What If They Held an Election and Nobody Came? by Michael Barone
That's more or less what happened last Sunday in Mexico, at least as far as most American journalists (including me) are concerned.
Commentary by Michael Barone
Most Recent Releases
July 5, 2012
July 3, 2012
Obamacare Survives, but Political Playing Field Has Changed by Michael Barone
The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision upholding the Obama administration's health care legislation was a victory for the president, his administration and his party. Their most ambitious legislative achievement has not been nullified, and they are not left in obvious disarray.
July 2, 2012
Obamacare Survives, but Political Playing Field Has Changed by Michael Barone
The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision upholding the Obama administration's health care legislation was a victory for the president, his administration and his party. Their most ambitious legislative achievement has not been nullified, and they are not left in obvious disarray.
June 28, 2012
Supreme Court Sets Stage for Immigration Reform by Michael Barone
The Supreme Court's decision announced Monday in the Arizona v. United States case opens the way for sensible reform of our immigration laws.
June 25, 2012
Obama Backers Use Race as Alibi for Ebbing Support By Michael Barone
As Barack Obama's lead over Mitt Romney in the polls narrows, and his presumed fundraising advantage seems about to become a disadvantage, it's alibi time for some of his backers.
His problem, they say, is that some voters don't like him because he's black. Or they don't like his policies because they don't like having a black president.
June 21, 2012
Romney Needs Big Share of White Working-class Vote By Michael Barone
What's up with the white working class vote? For years, the horny-handed blue-collar worker was the star of the New Deal Democratic coalition. It was for him, and his wife and family, that Democrats taxed the rich, invented Social Security and supported militant labor unions.
June 18, 2012
'Angry' Money Gives Funding Edge to GOP and Romney By Michael Barone
There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth as, in the spring, it appeared that forces supporting Mitt Romney would be able to raise about as much money as those supporting Barack Obama. There's even more now that it seems likely that the pro-Romney side will raise and spend more money than the pro-Obama side.
June 14, 2012
Obama Listens to Rich Liberals, at His Own Peril By Michael Barone
Who does Barack Obama listen to?
Not Republican politicians. Evidently weeks go by between his conversations with Speaker John Boehner, who determines what legislation comes to the House floor.
Not Democratic politicians. We have it on good authority that he seldom talks to Democratic members of Congress. Lyndon Johnson used to be on the phone constantly, cajoling and inveigling but also on the alert for shifts in opinion.
June 11, 2012
A Good Day for the GOP in Wisconsin and California By Michael Barone
We pundits have been busy crunching the results in last Tuesday's Wisconsin recall election and have noted that the public-employee unions sustained a huge defeat.
June 7, 2012
Walker Changes Attitudes on Public Employee Unions By Michael Barone
The results are in, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has beaten Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the recall election. That's in line with pre-election polling, though not the Election Day exit poll. Even before the results came in, we knew one thing, and that is that the Democrats and the public employee unions had already lost the battle of ideas over the issue that sparked the recall, Walker's legislation to restrict the bargaining powers of public employee unions.
June 4, 2012
Are We at a Demographic Inflection Point? By Michael Barone
Demographic forecasts generally take the form of predicting more of the same. Old people have been moving to Florida for the past several years, and old people will move there for the next few years. Immigrants have been streaming in from Mexico, and they will continue to do so. You get the idea.
May 31, 2012
Obama Campaign May Be Fooling Itself By Michael Barone
"Axelrod is endeavoring not to panic." So reads a sentence in John Heilemann's exhaustive article on Barack Obama's campaign in this week's New York magazine.
May 28, 2012
Obama's Bain Attacks Could Backfire By Michael Barone
The ham-handed Barack Obama campaign attack ads on Mitt Romney's former firm Bain Capital have drawn a lot of ire from other Democrats.
May 21, 2012
Obama Pursues Higher Tax Rates, Growth Be Damned By Michael Barone
In the run-up to this weekend's G-8 summit at Camp David, journalists have unfavorably compared European "austerity" with Barack Obama's economic policies.
May 17, 2012
Recent News Could Cause Panic for Obama Campaign By Michael Barone
Is it panic time at Obama headquarters in Chicago? You might get that impression from watching events -- and the polls -- over the past few weeks.
May 14, 2012
Three Different Ways to Look at the 2012 Campaign By Michael Barone
Last week, I wrote about the standings in the presidential race and said it looked like a long, hard slog through about a dozen clearly identified target states, much like the contests in 2000 and 2004. Call it the 2000/2004 long, hard slog scenario.
May 10, 2012
Long, Hard Slog Ahead in Presidential Race By Michael Barone
Just as the political air is filled with talk of the inevitability of Barack Obama's re-election -- we are told that the kids at his Chicago headquarters are brimming with confidence -- in come some poll numbers showing him behind.
May 7, 2012
Racial Preferences: Unfair and Ridiculous By Michael Barone
Washington Post editorial writer and liberal blogger Jonathan Capehart is puzzled. Why does the "non-issue" of Harvard Law professor and Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's Native American ancestry "require so much attention?" he asked last week.
May 3, 2012
Obama's Chicago Politics: Thuggery Not Civility By Michael Barone
It has been reported that the Obama campaign this year, as in 2008, has disabled or chosen not to use AVS in screening contributions made by credit card. That doesn't sound very important. But it's evidence of a modus operandi that strikes me as thuggish.
April 30, 2012
Obama Losing Rock-star Status Among Young Voters By Michael Barone
Last week, Barack Obama delivered speeches at universities in Chapel Hill, N.C., Iowa City, Iowa, and Boulder, Colo. The trip was, press secretary Jay Carney assured us, official government business, not political campaigning.
