The Supersize Bailout By Debra J. Saunders
The only way Congress could pass a $700 billion economic bailout package last week was to spend an extra $110 billion that the federal government does not have.
Political Commentary
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October 7, 2008
October 5, 2008
Return to Redistricting Sanity By Debra J. Saunders
As reform measures go, Proposition 11 -- the redistricting reform measure -- is hardly a transformational law likely to supercharge activists (of any political stripe) eager to make Sacramento more effective and more accountable to the public.
October 4, 2008
The Year of Campaign Chaos By Michael Barone
Politics ordinarily has a certain predictability. Yet presidential politics this year has often seemed to resemble what science writer James Gleick described in his book "Chaos."
October 3, 2008
The Palin-Biden Verdict By Debra J. Saunders
She passed. He passed. Palin fared better going against Joe Biden than Katie Couric.
October 3, 2008
A Heartbeat Away By Susan Estrich
For all the Republicans' complaints about Gwen Ifill, the moderator's questions were softballs compared to what Sarah Palin faced from Katie Couric. Ifill did not demand that Palin list (OK, how about just name more than one?) Supreme Court decisions. She did not push on the issue of foreign policy experience.
October 3, 2008
Democrats Winning the Registration Wars By Rhodes Cook
The presidential debate season is just underway. The polls are in flux. The issue agenda--which has already shifted in the last month from the Sarah Palin effect to "lipstick on a pig" to the nation's worst economic crisis since the Depression--may shift again before Election Day.
October 3, 2008
There’s More Here than Just the Bailout Package By Lawrence Kudlow
On the morning after Senate passage of the Treasury rescue bill stocks are down 200 points. So there is no silver bullet to our economic woes.
October 2, 2008
Law for Poor Didn't Cause Meltdown By Froma Harrop
Accomplished Googlers can probably find the original talking points off which dozens of conservatives made essentially the same case: The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 caused the financial crisis.
October 2, 2008
Making the Bailout Less Toxic By Joe Conason
The initial failure to pass bailout legislation reflected a political system as bereft of confidence as the financial markets. President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had no credibility to match the arrogance of their initial demand for absolute power in distributing $700 billion of public assistance (the old synonym for welfare).
October 2, 2008
Our Bair Necessity By Lawrence Kudlow
You know what? Hank Paulson may not be the most powerful financial person in the country right now. That honor goes to Sheila Bair, the chairman of the FDIC.
October 2, 2008
Bonanza. Bailout. Bonanza. By Debra J. Saunders
Who do I blame for this financial disaster? Let me count the villains. Start with President Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.
October 2, 2008
Senate Sensibilities - The October 2008 Update By Larry J. Sabato
There are a few changes to report in the nation's Senate races since we last reviewed them in July-almost all of them in favor of the Democratic candidates. Yet the fundamental outlook hasn't changed terribly much. The Democrats will pick up a fair number of seats to pad their slim 51-to-49 margin. They are defending a mere 12 seats, and all their incumbents are running again. The Republicans have drawn the short straw, trying to protect 23 seats with five incumbents retiring in a tough political environment for the GOP.
October 2, 2008
The Importance of Branding: A Commentary
What we've all witnessed this week was more than a failure of Wall Street or of Washington, it was a catastrophic failure of branding.
October 1, 2008
There's Still Time, John McCain By Dick Morris
Trailing six points in Rasmussen’s poll, having fallen four points since he suspended his campaign last week, the question for John McCain is: Haven’t you learned anything?
October 1, 2008
Yet Freedom By Tony Blankley
There is nothing new under the sun. The United States has endured major financial panics in 1837, 1873, 1893, 1907, 1929, 1933 and now
September 30, 2008
Supreme Parody: Biden versus Palin By Debra J. Saunders
Want a preview of Thursday's veepstakes debate between running mates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin? Pick up a copy of Christopher Buckley's latest satirical novel, "Supreme Courtship," that begins when a very unpopular American president decides to tweak Senate solons by nominating to the U.S. Supreme Court America's most popular TV judge, the "sassy, flippant, sexy," no-nonsense, gun-toting hottie from Texas, Pepper Cartwright.
September 29, 2008
The End of the U.S. Financial System as We Know It? By Lawrence Kudlow
A number of Republican House members and staff, along with others who are plugged in, are telling me that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats will come back with a new bill that includes all the left-wing stuff that was scrubbed from the bill that was defeated today in the House.
September 28, 2008
The Sheriff and the Professor By Debra J. Saunders
Before getting to Friday night's debate, let us look at what happened before the debate.Yes, John McCain's suspension of his campaign earlier in the week and call for a delay of Friday's debate were campaign stunts.
September 27, 2008
Are We at an Inflection Point? By Michael Barone
You can sum up much of 20th century history by saying that in the 1930s Americans decided that markets didn't work and government did, and that in the 1970s Americans decided that government didn't work and markets did.
September 26, 2008
A Paulson-Cantor Plan Is a Win-Win for Taxpayers By Lawrence Kudlow
The single-biggest mistake in the Paulson bank-rescue-plan marketing effort has been the failure to explain clearly how taxpayers are going to recoup $700 billion used to buy toxic assets at auction in order to unfreeze the banking system.
