Columnists: Michael Goodwin

Michael Goodwin

Michael Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist known for never letting the political elite forget their job is to represent taxpayers. He started his career with The New York Times as a housing reporter and then City Hall bureau chief. He was the editorial page editor at the Daily News, where he directed a series of reports on the Apollo Theater that won the Pulitzer. A series documenting abuse of farmworkers earned the board the Polk Award. In 2000, he was named executive editor of the News and returned to column writing in 2004.

Latest Columns

• Connect dots to Obama

  The standard police warning about con men applies to politicians, as well: When they tell you something that sounds too good to be true, it usually is. So it goes with the White House claim that it knew nothing —...   May 19, 2013

  From Local

• Raindrops wash away reeling O’s fake veneer

  Watching President Obama trying to dodge raindrops and responsibility yesterday reminded me of the moment when Dorothy pulls back the curtain and discovers that the Wizard of Oz is “just a man.” Stripped of his spell of...   May 17, 2013

  From National

• O’s scandals take nation by storm

  As a metaphor for big government, it is hard to top the Justice Department’s seizing of journalists’ phone records from The Associated Press. Unless, of course, you think the best example is the Internal Revenue Service...   May 15, 2013

  From National

• Covering for Obama

  Politics! Politics! They’re playing politics in Washington!  Pretending to be modern Paul Reveres, Democrats and their media handmaidens are doing their damnedest to diminish the Benghazi revelations with the cheapest...   May 12, 2013

  From Local

• NYC’s political pandermonium

  Did you catch the Yankees’ new center fielder? She’s a one-legged dwarf from Antarctica. Her name is Mushie and she’s never played baseball — and that’s the point. Running out of places to hunt for discrimination, the...   May 08, 2013

  From Local

• Stay calm, all is hell!

  After every terror plot since 9/11, officials rushed to calm the public by saying the plotters were not directly working for al Qaeda or another known organization. They used phrases like “one off,” an “isolated...   May 05, 2013

  From Local

• Breathing fire at the hypocrites

  Take that, Christine Quinn! Take that, New York Times! And thank you, Bloomy. In the most powerful and passionate speech of his three terms, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday laid bare the cheap politics, stunning hypocrisy and...   May 01, 2013

  From Local

• See no evil

  According to a relative of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Chechen immigrant believed there is “oppression of the Muslim population around the world.” The relative described Tsarnaev to The New York Times this way: “He was angry...   April 28, 2013

  From Local

• Oh, terrorists, we’re so sorry

  Gone, thankfully, are the days when rape victims routinely were treated as if they deserved it. Perhaps the time also will come when the American people are no longer blamed after terrorists kill them. We are not there...   April 24, 2013

  From Local

• Fighting thugs with hugs

  After the capture of the second Boston bombing suspect, President Obama gave a Friday-night speech to praise private citizens and law-enforcement officials. He called the bombers “terrorists” and said, “They failed...   April 21, 2013

  From Local

• A tough act to follow

  With their tag-team press conference yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly assured New Yorkers that they are doing all they can to keep the city safe. Their performance was crisp and steady, just...   April 17, 2013

  From Local

• Don’t fear failure, kid

  It’s called Common Core, but the new standards coming to New York schools are anything but common. For one thing, they aim to better prepare students for college and work. For another, they aim to align curricula and...   April 14, 2013

  From Local

• We ain’t buying Cuomo’s ‘cure’

  If chicken soup can cure Albany’s epidemic of corruption, New Yorkers will be feeling better soon, thanks to the nostrums Gov. Cuomo dished out yesterday. In a dreary event that smacked of a placeholder for real action,...   April 10, 2013

  From Local

• Dirty pols sink Andy

  There are many who scoff at Andrew Cuomo’s chances in a presidential primary campaign, but I am not among them. His name is an iconic Democratic brand, he’s forceful on the stump and a prodigious fund-raiser. Besides,...   April 07, 2013

  From Local

• New York is shamed ‘Capitol’ of corruption

  Mark Twain and Preet Bharara have something in common. More than a century ago, Twain famously proclaimed that America had no native criminal class, except for Congress. Bharara also sees a native criminal class, though...   April 05, 2013

  From Local

• Well, so much for gov’s clean sweep

  Announcing his campaign for governor in 2010, Andrew Cuomo vowed to clean up state government. He said the rampant corruption “would make Boss Tweed blush” and warned that unless the Legislature passed real reforms, he...   April 03, 2013

  From Local

• It’s time for alarm!

  On the day he announced that he’s running for mayor, Comptroller John Liu listed the themes of his campaign. “New York City needs to be one city,” he said. “Where everyone gets a fair wage and a fair shot. One city....   March 27, 2013

  From Local

• Politics of duck & cover

  Dark clouds are forming. With apologies to Billy Joel, to be in a New York State of Mind is to have a sense of dread. That’s because the Democratic candidates for mayor are on the prowl. They say they love the city,...   March 24, 2013

  From Local

• A jumbo blunder

  The criticisms flash by in rapid fashion: Poorly timed. Dumb. Out of touch. Suicidal.  No, that’s not how a new report describes the flaws of the Republican Party. Instead, those words describe the party leaders who...   March 20, 2013

  From Local

• O doesn’t have prayer in Mideast

  Near the end of his insider’s account of the Bush administration’s efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace, author Elliott Abrams cautions about temptations in Washington to put “daylight” between America and the...   March 17, 2013

  From Local

• ‘Well’ done, nanny!

  For Michael Bloomberg, a funny thing happened on the way to making history. He came to City Hall vowing to be the “Education Mayor,” saying he wanted to improve readin’ and writin’ the way Rudy Giuliani improved public...   March 13, 2013

  From Local

• Bring back shame!

  It really is an Age of Wonder, as in: I wonder what the hell those people are thinking. They would be the people arguing against personal responsibility and for unending handouts.  Take the Planned Parenthood...   March 10, 2013

  From Local

• Not a pretty picture

  The numbers are staggering. Out of 120,000 live births in New York City in 2010, more than 54,000 babies were born out of wedlock. The human toll behind the numbers is devastating. Children raised without two parents...   March 06, 2013

  From Local

• Holy See how it’s done, Bam?

  Millions of people around the world watched two global powerhouses conduct their most important business in public last week. One did it with dignity and respect. The other was the government of the United States. The...   March 03, 2013

  From Local

• $equestions for NYC, too

  Attention, New York voters. Keep your eyes on Washington because a sequester-style crunch is coming here. If we’re lucky. The political drama unfolding in the capital is phony only to the extent that the pols are...   February 27, 2013

  From Local

• ‘Mad’ vision of doomsayer O

  Planes crash, schools close, houses burn, criminals run free.  Welcome to the “Mad Max” world that President Obama envisions if the federal budget is reduced by 2.3 percent. It’s a scenario designed to provoke rage and...   February 24, 2013

  From Local

• Obama’s obedient lap dog

  Members of the national media are never so unattractive as when they turn the spotlight on themselves, and their weekend hissy fit after President Obama ignored them proves the point. It was the equivalent of a lovers’...   February 20, 2013

  From National

• Nobody wake Barack

  The Benghazi terrorist attack was a debacle in three distinct stages. The fatal mistakes occurred in the first two — the failure to provide adequate security before the attack and the failure to provide help once it...   February 10, 2013

  From Local

• Engraved forever

  Throughout his life, Ed Koch took great delight in being a hair shirt. If something he said made you uncomfortable, that was your problem — and his pleasure. The habit didn’t die with him.  Among several inscriptions on...   February 06, 2013

  From Local

• How Ed fixed New York

  Ed Koch was one of New York’s three great mayors in the 20th century, joining LaGuardia and Giuliani in that hallowed circle. Each faced different problems with unique style, but all turned the city away from disaster...   February 03, 2013

  From Local