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Portrait of Maureen Dowd

Maureen Dowd

I focus mostly on presidential politics but I like to branch out and write about New York, Hollywood, Silicon Valley and occasionally, European politics. I love to cover the arc of women’s victories and setbacks in American life. I like to write with humor, but given all the impeachments, indictments, coups and villainy I have to cover, it’s hard to do it as often as I’d like.

I started at The Washington Star in 1973, working as a clerk on the overnight shift, taking dictation from reporters covering the Watergate trial in the days before cellphones and laptops. I became a city reporter in 1975. When the Star folded in 1981, I went to Time magazine for a couple years. Then the great Anna Quindlen hired me for the city desk of The New York Times in 1983. I transferred to Washington, my hometown, in 1986, and covered the Bush I and Clinton White Houses before becoming a columnist in 1995. I received the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for distinguished commentary and have written several books, including “Bushworld,” which covered the presidency and personality of George W. Bush, and “Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide,” about gender politics. I have also written for GQ, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The New Republic, Mademoiselle, Sports Illustrated and elsewhere.

I got an undergraduate degree from Catholic University and, in 2023, a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Columbia University.

You have to be Caesar’s wife at The Times. No one can achieve the purity of Bill Cunningham, the great Times street fashion photographer, who refused to even take a drink of water at parties he covered. But we can try. You can learn more about The Times’s ethics policy here.

Latest

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    Go Slow, Joe

    He ought to glide along at his own pace.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Maureen Dowd

    Donnie After Dark

    A trial that is a meditation on Trump’s amorality.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Maureen Dowd

    Melania’s Trials

    The former first lady is swept back into the Stormy cyclone.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Maureen Dowd

    O.J. and the Monster Jealousy

    I always thought of the Simpson case as a great American tragedy, with its echoes of “Othello.”

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Maureen Dowd

    Kate and the King

    Cancer is a very personal thing, but the 42-year-old princess is a public figure saddled with an insatiable press corps.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Maureen Dowd

    My Joe Biden Fantasy

    Only in D.C. do you dream about the State of the Union.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Maureen Dowd

    Sex and the Capital City

    While Joe Biden celebrates connubial sex, Republicans emblazon the Scarlet Letter.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Camilla Takes Charge

    As King Charles battles an unnamed form of cancer, the Queen must carry the flag.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    The Swan Is a Viper

    A preview of the new FX series about Truman Capote and New York society.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Maureen Dowd

    Can the MAGA Shrew Be Tamed?

    Flipping back and forth between wins and losses in Hollywood and Iowa, I couldn’t help thinking that Trump was at the wrong celebration.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Maureen Dowd

    Is Trump Hell?

    Trump portrays himself as Christlike, even as he bedevils America.

    By Maureen Dowd

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    Maureen Dowd

    The Axe Is Sharp

    Biden should aim more barbs at Trump, not at fellow Democrats.

    By Maureen Dowd

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