Commentary by Michael Barone

Obama's Blink on Syria Could Bring Peril to Allies By Michael Barone

"We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked," Secretary of State Dean Rusk famously said during the Cuban missile crisis.   

Benghazi Report Revives Troubling Questions By Michael Barone

"What difference, at this point, does it make?"   

As Bush Stays Silent, His Reputation Steadily Gains By Michael Barone

Tomorrow, the George W. Bush Presidential Center will be dedicated at Southern Methodist University in Texas. It's a good time to look back on the performance of the 43rd president, who has been almost entirely missing from the public stage these past four years.    

At Every Turn, Things Were Spinning out of Control By Michael Barone

Chaos. Things seemed to be spinning out of control on many fronts this week.    

Not Such a Hot Idea: Liberal and Conservative Parties By Michael Barone

"More tears are shed over answered prayers," the 16th century nun St. Teresa of Avila is supposed to have said, "than over unanswered ones."    

Extra Care Required in Crafting Immigration Reform By Michael Barone

"Without legislative language," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy declared in a statement March 20, "there is nothing for the Judiciary Committee to consider this week at our markup."  

Thatcher Insisted on Facing Hard, Uncomfortable Truths By Michael Barone

"Divisive." That's a word that appeared, often prominently, in many news stories reporting the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

One senses the writers' disapproval. You're not likely to find "divisive" in stories reporting the deaths of liberal leaders, although every electoral politician divides voters.

"Divisive" here refers to something specific. It was Margaret Thatcher's special genius that she systematically rejected the conventional wisdom, almost always well-intentioned, of the political establishment.

Instead, she insisted on hard, uncomfortable truths.

British Conservatives like Harold Macmillan accepted the tyranny of trade unionism because they had guilty memories of the slaughter of the working-class men who served under them in the trenches in World War I.

Thatcher, who as an adolescent before World War II saved money to pay for a Jewish girl to escape from Austria to England, felt no such guilt.

Mexico Becomes a Stable, Politically Diverse Neighbor By Michael Barone

We Americans are lucky, though we seldom reflect on it, that we have good neighbors.

In East Asia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines face challenges from China over islands they have long claimed in the East China Sea.

In Europe, Germany and other prosperous nations face demands for subsidies from debt-ridden nations to avoid the collapse of the Euro.

When Southern Europeans look across the Mediterranean, they see Muslim nations facing post-Arab spring upheaval and disorder.

Why Freight Rail Pays and Passenger Trains Flunk By Michael Barone

Forty years ago, American railroads were in trouble. The Penn Central, the largest railroad, had recently gone bankrupt.

Republicans Grow Less Hawkish in Wake of Iraq War By Michael Barone

Are Republicans no longer the party more inclined to military interventions and an assertive foreign policy?

New Census Data Show People Go Where the Money Is By Michael Barone

What parts of America have been growing during these years of sluggish economic growth?    

Republicans Must Show Support for Hispanic Dreams By Michael Barone

Rarely does a political party issue a document so scathingly critical of itself and its most recent presidential nominee as the report of the five-member Growth and Opportunity Project of the Republican National Committee.   

Support for Same-sex Marriage Crosses Party Lines By Michael Barone

In an opinion article in the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman announced that he has changed his mind and now supports same-sex marriage.    

Cardinals Would Be Wise to Ignore Journalists' Advice By Michael Barone

The College of Cardinals met in conclave on Tuesday to begin the process of electing a new pope. The cardinals have been getting plenty of advice from American journalists.    

Obama Flails as Republicans Stand Firm on Sequester By Michael Barone

They're flailing. That's the impression I get from watching Barack Obama and his White House over the past week.

Things haven't gone as they expected. The House Republicans were supposed to cave in on the sequester, as they did on the fiscal cliff at the beginning of the year.

They would be so desperate to avoid the sequester's mandatory defense cuts, the theory went, that they would agree to higher taxes (through closing loopholes) on high earners.

Spending Cuts May Be Answer to Slow Economic Growth By Michael Barone

The Dow set a new high on Tuesday, but the larger economy is a different story. What if today's sluggish economic growth turns out to be the new normal? That's the unsettling question asked by some of our most creative economic thinkers.

And the people asking it are not necessarily partisan opponents of the Obama administration. They argue that economic growth rates were disappointing even before the financial collapse and recession of 2007-09.

Take Tyler Cowen, author of the e-book (belatedly published in print) "The Great Stagnation." Economic growth is the product of increases in the labor supply and productivity, he argues uncontroversially.b

For Obama, Politics Always Trumps Governing By Michael Barone

Do we have a president or a perpetual candidate? It's not an entirely unfair question.

Even as Barack Obama was warning of the dreadful consequences of the budget sequester looming on March 1, he spent days away from Washington, apparently out of touch with Democratic as well as Republican congressional leaders.

In the meantime, Obama fans were lobbing verbal grenades at none other than The Washington Post's Bob Woodward.

Discord and Disarray Won't Help Obama Legacy By Michael Barone

Barack Obama is said to believe that he can win the political fight over the sequester. That's certainly the conventional wisdom. 

Calvin Coolidge Gets New Deal in Revisionist History By Michael Barone

For years, most Americans' vision of history has been shaped by the New Deal historians. Writing soon after Franklin Roosevelt's death, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and others celebrated his accomplishments and denigrated his opponents.

They were gifted writers, and many of their books were bestsellers. And they have persuaded many Americans -- Barack Obama definitely included -- that progress means an ever bigger government

GOP Has Trouble Settling on Candidates Who Can Win By Michael Barone

One of the interesting things about recent elections is that Republicans have tended to do better the farther you go down the ballot.

They've lost the presidency twice in a row, and in four of the last six contests. They've failed to win a majority in the U.S. Senate, something they accomplished in five election cycles between 1994 and 2006.

But they have won control of the House of Representatives in the last two elections, and in eight of the last 10 cycles.

And they've been doing better in elections to state legislatures than at any time since the 1920s.