Controversies Doom Obama's Effort to Restore Faith in Government By Scott Rasmussen
It's impossible to predict the lasting impact of the controversies now besetting the Obama administration, but the risks to the president's agenda are sizable.
Political Commentary
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May 17, 2013
May 16, 2013
The Newsmaker Memo: an Interview With Ron Wyden, the Senate's Powerful Policy Wonk By Joe Conason
Having served in Congress for more than three decades -- and in the upper chamber since 1996 -- Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden has established a reputation as one of the Senate's more serious and diligent members. Over the years on Capitol Hill, he has watched the Republican Party veer constantly further rightward, and yet he continues to believe against all evidence that bipartisan legislative cooperation is possible -- even likely. His habitual reaching across the partisan chasm has generated much controversy, notably when he floated a Medicare reform plan with House Budget chair Paul Ryan.
May 16, 2013
Benghazi and IRS Targeting: Politics by Other Means By Michael Barone
What do the Benghazi cover-up and the IRS scandal have in common? They were both about winning elections, under false pretenses.
May 15, 2013
True Grit By John Stossel
Are you a real man (or woman)? Do you have "grit"?
Compare yourself to the man on the $20 bill: Andrew Jackson, our seventh president.
May 14, 2013
Democrats and the 'Ethics' of Max Baucus By Froma Harrop
Max Baucus' reputation as one of the most ethically challenged members of the U.S. Senate is well earned. The Montana Democrat's decision to retire in 2014 can't help but improve the chamber's sorry record of self-enrichment at taxpayers' expense. But Baucus has over a year left to do more mischief.
May 13, 2013
Did Clinton and Obama Believe Their Benghazi Baloney? By Michael Barone
What were Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton thinking? Why did they keep pitching the line that the 9/11/12 Benghazi attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans started as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim video?
May 10, 2013
Three Girls Lost in Cleveland By Froma Harrop
The story of three girls grabbed from the streets of Cleveland and caged in their neighborhood for some 10 years demands scrutiny beyond expressions of shock. We can't let this gruesome tale of Ariel Castro allegedly imprisoning, impregnating and tormenting young women simply pass into the annals of true crime -- not just yet. But how are we to process it? The man was clearly a sicko, but what kind of sicko was he?
May 10, 2013
Why the Benghazi Hearings Are Likely to Be a Bust by Scott Rasmussen
Foreign policy matters rarely top the list of voter concerns. That's especially true in times of challenging economic news. In recent weeks, though, national security topics have been working their way into the headlines. First came the Boston Marathon bombings and questions about terrorist connections. The civil war in Syria entered the news with reports of chemical warfare followed by an Israeli bombing near Damascus. Finally, congressional hearings have provided additional details about what happened in Benghazi, Libya, on the day Ambassador Christopher Stevens and other Americans were murdered during a terrorist attack.
May 9, 2013
Watergate Revenge: Republicans Yearning to Impeach Obama Over Benghazi 'Cover-Up' By Joe Conason
Less than four months after Barack Obama's inauguration, the right-wing propaganda machine is already promoting the only imaginable conclusion to a Democratic administration that dares to achieve a second term: impeachment. Once confined to the ranks of the birthers, the fantasy of removing President Obama from office is starting to fester in supposedly saner minds.
May 9, 2013
College Bubble Bursts After Decades of Extravagance by Michael Barone
Markets work. But sometimes they take time.
That's the uncomfortable lesson that proprietors of America's colleges and universities are learning.
May 8, 2013
Live Free or Move By John Stossel
Forty-three million Americans moved from one state to another between 1995 and 2010 -- about one-seventh of Americans.
It's good that we can move! Moving provides one of the few limits on the megalomania of state bureaucrats.
Americans have moved away from high-taxed, heavily regulated states to lower-taxed, less-regulated states. Most don't think of it as a political decision. They just go where opportunities are, and that usually means where there's less government.
They're leaving my state, New York, in droves. California, despite its great weather, also lost people, and wealth. Other biggest losers were Illinois, New Jersey and Ohio.
May 7, 2013
Bangladesh and Us By Froma Harrop
You know a corner's been turned when someone in a legion of foreign sweatshop workers is given a face. That's happened in Bangladesh, home of hideous factory conditions -- as seen in the ruins of Rana Plaza, a former eight-story work warren. Death toll: over 600.
May 6, 2013
Fewer Border Crossings, E-Verify System Justify Bill By Michael Barone
Many loud voices in the debate over immigration have been insisting that effective border enforcement must precede any steps that legalize the status of current illegal immigrants.
May 3, 2013
How to Get Fit Without Really Trying By Froma Harrop
We may not have time for exercise, but there's always time to read about exercising. And while the motivation to exercise may not be tops, the motivation to shop for "aids" to exercise seems forever strong.
May 3, 2013
Voters Don't Like Political Class Bossing Them Around By Scott Rasmussen
There are many ways to describe the enormous gap between the American people and their elected politicians. Most in official Washington tend to think that their elite community is smarter and better than the rest of us. Many hold a condescending view of voters and suggest that the general public is too ignorant to be treated seriously. Only 5 percent of the nation's voters, however, believe that Congress and its staff members represent the nation's best and brightest.
May 2, 2013
Overdue Questions: What Might Be Missing From Bush's Presidential Library By Joe Conason
Like all such monuments that former presidents construct to edify the public, the George W. Bush Presidential Center -- opened with great ceremony in Texas last week -- is mounted from its subject's point of view.
May 2, 2013
Obama's Blink on Syria Could Bring Peril to Allies By Michael Barone
"We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked," Secretary of State Dean Rusk famously said during the Cuban missile crisis.
May 1, 2013
Train Wreck Ahead By John Stossel
Most Americans -- even those who are legislators -- know very little about the details of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, so-called Obamacare. Next year, when it goes into effect, we will learn the hard way.
Many people lazily assume that the law will do roughly what it promises: give insurance to the uninsured and lower the cost of health care by limiting spending on dubious procedures.
Don't count on it.
Consider just the complexity: The act itself is more than 906 pages long, and again and again in those 906 pages are the words, "the Secretary shall promulgate regulations ..."
April 30, 2013
Legal Pot Means More Money for States, Less for Gangs By Froma Harrop
The good things that should happen after marijuana is legalized are happening in Colorado. In November, voters in Colorado -- and Washington state -- legalized pot for recreational use. (Many states allow medical use of marijuana.)
What are the good things?
For starters, money, money, money for the state coffers. As of last week, lawmakers in Denver were still tussling over how heavily to tax marijuana sales. A leading plan centers on excise and sales taxes totaling 30 percent. The tax can't go so high that it encourages a black market.
April 29, 2013
Benghazi Report Revives Troubling Questions By Michael Barone
"What difference, at this point, does it make?"
