Replacing Property as a Source of Wealth Creation By Michael Barone
One of the interesting things about our country, the independence of which the Founders declared 235 years ago today, is that we have been a property-holders' democracy.
Commentary by Michael Barone
Most Recent Releases
July 4, 2011
June 30, 2011
Why the Civil Service Is No Way to Run a Business By Michael Barone
What's the fair way to run a large organization? That's a question that is squarely, and interestingly, raised by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissenting opinion in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, a Supreme Court case decided last week.
June 27, 2011
Like Chauncey Gardiner, Obama Is Profoundly Aloof By Michael Barone
Which past leader does Barack Obama most closely resemble? His admirers, not all of them liberals, used to compare him to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.
June 24, 2011
Feds Crack Down on Campus Flirting and Sex Jokes By Michael Barone
When I was growing up, it was widely believed that colleges and universities were the part of our society with the widest scope for free expression and free speech. In the conformist America of the 1950s, the thinking ran, few people dared to say anything that went beyond a broad consensus. But on campus, anyone could say anything he liked.
June 22, 2011
GOP Not Isolationist By Tony Blankley
Sen. John McCain, whose life is a continuing exemplar of the American heroic ideal, regrettably has got it quite wrong when he says that growing GOP opposition to the Libyan and Afghan wars is evidence of isolationism. In his words on weekend television:
June 20, 2011
Government Looks to Past, Free Enterprise to Future By Michael Barone
Two years ago, in June 2009, the American economy emerged from recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. But as this week's Economist noted, with typical British understatement, "The recovery has been a disappointment."
June 16, 2011
Romney in Front as Feisty Bachmann Gains on Pawlenty By Michael Barone
Barack Obama did not watch the Republican presidential candidates' debate in Manchester, N.H., on Monday night, we are told. He was busy addressing a campaign fundraising event in Miami.
June 13, 2011
The End of a Surprisingly Good Political Career By Michael Barone
Exit Newt Gingrich. Well, not quite yet, officially. On his Facebook page, Gingrich says he will endure "the rigors of campaigning for public office" and "will carry the message of American renewal to every part of this great land, whatever it takes."
June 9, 2011
Free Market, Not Government Policy, Drives Energy Boom By Michael Barone
There's an awful lot that's stale in the debate on government energy policy.
June 6, 2011
Obama Tunes Out, and Business Goes on Hiring Strike By Michael Barone
Last week, I noted that various forms of the word "unexpected" almost inevitably appeared in news stories about unfavorable economic developments. You can find them again in stories about Friday's shocking news, that only 54,000 net new jobs were created in the month of May and that unemployment rose to 9.1 percent.
June 2, 2011
Gates' Verdict: Pentagon's Biggest Enemy Is Itself By Michael Barone
Defense Secretary Robert Gates leaves office this month as widely respected as any public figure in America today, appreciated for his willingness to return to public service at a moment of high danger in Iraq and to faithfully serve presidents of both parties.
May 30, 2011
Pro-Obama Media Always Shocked by Bad Economic News By Michael Barone
Unexpectedly! As megablogger Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, has noted with amusement, the word "unexpectedly" or variants thereon keep cropping up in mainstream media stories about the economy.
May 26, 2011
Obama Skirts Rule of Law to Reward Pals, Punish Enemies By Michael Barone
Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Teamsters Local 522 Fund Welfare Fund Roofers Division, StayWell Saipan Basic Plan, CIGNA, Caribbean Workers' Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Health and Welfare Plan.
May 23, 2011
Obama Channels W. Except on Israel and Palestinians By Michael Barone
"The State Department is a fitting venue," declared Barack Obama at the beginning of his speech on the Middle East last Thursday.
May 19, 2011
Gingrich and Romney Run Against Their Own Party By Michael Barone
Exit Mike Huckabee. Enter Newt Gingrich. Exit Donald Trump. It's been a busy week in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
May 16, 2011
Obama's Hypocritical Rhetoric on Immigration Reform By Michael Barone
Barack Obama's immigration speech in El Paso May 10 was an exercise in electioneering and hypocrisy. Hypocrisy because while Obama complained about "politicians" blocking comprehensive immigration bills, he was one of them himself.
May 12, 2011
History Weeps at the Partition of India and Pakistan By Michael Barone
When you get into discussions about the Middle East with certain people, you start hearing that the great mistake was the partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. If that had somehow just not happened, you hear, everything would be all right.
May 9, 2011
What the GOP Can Learn From Canada's Conservatives By Michael Barone
Some years ago, the columnist and editor Michael Kinsley sponsored a contest to come up with the most boring headline. The winner was, "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative."
May 5, 2011
To Get Bin Laden, Obama Relied on Policies He Decried By Michael Barone
Let's cheerfully and ungrudgingly give credit to Barack Obama for approving the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.
May 2, 2011
On Foreign Policy, Obama Leads From Behind By Michael Barone
Sometimes a sympathetic and perceptive journalist paints a more devastating portrait of a public figure than even his most vitriolic detractors could. A prime example is Ryan Lizza's New Yorker article titled "The Consequentialist" and subtitled, "How the Arab Spring remade Obama's foreign policy."
