Nancy Gibbs
Nancy Gibbs
Nancy Reid Gibbs is an American essayist and managing editor for Time magazine, a best-selling author and commentator on politics and values in the United States. She is the co-author with Michael Duffy of The New York Times Bestsellers The Preacher and the Presidents; Billy Graham in the White Houseand The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
CountryUnited States of America
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There was a time when researchers imagined that Plan B, or the morning-after pill, might become not an emergency form of contraception but a routine one; women would take it once a month to induce a period and never even know whether they had gotten pregnant.
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Girls grow up scarred by caution and enter adulthood eager to shake free of their parents' worst nightmares. They still know to be wary of strangers. What they don't know is whether they have more to fear from their friends.
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After the 1960s and '70s, there were real doubts about whether a mortal man could handle the country's highest office. It had destroyed Johnson, corrupted Nixon, and overwhelmed Ford and Carter.
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You can't predict when a crisis might hit your family, whether it's with an elderly parent or with your children.
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Progress is seldom simple; it comes with costs and casualties, even challenges about whether a change represents an advance or a retreat.
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Pain is the most private experience, but its causes, whether natural or man-made, demand public accounting.
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Adolescence, that swampy zone between safety and power, is best patrolled by adults armed with sense and mercy, not guns and a badge.
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The typical white American woman in 1800 gave birth seven times; by 1900, the average was down to 3.5.
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Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly - young and old, faithful and cynical - as has Pope Francis.
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Decision making in a democracy depends above all on knowledge and not just the intel available to presidents and policymakers.
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The days of the Pentagon Papers debates seem long past, when a sudden transparency yielded insight into fights over war and peace and freedom and security; the transparency afforded by Twitter and Facebook yields insights that extend no further than a lawmaker's boundless narcissism and a culture's pitiless prurience.
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Modesty means admitting the possibility of error, subsuming the self for the good of the whole, remaining open to surprise and the gifts that only failure can bring. There are many ways to practice it. Try taking up golf. Or making your own bagels. Or raising a teenager.
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Once there was a boy so meek and modest, he was awarded a Most Humble badge. The next day, it was taken away because he wore it. Here endeth the lesson.
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Obama promised a return to competence and confidence and asked the nation to believe again that the government could do big things well. In the end, he got his big thing, a once-in-a-generation revision to the basic social compact, a commitment of health coverage to nearly all Americans. He has yet to prove he can do it well.