandering ... shifting alliances ... stunning treachery ... unseemly spectacles ... Yes, rasslin' and politics have a lot in common. Read story. Democrats still carry heavy 'wimp' baggageSunday, April 20, 2008Talk's cheap for most of us. But if you're running for president, careless talk could cost you the White House. Read story. You place your bets, you take your chancesSunday, April 13, 2008Wanna bet? Without breaking the law? Play the South Carolina Education Lottery. Just don't expect to win. Educate yourself on the lottery's odds, and you'll learn that it's a sucker's play. Read story. Buy low, sell high — and vote wiselySunday, April 6, 2008Hillary Clinton wants a five-year "freeze" on existing adjustable-rate mortgages' interest rates, a 90-day "timeout" on foreclosures and a $30 billion "emergency housing crisis fund." Barack Obama wants a $10 billion "foreclosure prevention fund" and a $30 billion economic "stimulus" package. John McCain wants to uphold "the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers." ... Read story. Strengthen America's defense against offense-taking escalationSunday, March 23, 2008No offense, but too many Americans are too quick to take offense. Then they're too slow to let it go. Read story. Which qualifications needed for president?Sunday, March 9, 2008It's been nearly half a century since a sitting senator was elected president. Though that streak's about to end, Senate experience clearly isn't a presidential requirement: Only 15 out of the 42 men who have reached the office were ever senators. Read story. Newer stories | Older stories |
Frank Wooten, a Charleston native, is a graduate of St. Andrews High School, Trident Technical College (chemical engineering technology) and Clemson University (history major, German minor). His newspaper experience includes stints at The Post and Courier (1979-81, 82-84, 90-present), the now-defunct Baltimore News-American (1984-1985) and the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald (1986-90). He has worked at newspapers as a photographer, sportswriter, sports copy editor, sports layout man, sports editor and TV/Radio columnist. Since 1998, he has served as associate editor of The Post and Courier. He writes editorials and a weekly Commentary Page column.
