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Commentary by Michael Barone

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August 12, 2016

Nationalism Is Not Necessarily a Bad Thing By Michael Barone

Google "Donald Trump" and "nationalism" and you'll get 1,090,000 results, the large percentage of which are, to judge from the top hits, negative. "Nationalism" is deemed to be bad stuff, maybe even akin to Nazism.

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August 9, 2016

The End of History Not Turning Out as Hoped By Michael Barone

The scholar Francis Fukuyama has been widely ridiculed for the title of his 1992 book, "The End of History." Critics point out that we've had -- suffered -- a lot of history since then: the 9/11 attacks, prolonged wars in the Middle East, a worldwide financial crisis and deep recession.   

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August 5, 2016

Donald Trump's Opportunity Cost By Michael Barone

Opportunity cost. That's an economist's term for what you lose out on when you divert your investments and attention to something less profitable. It's also a good term for the losses Donald Trump has incurred in the last six days -- more than 6 percent of the 94 days between the close of the Democratic National Convention and the election in November.   

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August 2, 2016

Does Either Party Have a Winning Strategy? Not Clear by Michael Barone

What is the campaign strategy for the two political parties? Clues can be had from the responses to a question I asked about a dozen dignitaries of each party at their conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia. What's your best guess, I asked, emphasizing guess, of your nominee's percentage of the popular vote in November 2016?

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July 29, 2016

The Democratic Convention: Mission Partly Accomplished By Michael Barone

It was a variant on a traditional convention for a party seeking a third straight term in the White House, attempting to overcome an apparent post-convention bounce for the opposition's candidate: shades of 1988 or 2000 or 2008. Usually it starts with a valedictory speech by the incumbent president, followed by celebration of the new nominee and ending with a rousing acceptance speech.

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July 26, 2016

What's 'Making America One Again' About? By Michael Barone

"Make America One Again." That was the stated theme of the last night of the Republican National Convention. In the welter of analysis of Donald Trump's acceptance speech, few have commented on it, but it's worth taking it seriously.

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July 22, 2016

Is America Ready for a Disruptive President? by Michael Barone

Disruptive. That's a good word to describe Donald Trump's presidential candidacy, and to describe the sometimes-ramshackle Republican National Convention his campaign more or less superintended in Cleveland this past week.

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July 19, 2016

Will Trump's 'Other People's Money' Campaign Prevail Over Clinton's Standard Tactics? By Michael Barone

Donald Trump postponed the announcement of his vice presidential candidate, Mike Pence, because of the terrorist attack in Nice, which was in line with the modus operandi of his campaign. He didn't want to preempt news media coverage of another radical Islamist terrorist attack.

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July 15, 2016

Events Roil the 2016 Campaign by Michael Barone

"Events, dear boy, events," the late British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan supposedly replied when asked what he most feared. And events can certainly make a difference, as was apparent this week: Prime Minister David Cameron moved out of No. 10 Downing Street and Theresa May moved in. This came after British voters, against Cameron's advice and contrary to widespread expectations, voted to leave the European Union June 23.

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July 12, 2016

Will the National Conventions Change the Delegate Selection Rules -- Again? By Michael Barone

When the Republican and Democratic national conventions gather in successive weeks in Cleveland and Philadelphia, respectively, one item on their plates will be reconsideration of their parties' nominating rules. Just about everyone agrees that they are unsatisfactory in some way or another, and many itch to do something about it.

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July 8, 2016

Hillary Clinton's Non-Indictment May Not Help Her By Michael Barone

Unindicted co-conspirator: Technically, the term, made familiar in the Watergate scandals, does not apply to Hillary Clinton, since no one has been or apparently will be indicted in the emails case.

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July 5, 2016

Racial Discrimination on Campus Likely to Go on Forever By Michael Barone

"Affirmative action" will continue to be the routine course of business of college and university admissions for the foreseeable future. That's the bottom line from the Supreme Court's June decision in Fisher v. University of Texas.

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July 1, 2016

Brexit Due to Failure of Elites, Not Bigotry of Masses By Michael Barone

Bigotry! Nativism! Racism! That's what elites in Britain, Europe and here have been howling, explanations for why 52 percent of a higher-than-general-election turnout of British voters voted for their nation to leave the European Union.

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June 28, 2016

Brexit Earthquake Hits Britain By Michael Barone

Earthquakes seldom hit the British Isles. But one did late Thursday night and early Friday morning, as the constituency returns started pouring in on the referendum to decide whether the United Kingdom would remain in or leave the European Union.    

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June 24, 2016

Trump Pivoting Away From Tabloid-Style Campaigning By Michael Barone

Donald Trump is the latest proof that the campaign always reflects the candidate and that the candidate is a product of his experience over the years. So, as Trump, after clinching the Republican nomination, reshuffles and rejiggers a campaign that has fallen behind Hillary Clinton, it's instructive to look at his political ground zero.   

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June 21, 2016

Why We Have -- and Probably Will Keep Having -- Sluggish Job Growth By Michael Barone

Why has the American economy had such sluggish job creation and economic growth? That's a pretty fundamental question, and one for which most conventional economists have had unsatisfying answers.   

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June 17, 2016

Brexit Causes Elites Angst -- But Britain May Leave EU Anyway By Michael Barone

"Market Angst as U.K. Edges to Exit," proclaims the headline on The Wall Street Journal's lead story. The exit referred to is Britain's departure from the European Union, a move that will be mandated if a majority votes "leave" rather than "remain" in the national referendum next Thursday.  

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June 14, 2016

Possible Errors in Exit Polls Suggest More Election Surprises Ahead By Michael Barone

Are the exit polls, on which just about every elections analyst has relied, wrong? That's a question raised by New York Times Upshot writer Nate Cohn -- a question whose answers have serious implications for how you look at the 2016 general election.

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June 10, 2016

Bernie Sanders Wins, Even While Losing By Michael Barone

Bernie Sanders is not going gently into that good night, at least not yet.

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June 7, 2016

Neither Candidate Is Getting the Immigration Issue Right By Michael Barone

No contemporary political issue has been more controversial, or has been subject to more dubious analyses, than immigration.