Political Commentary

Most Recent Releases

June 19, 2012The Dream Act Undeferred By Froma Harrop
In helping young illegal immigrants stay in the country, President Obama did the right thing for the wrong reason and in a strange context. Obama decreed that illegal immigrants who came here as children could stay without fear of deportation, if the following conditions are met: They've been in the country for at least five years. They're in school or high-school graduates, or have served in the military. They are under 30 and have committed no crimes. More than 1 million people may qualify.
June 18, 2012'Angry' Money Gives Funding Edge to GOP and Romney By Michael Barone
There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth as, in the spring, it appeared that forces supporting Mitt Romney would be able to raise about as much money as those supporting Barack Obama. There's even more now that it seems likely that the pro-Romney side will raise and spend more money than the pro-Obama side.
June 15, 2012Did Young Romney Impersonate a Police Officer? Another Witness Says Yes By Joe Conason
When Mitt Romney was a college freshman, he told fellow residents of his Stanford University dormitory that he sometimes disguised himself as a police officer -- a crime in many states, including Michigan and California, where he then lived. And he had the uniform on display as proof.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            June 15, 2012Collapse of Household Net Worth Isn't News to Most Americans By Scott Rasmussen
The new Federal Reserve report showing that household net worth collapsed between 2007 and 2010 quickly became campaign fodder for both sides.
June 14, 2012Why the U.S. Is Not Greece By Froma Harrop
America is not going the way of Greece, and North Dakota has shown us why. Residents were given the opportunity Tuesday to vote their property taxes out of existence, and they chose not to take it.
June 14, 2012Obama Listens to Rich Liberals, at His Own Peril By Michael Barone
Who does Barack Obama listen to?
Not Republican politicians. Evidently weeks go by between his conversations with Speaker John Boehner, who determines what legislation comes to the House floor.
Not Democratic politicians. We have it on good authority that he seldom talks to Democratic members of Congress. Lyndon Johnson used to be on the phone constantly, cajoling and inveigling but also on the alert for shifts in opinion.
June 13, 2012Improving Health Care By John Stossel
Any day now, the U.S. Supreme will rule on whether the Obamacare insurance mandate is constitutional. Seems like a no-brainer to me. How can forcing me to engage in commerce be constitutional?
June 12, 2012A Modern Economy Has Universal Health Care By Froma Harrop
For now, let's drop the talk about wanting a liberal America or a conservative America. What we truly need is a modern America. No country can be modern spending twice what its rich competitors do on health care while leaving millions without any coverage.
June 11, 2012A Good Day for the GOP in Wisconsin and California By Michael Barone
We pundits have been busy crunching the results in last Tuesday's Wisconsin recall election and have noted that the public-employee unions sustained a huge defeat.
June 8, 2012Silent Running: The Burgeoning Wisconsin Scandal That Major Media Ignored By Joe Conason
If the Wisconsin recall is truly second in importance only to the presidential race, as many media outlets have trumpeted lately, then why have those same outlets so badly neglected one of that election's most salient aspects?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            June 8, 2012The Government Insists on Cutting Us Down to Size By Scott Rasmussen
Mayor Michael Bloomberg ignited a firestorm of debate with his proposal to ban super-size sugary drinks in New York City. Critics bashed his nanny-statism, but supporters like first lady Michelle Obama hailed his courage.
June 7, 2012West of Wisconsin By Froma Harrop
My right-wing friend, ginned up (literally) from his team's impending "victory" in Wisconsin, called me on Tuesday night. I took some of his glow off by noting that I, too, would have been hard-pressed to remove a governor who had committed no crime. Opposition to the recall did not necessarily signal affection for Gov. Scott Walker. Furthermore, I expressed my satisfaction in the electoral reforms being tried in California, changes that would weaken the partisan clubhouse in which my friend found political and social refuge.
June 7, 2012Walker Changes Attitudes on Public Employee Unions By Michael Barone
The results are in, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has beaten Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the recall election. That's in line with pre-election polling, though not the Election Day exit poll. Even before the results came in, we knew one thing, and that is that the Democrats and the public employee unions had already lost the battle of ideas over the issue that sparked the recall, Walker's legislation to restrict the bargaining powers of public employee unions.
June 6, 2012Uncertainty Paralysis By John Stossel
President Obama would do us all a big favor if he'd ask himself this: "Would I start or expand a business without knowing what regulations or taxes government will impose next year?"
June 5, 2012Turbulent Tykes Torture Other Travelers By Froma Harrop
The now storied Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Miami has opened debate on unruly children in crowded airplanes. It seems a 3-year-old, having had his iPad removed in preparation for takeoff, threw a tantrum. Sitting with his father, Mark Yanchuk, little Daniel would not be calmed and refused to properly wear a seat belt. His mother, grandmother and a 1-year-old sibling had escaped to first class.
June 4, 2012Are We at a Demographic Inflection Point? By Michael Barone
Demographic forecasts generally take the form of predicting more of the same. Old people have been moving to Florida for the past several years, and old people will move there for the next few years. Immigrants have been streaming in from Mexico, and they will continue to do so. You get the idea.
June 1, 2012Why Cory Booker Got Bain Capital So Wrong By Joe Conason
Cory Booker's emotional televised plea to "stop attacking private equity" may have been the single greatest service he could perform for the Romney campaign. His immediate attempt to revise his remarks on behalf of President Obama, for whom he is supposed to act as a surrogate, only highlighted his earlier insistence that the harsh campaign criticism of Bain Capital, which he specifically defended, is "nauseating."

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            June 1, 2012Team Obama Finds Romney Hard Target to Hit By Scott Rasmussen
The Obama campaign's early attempts to attack Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital or present him as too extreme to be president have not worked out all that well so far. The early stumbles have created a flurry of commentaries wondering what's wrong with the team that performed so flawlessly in Election 2008.
May 31, 2012Obama Campaign May Be Fooling Itself By Michael Barone
"Axelrod is endeavoring not to panic." So reads a sentence in John Heilemann's exhaustive article on Barack Obama's campaign in this week's New York magazine.
May 31, 2012Dumb Money for Dummies By Froma Harrop
In the beginning, there was pump and dump. In the dot-com bubble of the late '90s, the stock-analyzing arms of investment banks would pump up a new stock's price with rave reviews.