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Political Commentary

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September 26, 2008

Remembering Alcee Hastings By Susan Estrich

Alcee Hastings used to be a federal judge. Then he got impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. Now he's a congressman from Florida. People have a right to vote for whomever they want, even one of the six federal judges in America ever to be removed by Congress.

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September 26, 2008

Voters, Start Your Engines By Cordel Faulk

Presidential debate season is upon us. That means John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin are traveling around the country with huge binders of prep materials under their arms---and dreams of an eight-year relationship with the Secret Service dancing in their heads.

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September 25, 2008

Bailing Out the Bailout By Debra J. Saunders

Until Wednesday afternoon, when GOP presidential nominee John McCain announced that he was heading to Washington to work with congressional leaders and the Bushies to craft a better bailout bill, both McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama clearly had believed that the last place they wanted to be seen was in Washington.

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September 25, 2008

Louisiana Politics: Undone by the Wind By Froma Harrop

BATON ROUGE, La. -- I assume that someone has removed the crushed blue Hyundai from the parking lot of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. Two days after Hurricane Ike, the car was there with a tree trunk still embedded in its roof. And Ike was a pussycat next to Gustav, which had pummeled the area two weeks before.

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September 25, 2008

A Special Prosecutor for Wall Street By Joe Conason

Debate over how to resolve the nation's financial emergency is taking a salutary direction for the moment, as politicians of both parties refuse to be herded by the Bush White House into a ridiculous $700-billion swindle.

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September 25, 2008

Give Paulson a Clean Bill By Lawrence Kudlow

Honestly. A clean bill as requested by Treasury man Henry Paulson, along with John McCain’s oversight board, can help fix the credit-crunch problem. It needn’t be this hard.

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September 24, 2008

Where Did Bill O'Reilly Come From? By Dick Morris

Before or after every speech I ever give, somebody asks me: "What is O'Reilly really like?"

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September 24, 2008

The Man Who Never Was By Tony Blankley

The mainstream media have gone over the line and are now straight-out propagandists for the Obama campaign.

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September 24, 2008

George Bush's Final Moment By Susan Estrich

It takes a major crisis for a lame duck president, especially one whose popularity is as low as George W. Bush's, to take center stage during a hard-fought presidential campaign.

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September 23, 2008

Wall Street Did What Came Naturally By Froma Harrop

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the Wall Street executives you see hanging their heads have been called many things, chief among them "greedy." But in deciding their guilt, you must consider mitigating circumstances. Compare these two sets of circumstances.

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September 23, 2008

Trillion Dollar Baby By Debra J. Saunders

I understood the Bush administration's decision to promise up to $30 billion to facilitate the fire sale of Bear Stearns. I got the administration's decision to spend as much as $200 billion to stabilize mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are worth about $5 trillion. Ditto the $85 billion federal bailout of AIG.

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September 22, 2008

How McCain Can Prosper in a Bad Economy By Dick Morris

But he has to fuse the issues of the economy and taxes — to show how Barack Obama’s tax proposals would lead to a catastrophic implosion of the nation’s capital base.

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September 20, 2008

Never Sell America Short By Lawrence Kudlow

We can fix this. If nothing else, that's the message I hope readers take away from this column. Of course, the "this" is the run on the world banking system. Stock markets have plunged globally, gold prices have shot up, and U.S. Treasury bill rates have plummeted to 10 basis points, the lowest since the 1950s.

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September 20, 2008

The Old Economic Rule Doesn't Work By Michael Barone

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, the 500-point plunge of the Dow, the government takeover of AIG -- all these have got the presidential candidates talking about the economy. But both Barack Obama and John McCain have been vague about their solutions. And for good reason.

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September 18, 2008

McCain and the Meltdown By Froma Harrop

"The fundamentals of our economy are strong," John McCain said as Wall Street went into white-knuckle panic over diving investor confidence. Does he believe that? It doesn't really matter, because the Republican has outsourced his economic policy to the ideologues whose opposition to regulations brought the financial markets to their knees.

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September 18, 2008

Meet the New Map--Same as the Old Map (Almost) By Larry Sabato

In early summer, the Crystal Ball took its first look at the likely November 4th Electoral College map. Our assessment was that, in the College at least, the contest appeared close. John McCain had 174 solid or likely electoral votes to Barack Obama's 200 solid or likely. The lead switched once we added in states that were "leaning" to one or the other: McCain had 227 votes to Obama's 212, with 270 needed for election. Fully 99 electoral votes in eight other states (CO, MI, NH, NV, OH, PA, VA, and WI) remained in the toss-up category.

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September 18, 2008

The Hyperbole Market -- It's the Worst By Debra J. Saunders

John McCain was right when he said Monday that despite the bad news about Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy and AIG trolling for help from Uncle Sam, "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." As politicians running for the White House learn, honesty is a commodity best used sparingly on the campaign trail.

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September 18, 2008

The "Reform" McCain Wants to Forget By Joe Conason

With the markets in frightening turmoil and the public outraged by financial irresponsibility and excessive greed, John McCain has suddenly rediscovered the importance of strong, watchful government.

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September 18, 2008

Paulson’s Courageous Action By Lawrence Kudlow

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is the man of the hour. This weekend he drew a clear line in the sand: no more federal bailouts. Not for Lehman Brothers. Not for global insurer AIG. Not for Merrill Lynch. Not for anyone, at least as of this writing.

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September 17, 2008

First Dude By Susan Estrich

First Dude. That's what they call him in Alaska. It's OK. Todd's Ok. Whatever. He smiles at Greta Van Susteren. Not a touch of noblesse. More like plan old politesse.