Government Protects the Little Guy by Froma Harrop
Over a century ago, William Jennings Bryan presided over mass rallies of mostly middle-class Americans angry about economic inequities.
Political Commentary
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September 3, 2010
September 3, 2010
The Business of America Is Business By Lawrence Kudlow
Corporate profits are at all-time highs, and bond rates in the Treasury market are virtually at record lows. That's a good combination for stocks, and it helped trigger a 255 point rally in Wednesday's trading. What's more, a surprisingly positive read on the ISM August manufacturing report delivered a strong blow to the double-dip recession pessimism that has plagued investors for many months.
September 2, 2010
Down With Big Government, Big Business, Big Labor by Michael Barone
Some of the most important things in history are things that didn't happen -- even though just about everyone thought they would.
September 2, 2010
Obama Delivers on His Iraq Promises by Debra Saunders
When then-Sen. Barack Obama visited the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board in 2008, I had one question for him: Which Democratic candidate for president would be best at keeping Iraq from imploding?
September 2, 2010
Sixty Days To Go: The Crystal Ball's Labor Day Predictions By Larry J. Sabato
For decades I’ve advised students to let the facts speak for themselves, while avoiding the indulgence of shouting at the facts. In other words, we should take in all the available, reliable information; process it; and let the emerging mosaic tell its story—whether the picture pleases or not. The human (and partisan) tendency to twist facts into pretzels in order to produce a desired result must be avoided at all costs.
September 1, 2010
The Generic Race by Susan Estrich
Gallup is out this week with a new poll showing the generic Republican beating the generic Democrat in House contests by 10 points.
August 31, 2010
Mad Men in a Saner Time By Froma Harrop
"Mad Men" just won its third Emmy for "outstanding drama." If there were a gold statue for "best nostalgic portrayal," the AMC series would have walked off with that one, too. The allure and success of "Mad Men" is its stylish evocation of a lost era that many older Americans miss and younger ones envy.
August 31, 2010
Obama Isn't Being Smart About Arizona By Debra J. Saunders
The latest CBS poll found that 59 percent of Americans view Arizona's SB1070, the immigration bill that allows Arizona to prosecute immigration violations, as "just right," while another 14 percent think the bill doesn't go far enough. So why does President Obama continue to hammer Arizona's law? And why did the State Department include a reference to the Arizona law in a report for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on America's human rights record?
August 30, 2010
Boehner's Pro-Growth Message by Lawrence Kudlow
It's a bit too early for House Republican leader John Boehner to measure the drapes and pick out new wallpaper.
August 27, 2010
Ready, Fire, Aim by Susan Estrich
House Minority Leader John Boehner has a brilliant idea.
August 26, 2010
Incumbent Defeats By The Numbers By Larry J. Sabato
At the Crystal Ball we receive many requests for information about the history of congressional elections, and there are many ways to look at this topic. In the two simple bar graphs below, we present one way to conceptualize a key part of the contests for Congress. How many incumbents lose for the House and the Senate?
August 26, 2010
The Mosque and the 'American Street' by Froma Harrop
The circus around the mosque should start to lose audience. New York officials have the authority to decide whether an Islamic center may be built near the tragic site of the attacks on the Twin Towers.
August 26, 2010
Redistricting Could Prolong the Democrats' Pain By Michael Barone
Every 10 years, it's time for reapportionment and redistricting. The framers of the Constitution created the first regularly scheduled national census and required, for the first time that I am aware, that representation in a legislature be apportioned according to population.
August 25, 2010
Prelude to Appeasement by Tony Blankley
Neoconservatives, Reaganites and other militarily assertive factions in the United States are sometimes accused of thinking it is always 1938 (Britain's appeasement of Hitler at Munich) -- that there is always a Hitler-like aggressor being appeased and about to drag the world into conflict.
August 25, 2010
Leaving Home by Susan Estrich
For the past two weeks, I've been traveling across the country interviewing law students who have applied for jobs at my law firm.
August 23, 2010
Stimulus and Health Care Have Democrats on Defensive By Michael Barone
Like many Democrats over the past 40 years, Barack Obama has hoped that his association with unpopular liberal positions on cultural issues would be outweighed by pushing economic policies intended to benefit the ordinary person.
August 22, 2010
A Federal Law Against Lying By Debra J. Saunders
In 2005, Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., sponsored the Stolen Valor Act that made it a federal crime to lie about receiving military medals or honors from the military.
August 21, 2010
Barney Frank Comes Home to the Facts By Lawrence Kudlow
Can you teach an old dog new tricks? In politics, the answer is usually no. Most elected officials cling to their ideological biases, despite the real-world facts that disprove their theories time and again. Most have no common sense, and most never acknowledge that they were wrong.
August 20, 2010
Ground Zero on the Tolerance Issue by Debra J. Saunders
The mission of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's Cordoba Initiative is not just to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center near ground zero, but also to build "interfaith tolerance and respect."
August 20, 2010
The Senate: All Classes Aren't Equal By Larry J. Sabato
Our astute political readership is well aware that the United States Senate has been divided into three classes since the beginning of the Constitutional Republic. That’s because, with a six-year term for each senator, only one-third of the Senate is elected every two years. Senators were elected by the state legislatures until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, of course, but the classes were maintained with the electoral reform, and as new states were added to the Union, the principle of “one-third every two years” has been continuous. While the U.S. House of Representatives is (theoretically) “refreshed” in its entirety by the People at each election, the Senate is much more stable, since two-thirds of the Senate membership is immune from popular uprising in any given election. Passions are given a chance to cool, or to reconstitute, before the next election rolls around.
