Free Market, Not Government Policy, Drives Energy Boom By Michael Barone
There's an awful lot that's stale in the debate on government energy policy.
Commentary by Michael Barone
Most Recent Releases
June 9, 2011
June 6, 2011
Obama Tunes Out, and Business Goes on Hiring Strike By Michael Barone
Last week, I noted that various forms of the word "unexpected" almost inevitably appeared in news stories about unfavorable economic developments. You can find them again in stories about Friday's shocking news, that only 54,000 net new jobs were created in the month of May and that unemployment rose to 9.1 percent.
June 2, 2011
Gates' Verdict: Pentagon's Biggest Enemy Is Itself By Michael Barone
Defense Secretary Robert Gates leaves office this month as widely respected as any public figure in America today, appreciated for his willingness to return to public service at a moment of high danger in Iraq and to faithfully serve presidents of both parties.
May 30, 2011
Pro-Obama Media Always Shocked by Bad Economic News By Michael Barone
Unexpectedly! As megablogger Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, has noted with amusement, the word "unexpectedly" or variants thereon keep cropping up in mainstream media stories about the economy.
May 26, 2011
Obama Skirts Rule of Law to Reward Pals, Punish Enemies By Michael Barone
Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Teamsters Local 522 Fund Welfare Fund Roofers Division, StayWell Saipan Basic Plan, CIGNA, Caribbean Workers' Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Health and Welfare Plan.
May 23, 2011
Obama Channels W. Except on Israel and Palestinians By Michael Barone
"The State Department is a fitting venue," declared Barack Obama at the beginning of his speech on the Middle East last Thursday.
May 19, 2011
Gingrich and Romney Run Against Their Own Party By Michael Barone
Exit Mike Huckabee. Enter Newt Gingrich. Exit Donald Trump. It's been a busy week in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
May 16, 2011
Obama's Hypocritical Rhetoric on Immigration Reform By Michael Barone
Barack Obama's immigration speech in El Paso May 10 was an exercise in electioneering and hypocrisy. Hypocrisy because while Obama complained about "politicians" blocking comprehensive immigration bills, he was one of them himself.
May 12, 2011
History Weeps at the Partition of India and Pakistan By Michael Barone
When you get into discussions about the Middle East with certain people, you start hearing that the great mistake was the partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. If that had somehow just not happened, you hear, everything would be all right.
May 9, 2011
What the GOP Can Learn From Canada's Conservatives By Michael Barone
Some years ago, the columnist and editor Michael Kinsley sponsored a contest to come up with the most boring headline. The winner was, "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative."
May 5, 2011
To Get Bin Laden, Obama Relied on Policies He Decried By Michael Barone
Let's cheerfully and ungrudgingly give credit to Barack Obama for approving the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.
May 2, 2011
On Foreign Policy, Obama Leads From Behind By Michael Barone
Sometimes a sympathetic and perceptive journalist paints a more devastating portrait of a public figure than even his most vitriolic detractors could. A prime example is Ryan Lizza's New Yorker article titled "The Consequentialist" and subtitled, "How the Arab Spring remade Obama's foreign policy."
April 28, 2011
Barbour's Withdrawal Gives No Clues to GOP 2012 Nominee By Michael Barone
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's abrupt withdrawal from the race for the Republican presidential nomination -- after hiring a topnotch New Hampshire campaign manager and planning to fly around the country next week -- has naturally inspired a lot of punditry on the Republican presidential race.
April 25, 2011
The Death of the 'Defined Benefit' By Michael Barone
The defined benefit is dying. Barack Obama is struggling to keep it alive, but it's apparent that it's something that even as bounteously rich a society as ours can't afford.
April 21, 2011
Mr. Obama: Taxing the Rich Won't Increase Revenues By Michael Barone
Did Barack Obama take Tax 1 in law school? I did, and I remember the first day of classes, when mild mannered Professor Boris Bittker asked a simple question, "What is income?"
April 18, 2011
President Whatever Finds Things Not Going His Way By Michael Barone
Barack Obama is a politician who likes to follow through on long-term strategies and avoid making course corrections. That's how he believes he won in 2008, and since then he's shown that he's not much into details.
April 14, 2011
When Politicians 'Bicker,' They're Really Negotiating By Michael Barone
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank attracted some attention when he promised not to mention Sarah Palin for a month. He kept his promise. The republic and the Post survived.
April 11, 2011
Spending Cuts Are Hot in the Political Marketplace By Michael Barone
One of the things that fascinate me about American politics is how the voices of the voters as registered in elections and polls are transformed into changes in public policy. It's a rough-and-ready process, with plenty of trial and error. But for all its imperfections, the political market seems to work.
April 7, 2011
Ryan Steals March on Obama as Fiscal Crisis Looms By Michael Barone
"My worst experience was the financial crisis of September 2008," responded House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan yesterday to a reporter's question about Democrats' attacks on the budget he unveiled earlier in the day.
April 4, 2011
GOP Shouldn't Panic If Whites Become a Minority By Michael Barone
Are whites on the verge of becoming a minority of the American population? That's what some analysts of the 2010 Census results claim. Many go on, sometimes with relish, to say that this spells electoral doom for the Republican Party.
