Political Commentary

Most Recent Releases

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
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                            October 3, 2025Donald Trump: Energy in the Executive By Michael Barone
        Whatever else you want to say about him, President Donald Trump has what Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 70 called "energy in the executive." Announcing a peace plan for Israel and Hamas, ordering the dispatch of federal troops to protect immigration enforcement personnel in "sanctuary" states, authorizing his budget director to use reorganization powers available after Senate Democrats shut down the government, and announcing a pediatric cancer initiative.
October 2, 2025Rating the New Missouri House Map By J. Miles Coleman
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— Over the weekend, Gov. Mike Kehoe (R-MO) signed off on a mid-decade gerrymander designed to give Republicans all but one of the 8 House seats in his state.
— Aside from turning a blue district in the Kansas City area red, the map fortified the St. Louis-area MO-2, the most marginal GOP-held seat on the map.
— Though we are assuming the new map will be operative, there are some efforts to stop, or delay, the map’s implementation, including court challenges and a potential ballot measure.
— In Arizona, Rep. David Schweikert (R, AZ-1) got into his state’s gubernatorial race, which leaves open a competitive seat in the Phoenix area.

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                            October 1, 2025Stop the Health Insurers' Raid on the Treasury By Stephen Moore
        No one likes insurance companies -- trying to get them to pay a claim is like wrenching a bone out of a dog's clenched teeth -- and now we have another reason to hold them in low regard. The biggest advocate for blowing another $1 trillion hole in the federal budget is the health insurance lobby.
        The giant insurance companies -- including UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Humana are leading what Capitol Hill sources describe as "an unprecedented lobbying blitz to restore hundreds of billions in taxpayer-funded Obamacare and Medicare Advantage subsidies."

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                            October 1, 2025Oh, the Suffering! By John Stossel
        Have you heard how young people suffer now?
        Scroll TikTok, Instagram, etc., you see the same message: "Young people today can't get ahead!"
        One popular meme says when baby boomers like me were young, "A family could own a home, a car and send their kids to college, all on one income."

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                            September 30, 2025Assata Shakur and Other Parents of Political Violence By Daniel McCarthy
        As the Trump administration takes on the latest wave of left-wing violence, an obituary reminds us what happens when political killers get away with their crimes.

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                            September 26, 2025Democratic Party Isolation Is Getting Worse By Michael Barone
        We Americans, it seems, continue to live in two separate countries. Consider two items in the news this week and the inconsistent responses they evoked.

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                            September 25, 2025Trump Raises Concerns About Tylenol Use in Pregnancy – Harvard Research Suggests He’s Right By Brian C. Joondeph
When Donald Trump raises a public health concern, the political reaction often focuses more on him than on the science. If Trump declared that drinking gasoline was dangerous, you can bet a TikTok brigade of Trump-hating liberals would be chugging unleaded gas on camera to “own the Orange Man.”
September 25, 2025Getting Back to the Senate: Defeated Senators Who’ve Returned to Office By J. Miles Coleman
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— Several defeated senators are currently running or considering runs for Senate in 2026.
— In the postwar era, about 220 sitting senators have lost their seats in general elections or primaries, and most do not try to reenter electoral politics.
— Still, almost 30 defeated senators have tried to return to the chamber, although only six have been successful since 1946.

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                            September 24, 2025A Billion Views! By John Stossel
        Eight years ago, I left network TV behind.
September 24, 2025This November’s Statewide Ballot Issues: California’s Redistricting Fight Looms Large By Louis Jacobson
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— Odd-numbered years typically have far fewer statewide ballot measures than even-numbered years do. But voters in several states will be weighing in on a few notable ballot measures this November.
— The highest profile measure is in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom and his fellow Democrats in the legislature are asking voters to green-light a mid-decade redistricting in response to the one Republicans in Texas just completed.
— Voters in Colorado, Maine, Texas, and Washington state will also decide on notable ballot measures in November.

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                            September 23, 2025The Case Against Jerome Powell By Stephen Moore
   It's hard to believe that a couple years ago Time magazine considered naming Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell as their Person of the Year. He may well have won, if it hadn't been for someone named Taylor Swift.

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                            September 23, 2025The Left's Triple Threat to Free Speech By Daniel McCarthy
   Jimmy Kimmel's return to the nation's airwaves is proof of just how unseriously left-wing violence is taken by the liberal media.
September 18, 2025Midway to the Midterm: The Imperfect Bellwethers of New Jersey and Virginia By Kyle Kondik
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— It will be very tempting to use the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races as predictors for next year’s midterms.
— Sometimes these races do provide a preview of the following year, but there are enough instances where they do not that we would urge caution against overinterpreting the results.
— One key factor is that the political situation could just be different in the midterm year than it is in the gubernatorial year, something we arguably saw as recently as 2021 and 2022, the most recent comparable cycle.
— Another confounding factor is that New Jersey and Virginia are both more Democratic than the nation at the federal level, which was not consistently the case until recently.

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                            September 18, 2025Americans See Political Rhetoric Fueling Violence – And They’re Reacting By Brian Joondeph
A series of polls conducted after Charlie Kirk’s assassination reveal a sobering truth. Most Americans now believe that the way our leaders and pundits discuss politics is not only divisive but also genuinely dangerous.

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                            September 17, 2025Phones Versus Play By John Stossel
   When I was a kid, childhood meant playing on the street, riding my bike, hanging out with friends.

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                            September 16, 2025Another Tax Revolt May Be Right Around the Corner By Stephen Moore
        Anyone old enough to have lived through the mayhem and economic decline of the 1970s probably will recall the tax cut heard round the world. That was the famous California ballot initiative Proposition 13, which slashed property taxes by more than 25% and then screwed a tight cap on future rate increases.

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                            September 16, 2025Britain's Populist Moment By Daniel McCarthy
   Is Great Britain on the brink of a Trump revolution?

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                            September 12, 2025Recovering From the Insanity of Summer 2020 By Michael Barone
        What a difference half a decade makes. This summer's prevailing ethos, zeitgeist, vibe -- call it any fancy name you want -- was sharply different from the summer, just five years ago, of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter.

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                            September 11, 2025Why So Many Young Voters Are Turning Radical By Brian Joondeph
Rasmussen Report’s new survey of voters under 40 paints a stark picture. Most believe the economy is unfair to them, and a majority would even support a law to confiscate Americans’ “excess wealth” (second homes, luxury cars, boats) to help young people buy a first home. Fifty-five percent endorse that idea, but just 38% oppose it. Only 29% of individuals under 40 are homeowners, and many feel “stuck,” lonely, or in crisis. 
September 11, 2025State Supreme Courts: Retention Elections in PA, an Open Seat in WI, and Much More By Louis Jacobson
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— In most cases, state supreme court elections get little attention, but they can have important impacts on policy.
— There will be one state with closely watched state supreme court elections in 2025: Pennsylvania. Then, in 2026, elections are currently scheduled for 31 states, although that number could change depending on retirements or deaths.
— In addition to the 2025 races in Pennsylvania, the 2026 contests likely to attract attention are in Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, and possibly Alabama and Kentucky.