As an opinion page editor for 30 years and a policy center director for 10, I moderated in excess of 75 candidate debates for local and state offices in Manatee, Sarasota and Pinellas counties. These debates were presented on auditorium stages before large audiences, on live TV without audiences, and in informal town-hall settings with no stage.

Not once in all of those years of moderating did I allow a candidate to hijack the debate as totally as Chris Wallace did in Tuesday night’s (Sept. 29) presidential debate. READ MORE

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s like incredible.”

--Candidate Donald Trump, on the campaign trail in Iowa, Jan. 23, 2016

President Donald Trump was getting antsy, cooped up in his Trump Tower residence where he’d gone for the long holiday weekend to get away from Melania. He needed to get out, among his adoring fans, to soak up some adulation and breathe in the Manhattan air that he missed holed up so much of the time in the White House. Thankfully, she hadn’t wanted to come along.

While he paced, he noticed the handgun on the end-table next to the living room sofa.  READ MORE

By DAVID KLEMENT
Chapter One
Introduction
Conscience (noun): the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good. –Merriam-Webster

How naïve I still was as I began what would become a 32-year career at the Bradenton Herald in fall of 1975.     READ MORE

By DAVID E. KLEMENT

It was their own fault, most Americans who weren’t Trumpster zealots agreed.

If only they’d worn a mask.

But Donald Trump and Mike Pence consistently refused to don the protective face coverings that most Americans took for granted in mid-May and that even White House staff had donned when the virus began infecting those serving the president and vice president.   READ MORE

This White Paper was published on the website of The Sarasota Institute by David Klement in his role as a member of its Advisory Board.

In this extraordinary time of pandemic, The Sarasota Institute —like almost every other organization – has been forced to adjust its strategies to seek – and share – answers to the big questions facing humanity in the 21st century.    READ MORE