Pundit Krauthammer dies at 68
Pulitzer-winning columnist shaped, shook up right-wing thought
NEW YORK — Charles Krauthammer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and pundit who helped shape and occasionally dissented from the conservative movement as he evolved from “Great Society” Democrat to Iraq War cheerleader to denouncer of Donald Trump, died Thursday at age 68.
His death was announced by his longtime employers The Washington Post and Fox News. Krauthammer had announced a year ago he was being treated for a cancerous tumor in his abdomen and revealed this month that he likely had weeks to live.
“I leave this life with no regrets,” Krauthammer wrote in the Post, where his column had run since 1984. “It was a wonderful life — full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.” Krauthammer was awarded a Pulitzer in 1987 for “his witty and insightful” commentary and was an influential voice among Republicans, whether through his syndicated column — which was featured regularly in the Review-journal’s Sunday Viewpoints section — or his appearances on Fox News Channel.
Krauthammer is credited with coining the term “The Reagan Doctrine” for President Reagan’s policy of aiding anti-communist movements worldwide. He was a leading advocate for the Iraq War and a prominent critic of President Barack Obama, whom he praised for his “first-class intellect and first-class temperament” and denounced for having a “highly suspect” character.
Krauthammer was a former Harvard medical student who graduated even after he was paralyzed from the neck down because of a diving board accident. He was a Democrat in his youth, and his political engagement dated back to 1976, when he handed out leaflets for Henry Jackson’s presidential campaign.
But through the 1980s and beyond, Krauthammer turned against his old party on foreign and domestic issues. He aligned with Republicans on everything from confrontation with the Soviet Union to rejection of the “Great Society” programs enacted during the 1960s.
But he prided himself on his rejection of orthodoxy. He criticized the death penalty and rejected intelligent design as “today’s tarted-up version of creationism.”