Political Commentary

June 17, 2014

So Mixed Up on Immigration By Froma Harrop

Right-wing primary voters booted Eric Cantor over signs he might back "amnesty" for illegal immigrants, it is said. If so, the partisans are once again taking a position totally opposed to what they claim to want. Legalizing the status of most undocumented foreigners is the condition for closing the door on future illegal immigration. There is no other politically passable road to get there.

One may err in assuming that the hard right actually desires to solve the problem, punishing others being the more satisfying activity. The targets would include both Republicans not dancing to the right's dissonant tune and brown people in general.

June 16, 2014

As Iraq Implodes, Hawks Still Have No Plan -- Except 'Blame Obama' By Joe Conason

Divided between neoconservative ultra-hawks and libertarian isolationists, today's Republican Party is hardly a steady influence on American foreign policy. But there is one thing that can be reliably expected from every right-wing faction in Washington: Whenever disaster threatens, they eagerly cast blame on President Barack Obama -- and utter any falsehood that may be used to castigate him.

June 12, 2014

What Lurks in a Child's Online World? By Froma Harrop

What is the most shocking takeaway from the story of the two 12-year-olds who repeatedly stabbed their friend -- nearly to death -- on the imagined orders of a fantasy character?

June 12, 2014

Microscope on Magnolias By Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley

An old country phrase best describes the possibility of a turnout increase saving Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) in an upcoming runoff: That dog don’t hunt. But it’s also far from clear whether a bigger turnout would naturally help Cochran in the runoff anyway. Mississippi Republicans voted at record levels in the regular primary, and that of course wasn’t enough to push the incumbent over 50%.

As to the first point, turnout generally falls in runoffs held after primary and general elections –significantly.

June 11, 2014

Libertarians Versus Conservatives By John Stossel

Both libertarians and conservatives want to keep America safe. We differ on how best to do that. Most libertarians believe our attempts to create or support democracy around the world have made us new enemies, and done harm as well as good. We want less military spending.

June 10, 2014

Uber Is the Future By Froma Harrop

As dawn creeps over New York's Jamaica Bay, flocks of wide-bodied red-eyes -- overnight flights from the West Coast -- land at JFK International Airport. The minute the wheels touch, cellphones click into action.

Mine shows a message (now lost) going something like this: Avoid the taxi lines. Use Uber instead.

June 9, 2014

In Bergdahl Case, 'Conservatives' Ignore Basic American Principles By Joe Conason

What the Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl saga demonstrates beyond question -- to anyone who still nurtured any doubt -- is that the Republican right will junk just about any basic American value to satisfy its hatred of President Barack Obama. Fair play, due process, respect for families and the military: To most, if not all, so-called conservatives, none of these fundamentals matters nearly so much as the urge to undermine the nation's first black president. Which is another reason, among many, why they no longer deserve the honorific "conservative."

June 6, 2014

Veterans Affairs Scandal Further Discredits Obama's Big Government Policies By Michael Barone

President Obama evidently was caught by surprise by the scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

So, apparently, was VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who evidently took at face value the corrupt VA statistics -- and who, after a distinguished military career, resigned last week.

One who was probably not taken by surprise is longtime Yale Law Professor Peter Schuck, who identified the problems at the VA before the scandal broke in his recently published book, "Why Government Fails So Often and How It Can Do Better."

June 5, 2014

Not Much to Lose in Move From Coal By Froma Harrop

Barack Obama need not ask how well he's doing in coal country, because the answer is always the same: Not well.

June 5, 2014

Mcdaniel’s ‘Friends and Neighbors’ By Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley

In his classic book Southern Politics in State and Nation, V.O. Key Jr. wrote about the importance of “friends and neighbors” in one-party southern elections. More than half a century after the book was written, strength at home powered yet another Deep South candidate.

Tuesday night featured about as dramatic a race as we’ve seen in recent years, which not only delighted the political hacks on Twitter but, more importantly, produced a result that suggests a victory for the more conservative wing of the Republican Party.

June 4, 2014

Popular Nonsense by John Stossel

"Young people are exploited!" "Income mobility is down!" "Poor people are locked into poverty!"

Those are samples of popular nonsense peddled today.

John Stossel is host of "Stossel" on the Fox Business Network. He's the author of "No They Can't: Why Government Fails, but Individuals Succeed." To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

June 3, 2014

Massachusetts, Not VA, Is Obamacare's Future By Froma Harrop

Obamacare foes have portrayed the VA hospital scandal as a dystopian glimpse into the future of the Affordable Care Act. The temptation is understandable if one regards health care policy as just another battlefield for partisan strife.

June 3, 2014

Democrats' Nightmare Scenario for 2016 by Michael Barone

Last week I set out a 2016 nightmare scenario for Republicans -- not one that seems likely, but one that can be extrapolated from current polling.

May 30, 2014

Why Prosecuting Snowden Is Unfair -- Until NSA Answers for Misconduct By Joe Conason

What America learned from Edward Snowden's interview with "NBC News" anchor Brian Williams on Wednesday evening was much less than what we still need to know. Snowden described himself as a highly trained espionage agent, rather than a low-level hacker; he insisted his actions were patriotic, not treacherous; and said he yearns to return to the United States. He claimed to have warned his superiors about the surveillance excesses committed by the National Security Agency, and he doesn't believe a fair trial would be possible for him under the Espionage Act if he did return.

May 30, 2014

Despite Thomas Piketty, Voters Reject Economic Redistribution by Michael Barone

The opinion pages, economic journals and liberal websites are atwitter (a-Twitter?) these days over French economist Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century." Left-wingers cite Piketty's statistics showing growing wealth inequality -- though some have been challenged by the Financial Times -- in support of Piketty's policy response, huge taxes on high incomes and accumulated wealth.

One suspects that many of his fans have another agenda in mind. They'd like to gull a majority of the 99 percent to vote for parties that would put their friends in control of an engorged state apparatus.

Michael Barone, senior political analyst at the Washington Examiner, (www.washingtonexaminer.com), where this article first appeared, is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel contributor and a co-author of The Almanac of American Politics. To find out more about Michael Barone, and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

May 29, 2014

The Housing Bust and the American Psyche By Froma Harrop

Real estate mania lives on at the HGTV cable channel, where house shoppers still holler for granite on their kitchen islands and his-and-her sinks in their en suite bathrooms. But in the non-TV reality of middle-class America, the bloom is definitely off the real estate rose.

May 29, 2014

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton: Complementary Strengths By Rhodes Cook

The Democrats can use all the assets they can find as they approach a midterm election that grows increasingly challenging. The polls are daunting. The electoral map for both the Senate and House is unfavorable. And history is rarely kind to the president’s party in midterm voting.

But the Democrats have two significant assets in the form of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, the president and former president who have thrown themselves into the 2014 campaign with gusto.

May 28, 2014

Eat Without Fear By John Stossel

It's easy to scare people about what's in their food, but the danger is almost never real. And the fear itself kills.

Take the panic over genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Ninety percent of all corn grown in America is genetically modified now. That means it grew from a seed that scientists altered by playing with its genes. The new genes may make corn grow faster, or they may make it less appetizing to bugs so farmers can use fewer pesticides.

May 27, 2014

Scenario for a Republican Nightmare in the 2016 Elections by Michael Barone

The 2016 presidential election is shaping up as another close race, like the last four. From 2000 to 2012, both major parties' nominees received between 45 and 53 percent of the vote.

May 26, 2014

In VA Scandal, Accountability for All -- Including Congress by Joe Conason

While Congress eagerly prepares its latest political stunt -- a resolution to oust Gen. Eric Shinseki as Veterans Affairs Secretary -- individual members might consider their own responsibility for the scandalous inadequacy of veterans' health care. Unlike most of them, especially on the Republican side, Shinseki opposed the incompetent war plans of the George W. Bush administration that left so many American service men and women grievously wounded. And unlike most of them, especially on the Republican side, Shinseki has done much to reduce the backlog of veterans seeking care, despite the congressional failure to provide sufficient funding.

Anyone paying attention knows by now that those secret waiting lists at VA facilities -- which may have led to the premature deaths of scores of injured veterans -- are a direct consequence of policy decisions made in the White House years before President Barack Obama got there. The misguided invasion of Iraq -- carried out with insufficient numbers of troops shielded by insufficient armor -- led directly to thousands of new cases of traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other physical and mental disabilities requiring speedy treatment.

To find out more about Joe Conason, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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