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August 10, 2009

Government Health Care in Stealth Mode By Michael Barone

One video is worth a thousand words (or, as in this column, about 730). The video in question, put together by a group called Verum Serum, shows public statements by three advocates of single-payer (government monopoly) health insurance explaining that a health care bill with a "government option" would move America toward a single-payer government health care system. You may not have heard of the first two, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and professor Jacob Hacker. But you have heard of the third, President Barack Obama.

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August 9, 2009

Rally Round the Flag By Debra J. Saunders

Imagine it's four years ago and an aide to President Bush posted a blog on the Whitehouse.gov website that bemoaned Internet criticism of the Iraq war, then continued: "These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversations.

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August 7, 2009

Chief Bratton By Susan Estrich

Last month, when reports surfaced that Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton and his wife, Rikki Klieman, were putting their house on the market, people in L.A. started getting nervous. The chief is in the second year of his second five-year term. It is the first time in the 20-plus years I've lived here that no one was trying to show him the door.

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August 7, 2009

What Are the Birthers Really After? By Joe Conason

On Aug. 4, President Barack Obama celebrated the anniversary of his birth, an event that occurred 48 years ago in the state of Hawaii. This is an indisputable fact, as sane critics on the right, such as the editors of the National Review and the veteran pundit Patrick Buchanan, acknowledge.

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August 7, 2009

Hazardous to America's Health By Debra J. Saunders

You know that American voters aren't feeling the love for ObamaCare when House members hold town-hall meetings in their districts, only to be heckled and booed.

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August 6, 2009

No, Red States Are Not Better Than Blue States By Froma Harrop

In an entertaining but silly political game, partisans score points by comparing statistics of so-called red states and blue states. Conservative Ross Douthat does that in a recent column, "Blue-State Blues."

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August 6, 2009

Vote for the Clunkers By Lawrence Kudlow

As a free-market capitalist who does not believe in artificial spending and pump-priming from Uncle Sam, I'm going to eat a little crow with the following statement: At this moment in history, if we're going to use fiscal stimulus as Washington insists, I favor extending the cash-for-clunkers car-rebate program.

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August 6, 2009

Obama Would Stifle Military and Medical Creativity By Michael Barone

We Americans tend to take the great strengths of our country for granted. In the hubbub of political debate, we concentrate on things that are allegedly wrong with America and lose sight of our great achievements.

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August 5, 2009

Health Politics Quagmire By Tony Blankley

The president's health care initiative is vulnerable to defeat (and the high esteem in which the public generally has held him is in jeopardy) because of unforced errors on his part deriving from the emerging legislation's failing to carry out his stated policy and because of his political and policy responses to that problem.

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August 5, 2009

Happy Endings By Susan Estrich

I know.

The North Koreans are using President Bill Clinton's visit for all their own reasons. Attention world: Here we are, our leader is alive, Bill Clinton is paying his due.

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August 4, 2009

Cash for Clunkers Means 'Ca-Ching' for Detroit By Froma Harrop

This is what I told my friend Frank: Under the "cash for clunkers" program, you could get more money for your '93 Mercury Grand Marquis than it was worth -- up to $4,500 if you used it to buy a new vehicle with much better gas mileage.

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August 3, 2009

Beware the High Cost of Unintended Consequences By Michael Barone

A teachable moment last Thursday night -- no, I'm not referring to the beer-in-the-garden session featuring Professor Henry Gates and Sgt. James Crowley and the shirtsleeved president and vice president. We didn't learn anything more about the Gatesgate controversy except that only the least experienced of these four men -- Sgt. Crowley -- was the only one willing to speak at length before the cameras.

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August 2, 2009

Keep Life Without Parole, Life After Death By Debra J. Saunders

Because courts can sentence murderers to life without parole, why not get rid of the death penalty? It's a frequent question posed by readers and advocates who oppose the death penalty. For years, my answer has been: If death-penalty opponents ever succeed in eliminating capital punishment, their next target for elimination will be life without parole --or as lawyers call it, LWOP.

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August 1, 2009

Are The Top Journalists Insiders Or Outsiders? By Larry Sabato

Something truly astonishing appeared in a Washington Post column on July 25, 2009. It was written by Frank Mankiewicz, former press secretary to Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) and the man who is perhaps most widely remembered for announcing RFK's death in June 1968. Mankiewicz was also the political director of Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern's losing 1972 campaign. The column contained a two-fold revelation about the just-deceased Walter Cronkite, the longtime CBS News anchorman. Here are the disclosures, in Mankiewicz' own words:

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July 31, 2009

Lieutenant Governor Mania By Larry Sabato

In the mid-nineteenth century, a delegate to a Virginia constitutional convention argued against the office of lieutenant governor, calling it, "the fifth wheel of a wagon, and much more useless." Worse has been said about the vice presidency over the centuries. Franklin Roosevelt's first VP, John Nance Garner, declared his position was not worth a pitcher of warm spit. He actually cited another bodily excretion, but the press of the day cleaned up the language.

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July 31, 2009

No Thin Line Between Murder and Hate By Debra J. Saunders

When the Senate passed a federal hate-crimes measure by a 63-28 earlier this month, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., proclaimed, "This legislation will help to address the serious and growing problem of hate crimes."

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July 31, 2009

Republicans Looking Crazy on Health Care By Froma Harrop

Some attacks on health care reform are so ludicrous that you don't think they need answering. A recent example invokes an evil plot to save money by knocking off the elderly. Though nuts, the charges have gotten so much attention that someone has to actually say, "No, they're not killing Grandma."

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July 30, 2009

Are Republicans the Economic Pessimists? By Lawrence Kudlow

Are Republicans too pessimistic about the economy? I put this question to Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., this week, and it would be hard to describe his response as optimistic. The senator trash-talked Vice President Joe Biden's recent defense of the stimulus in The New York Times, and he warned that any economic rebound will be short-lived because of the runaway spending-and-borrowing plans of the Obama administration.

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July 30, 2009

A Time, Again, for Bill Clinton By Joe Conason

In his struggle to change the nation's health care system, Barack Obama again faces certain obstacles that almost stopped his amazing march to the presidency. Aside from the Washington chattering class and the right-wing media, which always oppose progressive reform, Mr. Obama is losing his grip on the middle class and working families in swing states. He is losing Democratic senators and members of Congress in places like Florida and Arkansas. He is losing the propaganda war with his professorial style of explanation.

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July 30, 2009

Obama Has Aura but Doesn't Know How To Legislate By Michael Barone

Aura dazzles, but argument gets things done. Consider the debate on the Democrats' health care bill and the increasingly negative response to Barack Obama's performance.

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