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Political Commentary

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July 24, 2008

Memories of the McCain That Was By Froma Harrop

Too bad there's no time-traveling on Election Day. The more moderate John McCain of eight years ago would make a very attractive candidate, and Barack Obama eight years from now could offer an impressive track record.

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July 24, 2008

The Soldier Voting Scandal By Robert Novak

Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, on July 8 introduced a resolution demanding that the Defense Department better enable U.S. military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections.

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July 23, 2008

Illegal RX? Barack Objects & Dick Answers By Dick Morris

In yesterday's Post, we criticized Barack Obama's plan to "give health insurance to 47 million Americans who are now without coverage." We raised the question: "Are they Americans?" - noting that the 47 million statistic includes those who've come here illegally and are subject to deportation.

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July 22, 2008

Tomatoes and Their Bad Rap By Froma Harrop

"Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?" former Labor Secretary Ray Donovan famously asked after being indicted for mob-related larceny and fraud, and then acquitted of the charges.

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July 21, 2008

Obama's Iraq Spotlight By Robert Novak

I asked one of the Republican Party's smartest, most candid heavy hitters this week whether John McCain really has a chance to defeat Barack Obama in this season of Republican discontent.

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July 19, 2008

Obama's CEOs By Robert Novak

Sen. Barack Obama has been meeting secretly with heavy industry CEOs in Washington to discuss issues that he would face as president.

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July 19, 2008

Ghosts of 1976 in Today's Campaign By Michael Barone

Looking back over the last 40 years, the presidential campaign that most closely resembles this year's is the contest between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in 1976. The Republicans were the incumbent presidential party that year, as they are now, but the Democrats had a big advantage in party identification -- on the order of 49 percent to 26 percent then, far more than today.

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July 18, 2008

What to Say by Susan Estrich

When my father died, so many years ago, my heart was broken. And then it got broken again. In the hours and days after his death, I was comforted by family and friends. But I couldn't help but notice who was missing, people I cared about, people I thought cared about me, who didn't call, didn't come, weren't there. Later, much later, I asked a few of those people why: Where had they been? Why didn't they come? And the answer was always the same.

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July 18, 2008

Does Obama Have a Problem with White Voters? by Alan I. Abramowitz

"Poll Finds Obama's Run Isn't Closing Divide on Race," reads the headline on the front page of the July 16th New York Times.

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July 18, 2008

A New Electorate In The Making? By Rhodes Cook

Speculation abounds these days about whether this fall's presidential election will produce a dramatically different electoral map than the virtually static one of the last two contests.

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July 17, 2008

The Way to Box in Barack in Iraq By Dick Morris

The shadow of the Iraq War still hovers over the 2008 presidential race. Indeed, though it's the issue that made Barack Obama (giving him his running room to Hillary Clinton's left), it may now become his chief vulnerability.

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July 17, 2008

The High Cost of Healthy People by Froma Harrop

The word "prevention" has a nice ring in any health-care discussion. Thus, many politicians argue that programs to stop smoking, improve diets and otherwise promote wholesome living save money in the long run. A healthier population at less cost --sounds like a win-win situation.

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July 17, 2008

The Saga of Fannie and Freddie by Lawrence Kudlow

"Too big to fail" was the verdict in the U.S. Treasury decision to backstop mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But is the taxpayer risk of moral hazard still as big as ever?

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July 17, 2008

They Must Be Joking By Joe Conason

An expression of outrage is the highest compliment that politicians can bestow upon a satirist. So when spokesmen for Barack Obama and John McCain echo each other and many another stuffed shirt in complaining about the current cover of The New Yorker, the magazine's editors and cartoonist Barry Blitt should accept such remarks in precisely that spirit.

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July 17, 2008

Cost of Cronyism By Robert Novak

As financial storm signals appeared the last 18 months, there were Bush officials who urged drastic reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But, according to internal government sources, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson objected because it would look "too political."

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July 17, 2008

Why the Race is Tied By Dick Morris

After almost six weeks of a constant Obama lead, generally in the five to seven-point range, Scott Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll records two consecutive days of a tie race (July 12-13) and a one-point Obama lead on July 14. What happened to the Democrat’s lead?

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July 16, 2008

Goodbye, Tony Snow: Writer, Father, Friend By Laura Mazer

Before he was a radio host, or a network news anchor, or the White House Press secretary, Tony Snow was a writer. He started his career as an editorial writer and editor for newspapers such as The Virginian-Pilot, The Washington Times and The Detroit News, eventually becoming a nationally syndicated op-ed columnist, with more than 200 newspapers publishing his commentary every week.

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July 15, 2008

Mortgage Scandal a Bipartisan Affair By Froma Harrop

To borrow a Barack Obama line, "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America, there's a United States of America." That's true -- and everyone in it tried to make a quick buck off the housing bubble.

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July 14, 2008

Oil Paranoia By Robert Novak

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, back from the Fourth of July break, last week delivered a typical harangue on Republican obstructionism and Democratic virtue that included a promise: By week's end, he would show Republicans his proposal to deal with "this speculation thing" that he calls the root cause of $4-a-gallon gasoline.

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July 12, 2008

Goodbye, Joe? By Robert Novak

Despite assurances to the contrary from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic insiders are certain Sen. Joseph Lieberman next year will be kicked out of the party's caucus and lose his Senate chairmanship if he addresses the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as planned.