Biden and Obama Run a Campaign Fit for the 1980s By Michael Barone
When a politician is in trouble, he usually falls back on what he knows best -- the world he saw around him when he entered into political awareness as a young adult.
Political Commentary
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October 15, 2012
October 12, 2012
Leave the Driving to It By Froma Harrop
Driverless cars are on the horizon, and we can all start feeling ancient now. The youngest among us will remember the days when we had to keep our hands on the steering wheel and foot near the brake. Joining "icebox" and "fire stable" will be such terms as "behind the wheel," "pedal to the metal" and "in the driver's seat."
October 12, 2012
Polls Reflect Voter Reality, Not Pundits' Preoccupations By Scott Rasmussen
According to Political Class pundits, the race for the White House was turned upside down by a single debate. The reality, however, is that a very close race shifted ever so slightly from narrowly favoring President Obama to narrowly favoring Mitt Romney. Either way, it remains too close to call.
October 11, 2012
Why Is America "the Sole Bright Spot" in World Economy? By Joe Conason
Unemployment is still too high, income is still too low and the recovery is still much too slow -- but the United States is faring considerably better than other developed nations against the threat of a renewed recession.
October 11, 2012
A Lawyer by Training, Obama Ignore Rules of Law By Michael Barone
"The Illegal-Donor Loophole" is the headline of a Daily Beast story by Peter Schweizer of the conservative Government Accountability Institute and Peter Boyer, former reporter at The New Yorker and The New York Times.
October 10, 2012
The Divided Era & the 2012 Election By Thomas Del Beccaro
We live in the Divided Era of American politics. Nearly equal numbers of people are now on the side of almost every political issue. This phenomenon of partisanship is neither accidental nor temporary. Throughout all of history, the larger the stakes the more divided a people and the larger the government, the larger the stakes. This year, the presidential election is taking America to new partisan heights.
October 10, 2012
Mitt Romney, Big-Government Man By John Stossel
President Obama tanked in the last debate. Good.
Now maybe people will listen when Mitt Romney says things like, "The genius of America is the free enterprise system, and freedom, and the fact that people can go out there and start a business. ... The private market and individual responsibility always work best."
October 9, 2012
Highly Debatable: The Big Liar's Biggest Lies By Joe Conason
"It's not easy to debate a liar," complained an email from one observer of the first presidential debate -- and there was no question about which candidate he meant. Prevarication, falsification, fabrication are all familiar tactics that have been employed by Mitt Romney without much consequence to him ever since he entered public life, thanks to the inviolable taboo in the mainstream media against calling out a liar (unless, of course, he lies about sex).
October 9, 2012
Mitt's Master Act Not Beloved by All By Froma Harrop
It can't be by accident that Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs made the Sunday talk-show rounds using the word "masterful" to describe Mitt Romney's performance at the presidential debate. True, President Obama looked tired, while Romney was brimming with old ideas. But Romney's master-of-the-universe act was not universally admired. It will be turned on him.
October 8, 2012
Romney's Debate Win Opens Cracks in Obama Firewall By Michael Barone
Wednesday night's presidential debate in which Mitt Romney shellacked Barack Obama attracted the biggest audience since the debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan seven days before the 1980 election.
October 5, 2012
Gubernatorial And House Ratings Update By Kyle Kondik
While other gubernatorial races may get closer as Election Day nears, right now the top gubernatorial tilts in the country are in two small but politically active states: New Hampshire and Montana.
October 5, 2012
When The Whole Map Was In Play By Rhodes Cook
Throughout this year’s presidential campaign, the competitive portion of the electoral map has been limited to about 12 or 13 states. There are the nine that flipped from Republican George W. Bush in 2004 to Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, plus four or so others -- Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin come quickly to mind -- that voted Democratic the last two presidential elections but narrowly so in 2004.
October 5, 2012
Obama May Need a Reagan Comeback By Scott Rasmussen
The first presidential debate of 2012 is now behind us. The reviews suggest that many were surprised at how well Mitt Romney did and how weakly President Obama performed.
October 4, 2012
At the House of Kennedy, Arnold Shrugs By Froma Harrop
Leslie Stahl's face evinces shock as Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about cheating on his wife, Maria Kennedy Shriver, on a CBS "60 Minutes" interview. The former bodybuilder and California governor was sorry that "I inflicted tremendous pain on Maria" -- but obviously not very. There was no show of like or dislike for the wife, but the most infuriating response of all -- indifference.
October 4, 2012
Romney Wins Debate, But How Much Does It Matter By Geoffrey Skelley, Kyle Kondik and Larry J. Sabato
It’s pretty obvious who turned in a stronger performance in the first presidential debate last night. And it certainly wasn’t the incumbent. This may have been Mitt Romney’s best debate ever, and it almost certainly was Barack Obama’s worst. The question is, will it matter and, if so, how much will it matter?
October 3, 2012
We Fund Dependency By John Stossel
"There are no jobs!" That is what people told me outside a government "jobs center" in New York City.
To check this out, I sent four researchers around the area. They quickly found 40 job openings. Twenty-four were entry-level positions. One restaurant owner told me he would hire 12 people if workers would just apply.
October 2, 2012
In Politics, Hate Can Backfire By Froma Harrop
Republicans were supposed to have an easy time of it in North Dakota's U.S. Senate race. The multi-term Democrat, Kent Conrad, wasn't running for re-election, and this region is supposed to be Republican in its conservative soul. Thus, according to the script, Republican Rep. Rick Berg should have had this Senate seat in the bag -- as his Democratic foe, Heidi Heitkamp, tried to crawl uphill with a heavy D on her back. Contrary to these expectations, the RealClearPolitics poll average rates this race a "tossup."
October 1, 2012
The Particulars of Polls By Michael Barone
As a recovering pollster (I worked for Democratic pollster Peter Hart from 1974 to 1981), let me weigh in on the controversy over whether the polls are accurate. Many conservatives are claiming that multiple polls have overly Democratic samples, and some charge that media pollsters are trying to discourage Republican voters.
September 29, 2012
The Tawdry Tycoon Who Hosted That '47 Percent' Party By Joe Conason
Amid the ongoing uproar over Mitt Romney's snooty remarks at a Florida fundraiser concerning the "47 percent" who pay no federal income taxes, the party's high-rolling host hasn't drawn quite as much attention as he deserves. As the head of private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, Marc Leder is a longtime associate of the Republican nominee -- and a practitioner of the same dubious behavior that has smudged Romney's reputation.
September 28, 2012
Debates Seldom Change the Dynamic By Scott Rasmussen
The presidential debate season is upon us with President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, scheduled to square off Wednesday night in the Political Class version of a cage match.
