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Political Commentary

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January 19, 2010

Dems' Lock on Senate Is Mixed Blessing for Obama By Michael Barone

Year One of the Obama administration ends Wednesday. Another era may come to an end the day before, when Massachusetts voters -- or at least those of them motivated enough to vote -- choose a senator to fill the three years remaining in the term of Edward Kennedy, who held the seat for 47 years.

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January 18, 2010

What Will Happen in Massachusetts on Tuesday? By Scott Rasmussen

Two weeks ago, Rasmussen Reports released a poll showing that Republican challenger Scott Brown had closed the gap in Massachusetts to single digits.

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January 17, 2010

And Then There Were None By Debra J. Saunders

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell announced Thursday that he is dropping out of the California GOP gubernatorial primary and instead will run against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

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January 16, 2010

Obama Rewards Losers, Punishes Winners By Lawrence Kudlow

President Obama's misbegotten bank tax is precisely the wrong policy at precisely the wrong time. It will wind up backfiring across the board. Why? Because bank consumers and borrowers are the ones who will wind up paying this tax, creating an obstacle to economic recovery.

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January 15, 2010

Berkeley High's Next Science Experiment By Debra J. Saunders

If liberal politics and good intentions helped all students learn, then Berkeley High School should be an exemplar to all California. Yet, according to its governance council, Berkeley High was identified last year as the high school with "the largest racial equity/achievement gap in the state."

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January 15, 2010

For Reid, Motive Does Matter By Joe Conason

If Harry Reid's private remarks about the skin tone and speaking style of Barack Obama were offensive, the Republican crusade to oust him from his leadership position is worse.

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January 14, 2010

Green Jobs, Red Ink, Pink Slips By Howard Rich

The “New Socialism” – as columnist Charles Krauthammer adroitly calls the global governmental power grab and wealth redistribution schemes lurking beneath the “green economy” – has kicked into high gear in Washington, D.C. already this year.

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January 14, 2010

Why Republicans Should Get on the Redistricting Reform Bandwagon By Bill Pascoe

Once every decade--in years that end in zero--true political junkies get to spend an entire year basking in the glow of the national campaign over redistricting. For them, it's like the Super Bowl, March Madness, the World Series, and the Daytona 500 all wrapped up in one, but spread out over dozens of key states.

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January 14, 2010

Obama's Rapturous Style Versus Tea Party Substance By Michael Barone

In his New York Times column last week, David Brooks contrasted "the educated class," which supports Barack Obama and his liberal worldview, with the tea party movement, "a large, fractious confederation of Americans who are defined by what they are against ... the concentrated power of the educated class."

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January 13, 2010

Lights, Camera, Action By Susan Estrich

The federal trial of Prop 8 -- the California anti-gay marriage amendment whose constitutionality is currently being challenged -- was about to be a grand experiment in televised trials until the Supreme Court abruptly pulled the plug Monday morning.

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January 13, 2010

Reject Politically Correct "Educated Class" By Tony Blankley

Anti-anti-Islamic radicalism is growing amongst Western elites. In the aftermath of the Fort Hood Islamist terror attack on our troops by United States Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and the Christmas day airline Islamist terror attack attempt, it is becoming ever more obvious that there is a widening gap between public common sense and governing class idiocy when it comes to spotting Islamist danger in our midst -- and doing something about it.

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January 12, 2010

How Harry Got His Groove Back By Debra J. Saunders

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spent the weekend trying to finesse the news that he told "Game Change" authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann in 2008 that he believed Barack Obama could win the White House

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January 12, 2010

Why Profiling Can't Ensure Airline Security By Froma Harrop

Fifty years ago this month, a lawyer living in a posh New York suburb with his former model wife was being investigated for embezzlement. Julian Andrew Frank of Westport, Conn., took out nearly $900,000 in life insurance and then, investigators believed, boarded a National Airlines plane with a bomb and blew it up over North Carolina, killing himself and 33 others.

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January 11, 2010

Looking Closer at the Massachusetts Senate Polls

On the surface, three recent polls on the upcoming Massachusetts special election to fill the Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy seem to tell three different stories.

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January 11, 2010

Imagine Waugh Writing About the Christmas Bomber By Michael Barone

In Evelyn Waugh's novel "Scoop," the best book on journalism ever written, Lord Copper, proprietor of the Daily Beast, is followed around by a flunkie who responds to every statement he makes. When Lord Copper says something that is true, the flunkie says, "Absolutely, Lord Copper." When he says something that is false, the flunkie says, "Up to a point, Lord Copper."

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January 10, 2010

Obama at War with al-Qaida By Debra J. Saunders

In the days that followed a foiled attempt to blow up Northwest Flight 253, the Obama White House clearly thought that it could bluff its way past the near disaster.

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January 9, 2010

Time to De-Stimulate By Lawrence Kudlow

After the arrival of a disappointing December jobs report, my thought on putting America back to work is simple: de-stimulate.

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January 8, 2010

Partisan Hysteria Hypes (and Helps) al-Qaida By Joe Conason

The latest atrocity attempted by al-Qaida seems to be yet another example of history reprising a great tragedy as farce.

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January 8, 2010

Schwarzenegger -- What Might've Been By Debra J. Saunders

Mention Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- you need only say his first name -- and many Californians respond with a long sigh, then with words like "squander" or "waste" or "missed opportunity." Those in the political class look at Schwarzenegger and see what might have been.

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January 8, 2010

The Newest Federalism By Susan Estrich

In 1981, Ronald Reagan's ideologists pronounced his attack on the welfare state an expression of the "new federalism." It wasn't that they were against helping the poor and the needy, but that the federal government was the wrong branch of government to do it. Even the president talked about it. People, myself included, wrote papers.