Trump Has a Grating Style but Significant Substance By Michael Barone
Substance and style -- it's easy to get them confused or mistake one for the other. And they're never entirely unconnected, though exactly how much so is a matter of debate.
Commentary by Michael Barone
Most Recent Releases
February 24, 2017
February 17, 2017
Partisan Lines Stay Fixed Amid Trump Turmoil By Michael Barone
Amid the turmoil of the first month of the Trump administration, with courts blocking his temporary travel ban and his national security adviser resigning after 24 days, the solid partisan divisions in the electorate -- modestly changed in 2016 from what they'd been over the previous two decades -- remain in place.
February 10, 2017
Free Trade's Effect on 'Earned Success' By Michael Barone
Amid all the hurly-burly of President Donald Trump's first weeks in office, let's try to put the changes he's making and the feathers he's ruffling in a longer, 20-year perspective. Start off with his trademark issue -- one that clearly helped him win the 64 crucial electoral votes of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin: trade.
February 3, 2017
Trump's 2nd-Week Follow-through by Michael Barone
Donald Trump's second week as president has been full of surprises and Sturm und Drang.
January 27, 2017
'America First' Is Not a Threat but a Promise By Michael Barone
"From this day forward, it's going to be only America first, America first," Donald Trump proclaimed in his inaugural address. As has been his habit, he added to the prepared text the word "only" and employed the rhetorical device of repetition by repeating "America first."
January 20, 2017
Trump's Inauguration Is Not Without Precedent by Michael Barone
The United States has just had three consecutive eight-year presidencies, and it's only the second time in history that that's happened. The only other such moment came on March 4, 1825, 192 years ago.
January 13, 2017
The Intelligence Community, Russia and Trump by Michael Barone
On Wednesday, in his first news conference as president-elect, Donald Trump came out swinging -- against some of the media (while praising others), against the policies and performance of the Obama administration, and against the intelligence community.
January 6, 2017
Government by Faculty Lounge Subject to Repeal By Michael Barone
President Barack Obama went up to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to counsel congressional Democrats on how to save Obamacare. Or at least that's how his visit was billed.
December 30, 2016
Americans Are No Longer on the Move By Michael Barone
Americans see themselves as people on the move. When the going gets tough or when opportunity beckons, we get up and go. We move around a lot.
December 27, 2016
Trump Nixes Pet Projects of Liberal and Conservative Elites By Michael Barone
It's been a tough year for political elites, here and around the world, what with the passage of Brexit in June in Britain, the repudiation of Colombia's Nobel Peace Prize recipient in the October FARC referendum and the defeat of America's Nobel Peace Prize recipient's preferred candidate in the November presidential election.
December 23, 2016
Some Christmastime Advice for Pundits and Partisans By Michael Barone
Now that the 538 electors have voted -- and, with only the most minor of exceptions, for the expected candidates -- we can marvel at how such a huge difference in public policies can be made by just a few votes, the 77,744 votes by which Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the 46 electoral votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
December 20, 2016
How the Political Rules Changed in 2016 By Michael Barone
Over the 40-some years that I have been working or closely observing the political campaign business, the rules of the game haven't changed much. Technology has changed the business somewhat, but the people who ran campaigns in the 1970s could have (and in some cases actually have) run them four decades later.
December 16, 2016
What's Trump up to on Foreign Policy? by Michael Barone
What is President-elect Donald Trump up to on foreign policy? It's a question with no clear answer. Some will dismiss his appointments and tweets as expressing no more than the impulses of an ignorant and undisciplined temperament -- no more premeditated than the lunges of a rattlesnake.
December 13, 2016
Some Free Advice for the Democratic Party by Michael Barone
Herewith some unsolicited free advice for the Democratic Party. Whether it's worth more than the price I leave up to Democrats to decide.
December 9, 2016
The Collapse of the Political Left By Michael Barone
It's been a tough decade for the political left. Eight years ago, a Time magazine cover portrayed Barack Obama as Franklin Roosevelt, complete with a cigarette and holder and a cover line proclaiming, "The New New Deal." A Newsweek cover announced, "We Are All Socialists Now."
December 6, 2016
Ditching Electoral College Would Allow California to Impose Imperial Rule on a Colonial America by Michael Barone
They're still counting the votes, going on four weeks after the election, in California. In Brazil, a nation with much more challenging geography, they manage to do it in five hours.
December 2, 2016
Donald Trump and the Outstate Midwest Redraw the Partisan Lines by Michael Barone
Would any Republican besides Donald Trump have beaten Hillary Clinton and been elected the 45th president? It's an interesting question, not susceptible to a definitive answer but with consequences for politics going forward.
November 29, 2016
Will Donald Trump Do for Infrastructure What He Did for Wollman Rink? by Michael Barone
In May 1986, a 39-year-old Manhattan real estate developer named Donald Trump promised to get Wollman Rink in Central Park up and running -- something the city government, despite spending $13 million, had failed to do for six years. Trump delivered, ahead of time and under a $3 million budget.
November 24, 2016
The Arc of History Doesn't Always Bend Toward Justice By Michael Barone
History is on our side. That's a claim Barack Obama has made frequently, in his two successful campaigns for president and during his nearly eight years in office. It's a claim that looks a little shakier this Thanksgiving holiday than it did during the Halloween holiday three weeks ago.
November 22, 2016
The Not-Yet-Emerging Democratic Majority by Michael Barone
What is to become of the Democratic Party? The world's oldest political party, which traces its roots to 1792, is in as dire straits as it has ever been.
