Front Porch image

The Front Porch

Pull Up a Chair

Donkey Versus Elephant, Volume 1

May 7, 2023

By Don Mohler American Presidential elections take far too long. I did not need Pew Research to tell me that voters are exhausted by the process, but they did. The 2020 election cycle took 1194 days from start to finish. You read that correctly. The campaign season lasted roughly 40 months. That is insane, but…

Read More

Notes and Quotes

Mar 27, 2023

By Don Mohler The battle for the soul of our nation continues.  Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene continue to try to rewrite the history of January 6, 2020. The Celebrity Ex-President threatens violence on a regular basis, and a major Republican candidate for President called the invasion of a sovereign power a “territorial dispute.”…

Read More

Enough Already

Feb 8, 2023

By Don Mohler I had just gotten home from dinner with good friends when I settled in to watch President Biden deliver his State of the Union Address. I should have stuck with the Terp game. It began in a very upbeat, positive, and bipartisan manner.  The President congratulated Kevin McCarthy on being elected Speaker…

Read More

The Trail

Jan 25, 2023

Editor’s Note: Last week following the inauguration of Maryland Governor Westley Watende Omari Moore, Damian O’Doherty, founding partner of KO Public Affairs, stopped by the “Front Porch” to reflect on the moment. It was a heartwarming discussion. By Damian O’Doherty I took this photo when James Moore first saw his dad’s first campaign ad. Nearby,…

Read More

They Make the Same Mistake Every Single Time

Jan 13, 2023

By Don Mohler When crooning about love, The Everly Brothers (under 50, it’s Google time again) reminded us that, “She always breaks my heart in two. It happens every time.” With apologies to Phil and Don, when it comes to crisis management, we could write our own song about those in power, “They always screw…

Read More

They Didn’t Learn a Thing

Dec 10, 2022

They Didn’t Learn a Thing By Don Mohler As a little boy, my family’s small apartment on Garden Ridge Road would be filled with excitement and wonder when Rhea and JP (WBAL’s weather gurus—yes, one was indeed a puppet) would predict that a large winter storm was bearing down on Maryland and likely to dump…

Read More

The Uncle Bobby Rule

Nov 12, 2022

By Don Mohler So, let’s start today’s episode of “What the hell just happened,” with Uncle Bobby. Who’s that you say? I promise that if you stick with it until the end, it just might make some sense. But first, a little background on my uncle: Robert P. Scruggs grew up on Route 175 in…

Read More

Making Sense Out of the Nonsensible

Oct 21, 2022

By Don Mohler Democrats often make the mistake of failing to talk like real people talk. They embark upon wonky policy discussions that voters hear in the same way that Charlie Brown and his pals heard their teacher, “Wah wah woh wah wah.” So as we sprint to the finish line, I have a few…

Read More

The Canary in the Coal Mine

Sep 8, 2022

By Don Mohler As we sprint toward November 8, 2022, there will no shortage of analysis or visits to The Front Porch regarding what is about to transpire. That journey begins today. In his book, Why We’re Polarized, Ezra Klein wrote, “We are so locked into our political identities that there is virtually no candidate,…

Read More