Back to the Future: Obama's Foreign Policy By Michael Barone
As Barack Obama finishes up his second major foreign tour, a pattern in his approach to foreign policy seems to be emerging.
Political Commentary
Most Recent Releases
April 21, 2009
April 19, 2009
Left Coast Tea Party By Debra J. Saunders
Last Wednesday, conservatives held coast-to-coast "TEA parties" designed to send the message to Washington and state governments that the partiers feel "taxed enough already." The exercise struck me as more than a little out of touch with the political realities of President Barack Obama's
April 17, 2009
Political Talk By Susan Estrich
Listen to Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that."
April 17, 2009
Independent Voters and the President: Myths and Realities By Alan Abramowitz
The importance of partisanship in contemporary American politics is widely recognized. Among the public as well as political leaders, party divisions run deep and it is increasingly clear that the arrival of a new President in Washington has done little to change that fundamental reality.
April 17, 2009
Obama and the Redefinition of Presidential Coattails By Rhodes Cook
Barack Obama showed considerable vote-getting ability in last fall's presidential election, with a clear-cut win in both popular and electoral votes. But when it came to presidential coattails, his were of the same modest length of many of his immediate predecessors.
April 16, 2009
A State-ly March Toward Gay Marriage By Froma Harrop
This has been a month of forward leaps in the campaign for gay-marriage -- or so it is said. The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, providing a toehold in the heartland.
April 16, 2009
On Climate and Health, Beware of Easy Formulas By Michael Barone
Beware of geeks bearing formulas. That's the lesson most of us have learned from the financial crisis. The "quants" who devised the risk models that induced so many financial institutions to buy mortgage-backed securities thought they had reduced risk down to zero.
April 16, 2009
TARP the Life Insurers? This Is Nuts By Lawrence Kudlow
Is bailout nation about to strike again? Sure looks like it. According to a bunch of front-page news stories, life-insurance companies are about to get TARPed. This is nuts.
April 16, 2009
Homeland Insecurity By Debra J. Saunders
On April 7, the Department of Homeland Security distributed a counterterrorism assessment to local law-enforcement types entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." The nine-page paper has many on the right questioning what is going on in Washington.
April 16, 2009
Obama's Cup of Tea By Joe Conason
If conservative leaders no longer even try to offer serious solutions to national problems, nobody should underestimate their capacity or their will to mobilize angry Americans.
April 15, 2009
A Nuclear Talibanistan? By Tony Blankley
Our view of Pakistan's role in the war in Afghanistan has undergone an ominous but necessary series of shifts. At the outset of the war, in October 2001, Pakistan correctly was seen as a necessary ally -- both politically and geographically -- as it was the primary conduit for our entry and lines of communication into Afghanistan.
April 15, 2009
Bailing Out The Taxpayers For A Change By Howard Rich
Sometimes it’s important to try and fathom the unfathomable. For example, why is “thirteen” considered an unlucky number? Why do pigs continue to fly in Washington D.C.
April 15, 2009
The Second Time Around By Susan Estrich
"I can't say that I know her," the forewoman of Phil Spector's jury told the press after it was over, referring to Spector's victim, Lana Clarkson. Both Clarkson and Spector were on trial for the second time, after the first jury to consider murder charges against the music producer deadlocked 10-2 in favor of conviction.
April 14, 2009
Economic Anxiety: Like Rats in a Cage By Froma Harrop
One day last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 246 points. On CNBC, Jim Cramer punched the Sousa March button. NPR's "Marketplace" boomed, "We're in the Money."
April 14, 2009
Some Get the Tea, Others Get the Bag By Debra J. Saunders
In December 1773, Bostonians held a Tea Party in Boston Harbor to protest excessive British taxes. "No taxation without representation" was their message.
April 12, 2009
Who Wants To Free Mumia Now? By Debra J. Saunders
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal seeking a new trial for death-row inmate and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in the 1981 shooting of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
April 11, 2009
About What Happened in Jerusalem By Susan Estrich
I was in elementary school in Swampscott, Mass., when I learned that the Jews had killed Christ. Or so we were told, right around this time of year. Most of the kids in the class just nodded when they heard. It seems they already knew. I was shocked.
April 11, 2009
Unions Can't Move the World By Michael Barone
If you have a long enough lever, you can move the world. That's an old saying attributed to Archimedes. But what Archimedes didn't add is that a long enough lever may splinter in your hands if the material is not strong enough. You may end up not moving the world where you wanted it to go and finding yourself in a position you didn't want to be in.
April 9, 2009
Diverging Coalitions: The Transformation of the American Electorate By Alan Abramowitz
The election of America's first black president has been widely hailed as an historic event. However, much less attention has been paid to the demographic trends which made that event possible and which will continue to affect elections and politics in the United States far into the future. In this article I examine those trends and their consequences for the American party system.
April 9, 2009
The Return of the Fuzzies? By Debra J. Saunders
In the 1990s, the Math Wars pitted two philosophies against each other. One side argued for content-based standards -- that elementary school students must memorize multiplication tables by third grade. The other side argued for students to discover math, unfettered by "drill and kill" exercises.
