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Political Commentary

Most Recent Releases

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September 8, 2011

One-on-One with Mitt Romney By Lawrence Kudlow

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney joined me in Las Vegas yesterday to discuss his new jobs and economic plan. He also shared some thoughts on his new Republican rival, Texas Governor Rick Perry.

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September 8, 2011

GOP Needs a Front-runner Stronger Than Candidate X By Michael Barone

The race for the Republican presidential nomination finally seems to be gelling. On Wednesday night, candidates debated at the Reagan Library in California -- the first of five scheduled debates over the next five weeks.

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September 7, 2011

Politics Turns Dangerously Rougher By Tony Blankley

In the last few weeks, leading Democrats in Congress have called Tea Party constituents terrorists, said they should go to hell and accused them of wanting to lynch black people.

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September 6, 2011

Beware Easy 'Fixes' for Entitlement Programs By Froma Harrop

Please, everyone, stop monkeying around with Social Security and Medicare. We mean you, Republicans, and you, Democrats. No one's saying that Social Security can't be slightly recalibrated to keep the program on a sound footing or that significant savings can't be found in Medicare waste. We're saying that if Americans are not vigilant, these programs can be undermined by seemingly small "fixes."

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September 5, 2011

Obama Speech Fiasco Shows 'Audacity of Weakness' By Michael Barone

I can't remember a more stunning rebuke of a president by a congressional leader than House Speaker John Boehner's refusal to agree to President Barack Obama's demand -- er, request -- that he summon a joint session of Congress to hear the president's latest speech on the economy at 8 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 7.

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September 3, 2011

A Reagan Moment - Stop Our Economic Decline By Lawrence Kudlow

No sooner had President Obama shocked the political world with a gloomy economic forecast -- projecting 9.1 percent unemployment for this year and a reelection-killing 9 percent for 2012 -- than the dismal August jobs report arrived showing no gain in nonfarm payrolls. That’s right, no gain at all. Private jobs increased a scant 17,000, while hours worked and wages actually declined. Obama’s economic policies have failed.

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September 2, 2011

How To Honor the True Spirit of 9/11: First, Ignore Limbaugh By Joe Conason

If volunteerism is suddenly unpatriotic and even "socialist," that will come as a nasty surprise to many of the Republicans and conservatives who always have supported such efforts, notably including both presidents named Bush.

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September 2, 2011

One Year From Convention, What Does Obama Say? By Thomas F. Schaller

With Barack Obama's 2012 renomination speech in Charlotte now about a year away, here's a very simple political question with a potentially complex answer: In his 2012 bid to win re-election, what messages and themes will the president employ?

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September 1, 2011

The Progressives' Freedom Agenda By Froma Harrop

The third week in July, Republican Gov. Rick Perry said that the U.S. Constitution -- whose 10th Amendment limits federal power -- gives states the right to decide on such matters as abortion and gay marriage. The fourth week in July, the Texan recanted. He now supports a federal ban on abortion and gay marriage. Social conservatives told him they didn't cotton to giving states the right to defy their views on things they care about.

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September 1, 2011

Is The Senate The Republicans' To Lose? By Larry J. Sabato and Kyle Kondik

The recent decision by ex-Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) not to seek the seat of his retiring colleague, Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl, was a big moment for Republicans because it gave them yet another clean shot at a Democratic-held Senate seat. Feingold, still popular despite his reelection loss last year, would have been a favored quasi-incumbent had he run. Instead, his decision is just another piece of miserable news for Democrats in this cycle's race for the Senate.

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August 31, 2011

Obama's Last Economic Policy Chance By Tony Blankley

President Obama's post-Labor Day "jobs" speech will be his last chance to launch an economic policy with any chance of manifesting its effect -- both economic and political -- before the November 2012 elections.

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August 30, 2011

Steve Jobs Told Us What We Wanted By Froma Harrop

"It's not the consumers' job to know what they want" -- Steve Jobs   

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August 29, 2011

Obama and His Rivals Duck the Entitlement Crisis By Michael Barone

Some of society's most intractable problems come not from its failures but from its successes. Often you can't get a good thing without paying a bad price.    

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August 25, 2011

Scott Brown No Shoe-in for Re-election in Mass By Froma Harrop

When Scott Brown was elected U.S. senator from Massachusetts in a special election last year, Republicans rejoiced. They had wrested the Senate seat held by the late liberal icon Edward Kennedy in a Democratic stronghold.

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August 25, 2011

In Ohio, Labor Showdown Looms By Kyle Kondik

In the vengeful world of politics, what goes around often comes around.

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August 25, 2011

Traveling Back to the Future on Intercity Buses By Michael Barone

Not long ago, I wrote about how the private sector outraces and laps government. While governments dither and dispute, the private sector discovers.

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August 23, 2011

'Enforcement' of Immigration Laws Already Here By Froma Harrop

Have you noticed that our immigration laws are finally being enforced? That illegal immigration is way down? That employers hiring undocumented workers are finally being punished? And that this is being done in the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama? If not, take note.

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August 22, 2011

Same-Sex Marriage Moving Toward the Mainstream By Michael Barone

One of the few issues on which opinion has moved left over the last few years is same-sex marriage. In 1996, Gallup found that Americans opposed it by a 68 percent to 27 percent margin. Last May, Gallup found Americans in favor by 53 percent to 45 percent. That's a huge change in 15 years.

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August 19, 2011

In Iowa, It's Up Close and Personal By Kyle Kondik

As the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames was wrapping up Saturday, a reporter rushed onto the floor of Iowa State University's Hilton Coliseum, where the press was filing their stories. She went up to her colleagues with what she said was a new, breaking quote from Michele Bachmann: Bachmann, the reporter said, had just vowed to make Barack Obama a "one-term president."

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August 19, 2011

The Commentary Pages Are No Tea Party By Froma Harrop

Several columnists recently referred to the tea party "patriots" as terrorists. The terrorist label set off a stormy protest among the group's legion of message writers.