Voters Want Super-sized Government to Crash Diet By Michael Barone
Let's put government on a diet. That's what voters seem to be saying in response to the Barack Obama Democrats' vast expansion of the size and scope of government.
Political Commentary
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August 3, 2010
July 30, 2010
Chelsea's Wedding By Susan Estrich
No, I wasn't invited. I shouldn't be. I'm a friend of her parents. They aren't getting married. She is. The rule that invited guests should have a personal relationship with the bride or the groom is only the latest example of how good the Clintons (and the Mezvinskys) have been at the most important job in the world: being parents.
July 29, 2010
Dr. Donald Berwick, Taxpayer Hero By Froma Harrop
Welcome, Dr. Donald Berwick. Once you pull the arrows out of your back, you can get down to the important work for which you are supremely qualified: fixing the government health-insurance programs.
July 29, 2010
House Democrats Head for a Thumping at the Polls By Michael Barone
Democratic spin doctors have set out how their side is going to hold onto a majority in the House. They'll capture four at-risk Republican seats, hold half of the next 30 or so Democratic at-risk seats, and avoid significant losses on target seats lower on the list.
July 29, 2010
Leaking to Avert Disaster By Joe Conason
The outpouring of tens of thousands of classified military documents by WikiLeaks is not precisely comparable to the publication of the Pentagon Papers -- but in at least one crucial respect, it may be more valuable. While the Pentagon Papers revealed the duplicity of American policy-makers in the senseless Vietnam War, their release came too late to save many lives or change the course of that conflict. The WikiLeaks disclosures may have arrived in time to influence policy and prevent disaster.
July 28, 2010
Cry Racism! and Let Slip the Dogs of Politics By Tony Blankley
In the last fortnight: 1) The NAACP called the tea party racists; 2)
Andrew Breitbart called the NAACP racist; 3) Shirley Sherrod called
Republican opponents of Obamacare racists; 4) Secretary of Agriculture Tom
Vilsack called Shirley Sherrod racist; 5) many in mainstream media called
Andrew Breitbart racist; 6) Howard Dean called Fox racist; and, 7) it was
revealed that liberal journalist Spencer Ackerman proposed calling Fred
Barnes and Karl Rove racist.
July 28, 2010
Liberal Tax Revolt Game-Changer? By Lawrence Kudlow
The liberal tax revolt, as The Wall Street Journal is calling it, is a very important topic -- especially for investors and small-business entrepreneurs. And for new jobs.
July 28, 2010
Her First Demonstration By Susan Estrich
It's hard to imagine anyone graduating from high school today, much less college, without being computer literate. One way or another, kids learn how to get online, how to navigate the Internet, how to live in a wired world.
July 27, 2010
Tasing Arizona By Debra J. Saunders
The Obama administration had gone to federal court to kill Arizona's new illegal-immigration law, scheduled to go into effect on Thursday. The Department of Justice argues that enforcement of the Arizona law "is pre-empted by federal law and therefore violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution."
July 27, 2010
Raise Taxes To Cut Government? By Froma Harrop
As the debate rages over letting some of the Bush tax cuts expire, Republicans have raised their starve-the-beast theory from its coffin. They insist that government (the "beast") can be shrunk by cutting taxes: The less money government has, the less government there can be.
July 26, 2010
Some Welcome Signs of Life From Private Sector By Michael Barone
Grass somehow manages to grow up through small cracks in the sidewalk. Similarly, the American private sector somehow seems to be exerting itself despite the vast expansion of government by the Barack Obama administration and congressional Democrats.
July 25, 2010
Brown and Whitman Take a Policy Furlough By Debra J. Saunders
Today's question is: Why have both major candidates for California governor -- Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman -- failed to endorse the governor's authority to furlough state workers?
July 23, 2010
Legislature Lowdown: State Legislatures in Play As Redistricting Looms By Tim Storey
Elections for the thousands of state legislative seats that determine partisan control of states are typically provincial battles drawing relatively little attention from national media. These legislative elections are often called hidden elections. However, the spotlight this November will spill over to these down-ballot races because redistricting is around the corner, so the results in hundreds of races in the hinterlands could have long term implications for partisan control of Washington.
July 23, 2010
Winners and Losers in the Game of Political Life By Larry J. Sabato
One reason why people are attracted to politics is because, like sports, there are usually clear winners and losers. Moral ambiguity and shades of gray may overwhelm other sectors of life, but not the bottom-line of elections. Only finality on November 2 really matters. Raising more money or winning a primary or seeing your opponent sink into a scandal is a kind of victory, but it’s transient. Still, you savor what you can on your way to Judgment Day.
July 23, 2010
It's a Fiscal Problem, Not a Fed Problem By Lawrence Kudlow
Ben Bernanke threw a curveball in his midterm report to Congress this week. The Fed view of the economy has been downgraded since it last reported in February. Although the official Fed forecast for 2010-11 is still 3 percent to 4 percent real growth, Bernanke sounded particularly gloomy when he characterized the economy as "unusually uncertain." And he indicated that the majority view of the Fed Board of Governors and Reserve Bank presidents is that the risks to growth are "weighted to the downside."
July 22, 2010
"2010: A Space Odyssey" Updated By Froma Harrop
The most wrong assumption in the sci-fi movie classic "2001: A Space Odyssey" was that technology would liberate humans from a life of hassle. Made 42 years ago, Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece shows 21st century humankind going about its business in a leisurely fashion as machines do the bull work. A gentle Strauss waltz plays in the background.
July 22, 2010
Our Secret Leviathan By Joe Conason
Back in the bad old days of the Cold War -- when mutual nuclear annihilation was a policy option -- a culture of secrecy arose in Washington. What wise observers understood even then was that while governments tried to keep secrets from each other, their chief concern was to keep secrets from their own people.
July 22, 2010
Rising Speculation About Bombing Iran's Nukes By Michael Barone
Many years ago, I was privileged to attend a dinner with James Rowe, one of the "passion for anonymity" young aides to Franklin Roosevelt, original author of the winning strategy for Harry Truman's 1948 campaign and close confidante of then-President Lyndon Johnson.
July 21, 2010
The Obama Paradox By Susan Estrich
You don't need to be a political pollster, much less a worried Democrat, to know that the president's approval ratings have plummeted. "Down to the immediate family," we used to say mockingly, when President Bush was at about the same point. Of course, it's a little bit better than that -- down to the hardcore, the yellow dog Democrats (as in, I'd rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican), but there's no denying that the bloom is off the rose, and any other cliche you can think of.
July 21, 2010
Is It Enough for the GOP To Just Say No? By Tony Blankley
Over the past year, the Democrats fixed on what they thought was a devastating four-word slogan to defeat Republicans in 2010: "The Party of No." Unlike many campaign slogans, it was fair enough. After all, the Republicans had opposed almost unanimously all of President Obama's major bills (socialized health care, stimulus, nationalization of GM and Chrysler, "cap and trade," financial overregulation, multitrillion-dollar yearly deficits, tax increases, etc.)
