Commentary by Michael Barone

Most Recent Releases

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            March 31, 2023Will Republicans Find a Way to Get Their Way in 2024? By Michael Barone
Twelve or 13 months from now, the race for the Republican nomination for president -- and the race for the Democratic nomination, if there is one -- will probably be over.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            March 24, 2023America Seems to Go Crazy Every 50 Years or So By Michael Barone
Amid news that Donald Trump is about to be indicted by a hyperpartisan prosecutor and of his hysterical responses, and prompted by vagrant reading about the War of 1812 and Woodrow Wilson's violations of civil liberties in World War I, a thought occurred to me. America seems to go crazy every 50 years or so.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            March 17, 2023'Woke' Silicon Valley -- Sand Hill Road and Stanford Law -- Get Off Scot-free By Michael Barone
As one who has spent pleasant time on Sand Hill Road and the Stanford campus, I'm dismayed by the demands for special treatment coming from the denizens of one of America's most privileged and affluent precincts.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            March 10, 2023Anatomy of the Chicago Mayor's Election By Michael Barone
Big city elections provide clues about trends in national politics, the composition and attitudes of Democratic constituency groups, and voters' responses to emerging matters. Recent examples include the March 2019 primary for mayor of Chicago and the June 2021 Democratic contest in New York City.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            March 3, 2023Lab Leak Story: How Elite Scientists Lied and Concealed the Truth By Michael Barone
When the Wall Street Journal reported in a front-page lead story that the Department of Energy had concluded the COVID-19 pandemic resulted from a leak from China's Wuhan laboratory, you might have argued it was old news. The FBI had already, it turns out, come to the same conclusion and with a higher degree of confidence (moderate) than the Energy Department (low).
February 24, 2023Give Credit to Jimmy Carter By Michael Barone
Jimmy Carter, the 39th and the longest-living U.S. president, has chosen to enter hospice care at age 98. This is a good time to try to place his presidency in history. 
February 17, 2023Disinformation Inc vs. the Founding Fathers By Michael Barone
How many people believe, really believe, in freedom of speech? Or, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, not just "free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate"?
February 10, 2023Will Biden's Primary Schedule Have Unintended Consequences? By Michael Barone
For a president who proclaimed proudly in his annual speech that his policies have made the state of the union good, Joe Biden betrayed a certain insecurity when, just two days before, he caused the Democratic National Committee to change its presidential primary schedule for 2024.
February 3, 2023We Don't Need Racial Quotas to Showcase America's Diversity By Michael Barone
   The ordinarily fluent and unperturbed Justice Elena Kagan seemed, judging from the transcript, to be sputtering a bit in the oral argument of the Supreme Court's case challenging the racial quotas and preferences used in admissions by the University of North Carolina.
January 27, 2023Are Public Employee Unions Unconstitutional? By Michael Barone
How did it come to pass that public employee unions, which scarcely existed 60 years ago, have come to run public schools and myriad state and local government agencies?
January 20, 2023Time for Truth and Reconciliation on the Russia Collusion Hoax By Michael Barone
What are "the major problems this country faces"? Writing in The Atlantic, New York Times columnist David Brooks leads off his list with "inequality, political polarization, social mistrust" before concluding with the inevitable "climate change." Today's "inequality," he notes, is as "savage" as the inequality in the 1890s.
January 13, 2023What the Democratic Trifecta Hath Wrought By Michael Barone
America has just exited a biennium of Democratic trifecta -- control by the nation's and the world's oldest political party of the White House and majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives. It is only the third such biennium in the last 40 years, since 1993-95 and 2009-11, the first two years of the Clinton and Obama administrations.
January 6, 2023Let's Base Policy on Real Facts, Not Misleading Statistics By Michael Barone
  From all those lists of best books of 2022, here's one with the potential to change public policy debate and discourse for the better. 
December 23, 2022Three Big Surprises of 2022: Weakened Russia, Weakened China, Weakened American Economy By Michael Barone
 2022 was a year full of surprises. Important things didn't work out as many people had expected on just about every point on the political spectrum.
December 16, 2022Are the Silicon Valley Fraudsters Today's Robber Barons? By Michael Barone
Will Silicon Valley go down in history the way of the robber barons? There's been plenty of raw material in the headlines for a sharp downgrading of the San Francisco Bay area tech industry's reputation these last few weeks.
December 9, 2022The Downward Spiral of Disgraceful Misconduct By Michael Barone
When John Quincy Adams was informed by a committee that he was elected president by the House of Representatives, for the first and only time through the procedure set by the 12th Amendment of the Constitution, he responded in writing.  
December 2, 2022In a Winter of Discontent, Americans Vote for the Status Quo By Michael Barone
Are we living in an era of political contentment? Most Americans would answer that question with a bellowing "No!" But there's a case to be made that American voters, for all their negative talk, actually don't want a set of public policies markedly different from what we have today.
Note that that seems to be the practical result of the 2022 midterm elections last month. 
November 25, 2022Give Thanks for the Northwest Ordinance By Michael Barone
 Unsure of what to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season? Here's a suggestion of something to be thankful for: the Northwest Ordinance.
November 18, 2022A House Popular Vote Majority Produced Few Seats but Is a Good Sign For Republicans in 2024 By Michael Barone
   One of the puzzles in this year's surprising and unpredicted (including by me) off-year election results is why the Republicans' 51% to 47% win in the popular vote for House of Representatives did not produce a majority bigger than the apparent 221-214 result. (All numbers here are subject to revision in line with final returns.)
November 11, 2022Trump and Biden Big Losers, DeSantis Big Winner in 2022 By Michael Barone
One way to look at this election is as a repudiation of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.