Big Labor Is Humbled by Blanche Lincoln's Win by Michael Barone
How bad a defeat did labor unions suffer when Sen. Blanche Lincoln defeated their candidate and won the Arkansas Democratic runoff last week?
Commentary by Michael Barone
Most Recent Releases
June 14, 2010
June 7, 2010
Oil Slick, Joblessness May Stymie Dems' Rebound By Michael Barone
Republicans are encountering some speed bumps on what they hope is the road to victory in the November elections. Their candidates for Republican open Senate seats in Ohio and Missouri are running no better than even in recent polls. The independent candidacy of Gov. Charlie Crist is threatening Marco Rubio's bid to hold the Republican Senate seat in Florida.
June 3, 2010
Obama's 'Chicago Way' Plunders the Private Sector By Michael Barone
An interesting thing about Barack Obama is that he chose, on two occasions, to live in Chicago -- even though he didn't grow up there, had no family ties there, never went to school there.
May 31, 2010
Oil Spill Tars Dems' Reputation for Competence by Michael Barone
Obama Struggling to Show He's in Control," reads the headline on The Washington Post's story on Barack Obama's Thursday press conference, where most of the questions were about the Gulf oil spill. "Defensive, unauthoritative and equivocal," wrote Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford of Obama's performance. "He came across as a beleaguered bureaucrat in damage control."
May 27, 2010
Down in the Polls, Dems at War With Themselves by Michael Barone
Intraparty civil war. It's a story line journalists often employ, though usually about only one party, the Republicans.
May 24, 2010
The Gathering Revolt Against Government Spending By Michael Barone
This month, three members of Congress have been beaten in their bids for re-election -- a Republican senator from Utah, a Democratic congressman from West Virginia and a Republican-turned-Democrat senator from Pennsylvania. Their records and their curricula vitae are different. But they all have one thing in common: They are members of an appropriations committee.
May 20, 2010
The Golden Age of Centrism Wasn't So Golden By Michael Barone
Laments about polarization are filling the air -- or at least that part of the air in which friends and family members have political discussions. It has been widely noted that every Republican member of Congress has a voting record to the right of every Democrat and every Democrat is to the left of every Republican. There is no partisan overlap anymore.
May 17, 2010
An Obvious but Muzzled Truth: Islamist Terrorism By Michael Barone
If you want to watch someone squirm, take a look at the two-minute videotape of Attorney General Eric Holder dodging Republican Rep. Lamar Smith's question of whether "radical Islam" motivated the Times Square bomber.
May 13, 2010
Obama and Kagan Whisper in the Faculty Lounge By Michael Barone
Professor chooses professor. That's one headline you could write about Barack Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
May 11, 2010
In Britain, a Cautionary Tale for U.S. Parties By Michael Barone
LONDON -- We Americans may have declared our independence from Britain in 1776, but there are still similar rhythms in British and American politics. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan both came to power amid the ruins of the 1970s and restored their nations' economies and spirits in the 1980s. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair both developed "third-way" politics that transformed unelectable left parties into center-left political colossuses in the 1990s.
May 7, 2010
In Downcast Britain, a Pox on All Three Parties By Michael Barone
British voters go to the polls today, and it appears likely that they will boot out the party in power for only the second time in 31 years. Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives ousted a Labor government in May 1979, and Tony Blair's "New Labor" party ousted the Conservatives in May 1997.
May 3, 2010
The Left Loses Its Way by Abandoning 'Third Way' By Michael Barone
Left parties are in trouble in the Anglosphere. Here in America, Democrats are doing worse in the polls than at any time in the last 50 years.
April 29, 2010
After Policy Stumbles, Obama Turns to Politics By Michael Barone
Setting legislative priorities has been one of the chief tasks of American presidents for the past century. Sometimes, they concentrate on changing public policy. At other times, they highlight issues for political reasons, with an eye to the next election.
April 26, 2010
Hold the VAT -- Taxpayers May Prefer Spending Cuts By Michael Barone
The Obama Democrats' stealth strategy for increasing the size and scope of the federal government is well underway, despite huge voter backlash. Federal spending has been increased from a 30-year average of 21 percent of gross domestic product to 25 percent, and a bipartisan commission tasked with reducing the deficit may recommend tax increases.
April 22, 2010
Gangster Government Becomes a Long-Running Series By Michael Barone
Almost a year ago, in a Washington Examiner column on the Chrysler bailout, I reflected on the Obama administration's decision to force bondholders to accept 33 cents on the dollar on secured debts while giving United Auto Worker retirees 50 cents on the dollar on unsecured debts.
April 19, 2010
Tea Partiers Fight Obama's Culture of Dependence By Michael Barone
"Do you realize," CNN's Susan Roesgen asked a man at the April 15, 2009, tea party in Chicago, "that you're eligible for a $400 credit?" When the man refused to drop his "drop socialism" sign, she went on, "Did you know that the state of Lincoln gets 50 billion out of the stimulus?"
April 15, 2010
GOP Should Push Tough Regulation of Wall Street By Michael Barone
It's not hard to predict how the coming fight over financial regulation legislation will be framed by most of the mainstream media. Democrats like Christopher Dodd, the sponsor of the pending Senate bill, will be portrayed as cracking down on greedy Wall Street operators. Republicans will be portrayed as letting Wall Street operators have their way.
April 12, 2010
Obamacare Will Be at Center of High Court Hearing By Michael Barone
The retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens means that in coming months we'll have another hearing on a Supreme Court nominee. But it's not likely to be the sort of hearing we got used to in the two decades after Edward Kennedy declared war on Robert Bork in 1987.
April 9, 2010
Losing the Stomach for Humanitarian Interventions By Michael Barone
Over the last two decades, the United States has intervened militarily in several countries to protect human rights. Now, writes historian Mark Mazower in World Affairs, "the concept of humanitarian intervention is dying if not dead." And a good thing, too, he concludes.
April 5, 2010
Under Obama, a diminished sense of opportunity By Michael Barone
Last summer, I wrote a column framed as a letter to a young Obama voter. It concluded: "You want policies that will enable you to choose your future. Obama backs policies that would let centralized authorities choose much of your future for you. Is this the hope and change you want?"
