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September 12, 2011

Obama Buys the Drinks That Other Guys Pay For By Michael Barone

What is there to say about Barack Obama's speech to Congress Thursday night and the so-called American Jobs Act he said Congress must pass? Several thoughts occur, all starting with P.

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September 10, 2011

Tiny, Targeted, and Temporary That won’t do it, Mr. President By Lawrence Kudlow

Who would have really expected a 300-point stock market plunge on the day after President Obama’s so-called jobs speech?

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September 9, 2011

For the Campaigns, It’s Already About Electoral College Math By Larry J. Sabato

Straw polls, real polls, debates, caucuses and primaries — these comprise the public side of presidential campaigns 14 months before Election Day. But behind the scenes, strategists for President Obama and his major Republican opponents are already focused like a laser on the Electoral College.

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September 9, 2011

No Exit From the Realities of Sept. 11 By Froma Harrop

I remember Sept. 10, too. On that crisp night 10 years ago, friends and I went to hear Les Paul at a basement club in Times Square. The place was packed, and as was my habit in such settings, I quickly noted the fire exits.

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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.