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June 21, 2016

A Tale of Two Elections: Clinton’s 2016 Primary Performance Versus 2008 By Geoffrey Skelley

One striking aspect of the Democratic primary race was the stark role-reversal in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 performance compared with her narrow loss to Barack Obama in 2008’s Democratic nomination battle. Whereas she ran against Obama in 2008, she positioned herself as his successor at every turn during her race against insurgent Bernie Sanders in 2016. It’s very easy to see the effect of this in a county-level map of the change in her performance from eight years ago to this cycle, as shown by the coloring in Map 1 below (a choropleth map). (We recommend clicking on the map for a much larger version.)

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June 21, 2016

Why We Have -- and Probably Will Keep Having -- Sluggish Job Growth By Michael Barone

Why has the American economy had such sluggish job creation and economic growth? That's a pretty fundamental question, and one for which most conventional economists have had unsatisfying answers.   

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June 21, 2016

Trolling for War with Russia By Patrick J. Buchanan

Some 50 State Department officials have signed a memo calling on President Obama to launch air and missile strikes on the Damascus regime of Bashar Assad.

A "judicious use of stand-off and air weapons," they claim, "would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process."

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June 21, 2016

The Gun Control Farce by Thomas Sowell

Surely murder is a serious subject, which ought to be examined seriously. Instead, it is almost always examined politically in the context of gun control controversies, with stock arguments on both sides that have remained the same for decades. And most of those arguments are irrelevant to the central question: Do tighter gun control laws reduce the murder rate?

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June 18, 2016

To Win Bernie Voters, Hillary Must Make Big Changes By Ted Rall

Unless you follow politics closely, you could be forgiven for thinking that Hillary Clinton has locked up the Democratic presidential nomination. This is not true. She still doesn't have the requisite number of delegates. That could, and probably will, happen next month when her lead in superdelegates puts her over the top at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia -- when the superdelegates actually, you know, cast their actual votes.

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June 17, 2016

Brexit Causes Elites Angst -- But Britain May Leave EU Anyway By Michael Barone

"Market Angst as U.K. Edges to Exit," proclaims the headline on The Wall Street Journal's lead story. The exit referred to is Britain's departure from the European Union, a move that will be mandated if a majority votes "leave" rather than "remain" in the national referendum next Thursday.  

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June 17, 2016

Is Islamic Terror America's Future? By Patrick J. Buchanan

If the cliches hold -- nothing succeeds like success, the past is prologue -- this generation will not likely see an end to the jihadist terror that was on display at Pulse in Orlando on Sunday.

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June 16, 2016

As Deadline Approaches, Rubio Ponders. But his re-entry would not dramatically change the Senate calculus By Kyle Kondik

The horrifying massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando forces us to ponder whether it will somehow change the national electoral calculus. The short answer is that it’s too soon to tell, but the grim reality is that the frequency of mass murder in the United States — committed by ISIS-inspired lone wolves or others — suggests that this, terrifyingly, might not be the last major spasm of violence that takes place between now and the election. How candidates react could have consequences in November, although it’s also easy to overstate the potential impact of jarring events on the choices that voters make. After all, the American electorate is partisan and the vote choices for the vast majority of them don’t waver much throughout the campaign.

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June 15, 2016

Florida: America's Jihad Playground By Michelle Malkin

The home of the "Happiest Place on Earth" has been breeding killer jihadists and Muslim zealots for years.   

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June 15, 2016

My Lunch with Hillary by John Stossel

I had lunch with Hillary Clinton.

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June 14, 2016

Will Orlando Change Anything? By Thomas Sowell

However great the shock of the massacre in Orlando, it is only a matter of time before we start hearing again the fact-free dogma that "diversity is our strength."  

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June 14, 2016

Islam & the West: Irreconcilable Conflict? by Patrick J. Buchanan

On Saturday night, Omar Mateen was a loner and a loser.

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June 14, 2016

Possible Errors in Exit Polls Suggest More Election Surprises Ahead By Michael Barone

Are the exit polls, on which just about every elections analyst has relied, wrong? That's a question raised by New York Times Upshot writer Nate Cohn -- a question whose answers have serious implications for how you look at the 2016 general election.

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June 14, 2016

Obama whiffs on national security, blames guns By Charles Hurt

Well, thank goodness we have President Obama on the case. He will get to the bottom of it and finally put a stop to all this murder, madness and mayhem.

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June 11, 2016

How the Media Manipulated the Democratic Primary By Ted Rall

Though it might not always seem like it, the news media is composed of human beings. Humans aren't, can't be and possibly shouldn't be objective. Still, there's a reasonable expectation among consumers of political news that journalists of all political stripes strive to be as objective as possible.

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June 10, 2016

Bernie Sanders Wins, Even While Losing By Michael Barone

Bernie Sanders is not going gently into that good night, at least not yet.

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June 10, 2016

Why Trump Must Not Apologize By Patrick J. Buchanan

"Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl."

Donald Trump has internalized the maxim Benjamin Jowett gave to his students at Balliol who would soon be running the empire.

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June 9, 2016

Hillary, the blushing bride, stalks history on her husband’s coattails By Charles Hurt

NEW YORK — Hillary wore white.

Stepping into the klieg lights, she was — finally! — the blushing bride of the Democratic Party. Smiling, waving, tilting her head, clutching her fist to her chest as she surveyed her adorable fans. She stepped to the lectern and gazed lovingly into the teleprompter.

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June 9, 2016

Not Trump or Clinton By John Stossel

Finally! Voters have another choice. The Libertarian Party nominated two socially tolerant but fiscally conservative former governors, Gary Johnson and Bill Weld.

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June 9, 2016

House 2016: The Balancing Act: How expectations of a Clinton victory could hinder Democrats down-ballot By Kyle Kondik

While Hillary Clinton still leads Donald Trump in most national polling, her margin is not what it once was: She’s up about five points in the HuffPost Pollster average, down from nine points in mid-April, and she’s up just two points in the RealClearPolitics average, also down from nine points seven weeks ago. Now that she’s the presumptive nominee, Clinton will hope to restore those numbers to their prior luster.

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