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Political Commentary

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June 5, 2008

Obama's VP Search Mistake By Dick Morris

On his first day as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama made his first clear, serious mistake: He named Eric Holder as one of three people charged with vice-presidential vetting.

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June 5, 2008

Hillary's Latest Provocation By Robert D. Novak

Just when it seemed on the last Tuesday of the presidential primary season that Hillary Clinton would bow to the inevitable, she enraged Democrats who expected her to start strengthening Barack Obama as nominee.

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June 5, 2008

The Running Mate Dilemma By Joe Conason

The selection of a vice president is not only an exercise in political handicapping but also a national rite of statecraft. Candidates, advisers, pundits and assorted experts try to calculate the ethnic, geographic, gender and ideological characteristics of potential running mates, but what this choice actually reveals is the character of a presidential nominee.

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June 5, 2008

Health Care: the Democrats' Lost Opportunity By Froma Harrop

A remarkable thing just happened in the people's party. Democrats have chosen a candidate, in the year 2008, who does not have a plan for universal health coverage.

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June 5, 2008

Bernanke Backs King Dollar By Lawrence Kudlow

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke made big news Tuesday by singling out the weak foreign-exchange value of the U.S. dollar as the principal culprit in "the unwelcome rise in import prices and consumer price inflation."

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June 4, 2008

Obama's Iraq Achilles Heel By Dick Morris

John McCain needs to go on the offensive against Barack Obama over the Iraq war. Polls tell us that his support for the Iraq invasion is one of voters' chief problems with McCain. Obama's chief credential, on the other hand, is his early, consistent opposition to the war.

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June 4, 2008

One Great Dame By Susan Estrich

As I write this, the last voters in the last states in this seemingly endless primary process are heading to the polls, even as various news organizations have already announced that Barack Obama has reached the shifting magic number to claim a majority of the delegates.

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June 3, 2008

White Women Take the Gloves Off By Froma Harrop

The woman who shouted "McCain in '08" at the Democratic rules committee was speaking for a multitude. After mounting for months, female anger over the choreographed dumping on Hillary Clinton and her supporters has exploded -- and party loyalty be damned.

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June 2, 2008

McClellan on Plame By Robert Novak

In Scott McClellan's purported tell-all memoir of his trials as President George W. Bush's press secretary, he virtually ignores Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's role leaking to me Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA employee.

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May 31, 2008

The Economy: A Reality Check By Michael Barone

"It's the economy, stupid," James Carville famously said during the 1992 campaign, when a young Bill Clinton was running against the other President Bush. The same could be said during this presidential campaign. The headlines are full of economic bad news -- mortgage foreclosures, the collapse of an investment bank, higher gas and food prices and lower home prices.

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May 31, 2008

McClellan's Revenge By Robert D. Novak

Republican insiders see the bitter criticism in Scott McClellan's memoir, "What Happened," as a payback for his abrupt firing as White House press secretary in the spring of 2006.

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May 29, 2008

Coal-Cap Disaster By Lawrence Kudlow

Tuesday's Wall Street Journal strongly editorializes against the Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade plan that allegedly will solve our alleged problem with global warming -- now called climate change.

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May 29, 2008

Teens Belong in Summer Jobs By Froma Harrop

Put disadvantaged teens into summer jobs. Hook them into the world of work. They'll come home with new skills, discipline, contacts and, yes, money.

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May 29, 2008

The Controversial Caucuses: An Outsized Influence in 2008 By Rhodes Cook

Maybe one of the most intriguing - and nefarious - aspects of this long-running Democratic presidential campaign is that the legitimacy of the system itself has come into question.

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May 29, 2008

Can McCain Overcome the Triple Whammy? By Alan I. Abramowitz

With the long and contentious Democratic nomination race finally winding down, the attention of the media and the public is beginning to shift to the general election. In November, voters will face a choice between two rather atypical presidential candidates.

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May 29, 2008

Blame to Share in Primary Farce By Joe Conason

When the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee meets on May 31 to determine the status of the votes cast in the Michigan and Florida primaries, its members should try to look past self-serving campaign arguments and silly attempts to save face by bumbling party leaders.

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May 29, 2008

Hillary Agonistes By Robert Novak

When Hillary Clinton last Friday said, "We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June (1968) in California," she was not saying anything she had not publicly declared earlier.

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May 28, 2008

Just Say Yes By Susan Estrich

There is a very easy way for Barack Obama's team to avoid floor fights at the Democratic National Convention.

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May 27, 2008

Bad News for GOP Can Be Good News for McCain By Froma Harrop

The recent loss of formerly deep-red congressional districts to Democrats is supposed to be awful news for John McCain. Actually, the opposite could be true.

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May 26, 2008

A Vice President for Abortion By Robert Novak

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, whose Roman Catholic archdiocese covers northeast Kansas, on May 9 called on Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to stop taking Communion until she disowns her support for the "serious moral evil" of abortion.