Let's Play 'Let's Pretend' By Michael Barone
When I was a child, there was a Saturday morning radio program called "Let's Pretend." It used words and sounds to encourage young children to paint pictures in their heads of make-believe worlds.
Commentary by Michael Barone
Most Recent Releases
November 1, 2016
October 28, 2016
So Far, Trump Not Sinking Down-Ballot Republicans By Michael Barone
Could a flailing Donald Trump campaign hurt down-ballot Republicans and cost the party majorities in the Senate and House? That seems possible, if he loses to Hillary Clinton by a margin similar to those in most current polls and if Americans keep on straight-ticket voting as they have increasingly in recent years.
October 25, 2016
The Politics These Two Unpopular Nominees Hath Wrought by Michael Barone
In last week's third and (thank goodness) final presidential debate, each candidate did an excellent job of presenting convincing arguments for why people shouldn't vote for the other.
October 21, 2016
Despite Trump, Demotic Protest Politics Doesn't Always Fail by Michael Barone
2016 has been a big year for protest politics -- not just in the United States, what with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump getting over 40 percent of primary votes, but also all over Europe and Latin America, where voters have been rejecting the advice of their nations' political, financial and media establishments.
October 18, 2016
Which Party Will Hold the Senate and House? By Michael Barone
Which party is going to control the House and hold a majority in the Senate in January 2017? Even if you regard the presidential contest as over -- a proposition for which there is powerful evidence, including Donald Trump's current campaign message choices -- the answers to those questions are, respectively, mildly and very unclear.
October 14, 2016
Donald Trump's Invisible Shackles By Michael Barone
"It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to," Donald Trump tweeted at the reasonable hour of 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
October 7, 2016
Robin Hood Economics Falls Flat in Debates by Michael Barone
Robin Hood is dead. Or at least seriously ailing. The politics of taking from the rich and giving to the poor -- the politics that philosophers from Aristotle to James Madison dreaded -- just doesn't seem to be working as it used to.
October 4, 2016
Voters Reject John Lennon's 'World as One' By Michael Barone
"The president believes the world will be a better place if all borders are eliminated -- from a trade perspective, from the viewpoint of economic development and in welcoming people from other cultures and countries."
September 30, 2016
What the Debate Tells About How Candidates Would Govern By Michael Barone
You've heard and read by now lots of spin and speculation about who won and where the polls are going to move after Monday's presidential debate. We'll know the answers to these questions soon. The more important question for the long run is how each of these candidates would govern. The debate provides no certain answers to that question, but it does offer some useful clues.
September 23, 2016
What Happens to the Democratic Party if Clinton Loses? by Michael Barone
There's been lots of speculation about the fate of the Republican Party if (as most of the prognosticators expect and hope) Donald Trump loses. There's been less speculation, though recent polling suggests it may be in order, about the fate of the Democratic Party if Hillary Clinton loses.
September 20, 2016
Will Democratic Success Breed Clinton's Failure? By Michael Barone
Success breeds failure. That's one of the melancholy lessons you learn in life. The success of policymakers in stamping out inflation in the 1980s and minimizing recessions for two decades also produced policies that contributed to the collapse of the housing and financial markets in 2007-08
September 16, 2016
The Year of Political Re-enactors by Micheal Barone
The thought came to me as I watched the Cleveland police clear away protesters from the city's Public Square. Half a dozen on horseback, nearly a dozen or so on heavy-duty bikes, the cops deftly corralled the protesters without so much as touching anyone, much as a border collie channels a flock of uncomprehending sheep.
September 13, 2016
How's That Fundamental Transformation Going? By Michael Barone
When Air Force One landed in China last week for the G-20 Summit, Chinese authorities didn't wheel out the usual staircase for the president to disembark. Instead he had to exit through an opening in the back of the enormous aircraft. It was, you might say, a pivot to Asia.
September 9, 2016
Why the Polls Are Tightening Up By Michael Barone
Maybe Hillary Clinton isn't going to be elected president after all. That's a thought that's evoking glee in some, nausea in others, terror in some and relief at the removal of an increasingly tedious figure from public view in still more.
September 7, 2016
Trump Calls for More High-Skill Immigration By Michael Barone
Would he go hard or go soft? That was the mainstream media template for judging Donald Trump's speech on immigration in Phoenix last Wednesday. The verdict: hard. "How Trump got from Point A to Point A on immigration," was the headline in the Washington Post's recap.
September 2, 2016
The Battle of the Secret Cabals By Michael Barone
Anyone contemplating this year's appalling presidential campaign may be tempted to explain what's happening by applying the third rule of bureaucratic organizations, enunciated by the late poet and definitive scholar of Soviet terrorism Robert Conquest.
August 30, 2016
Maybe Borders Aren't the Worst Invention Ever by Michael Barone
"Borders are the worst invention ever made by politicians." Those were the words of Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Union's European Commission, at the Alpbach Media Academy last Monday.
August 26, 2016
Is 2016 Redrawing the Political Map? by Michael Barone
Is the political map, so familiar that even non-pundits offhandedly refer to red, blue and purple states, changing before our eyes? Yes, at least to a limited extent -- and it's probably about time.
August 23, 2016
Sympathy for Victims Can Be Misdirected -- and Backfire By Michael Barone
Victims aren't always virtuous. That's a sad lesson that people learn from life. Human beings have a benign instinct to help those who are hurt through no cause of their own. But those they help don't always turn out to be very grateful.
August 19, 2016
Today's Candidates Don't Measure Up to Roosevelt or Reagan By Michael Barone
Donald Trump has just made changes, again, in his campaign's top leadership, shoving aside the seasoned Paul Manafort and installing Breitbart News Chairman Steve Bannon and veteran pollster Kellyanne Conway. He's obviously acting in response to his falling poll numbers nationally, in target states and even in some states that have been safely Republican in recent elections.
