Steady in Iowa, Romney Counts on New Hampshire, Florida By Michael Barone
Election year has finally arrived, well after the beginning of a turbulent and unpredictable elections season, and voting begins on Tuesday in the Iowa Republicans caucuses.
Political Commentary
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January 2, 2012
December 30, 2011
Could Ron Paul Be the Next Ralph Nader? By Joe Conason
Even as Barack Obama gradually climbs in national polls, more than a handful of the president's once-ardent admirers suddenly seem more attracted to Ron Paul.
December 30, 2011
Art for Newt By Lawrence Kudlow
“The purpose of economic policy is growth, jobs, and prosperity,” supply-side founder Art Laffer told me today. As such, Laffer has endorsed Newt Gingrich and the Gingrich 15 percent flat-tax plan, which includes the 12.5 percent corporate-tax reform. “It’s nothing against the other candidates,” Laffer said. “But Newt’s plan is right, and therefore endorsing him is the right thing to do.”
December 30, 2011
Voters Want Growth, Not Income Redistribution By Michael Barone
"A 2008 election widely regarded as heralding a shift toward the more government-friendly public sentiment of the New Deal and Great Society eras seems to have yielded just the reverse."
December 29, 2011
The Little State That Could?: A Commentary by Froma Harrop
Rhode Island shouldn't even be a state. It's basically a city, Providence, with some suburbs, factory towns, a little countryside and Newport. The smallest state in area (19 Rhode Islands could fit into California's San Bernardino County), the Ocean State has a population of about 1 million (versus San Bernardino's 210,000).
December 29, 2011
Five Days to Iowa By Geoffrey Skelley, Kyle Kondik and Larry J. Sabato
With the Iowa caucuses only five days away, we at the Crystal Ball wanted to suggest some possible electoral scenarios that could play out next Tuesday and beyond. Because we love history, and because the past is often prologue, each scenario has some historical precedent:
December 27, 2011
Middle Class Aided Its Own Decline By Froma Harrop
This was the Year of the Middle Class -- as in, its falling incomes, loss of job security and anger. The global economic forces fueling the decline, such as foreign competition and computers, have been well reported. But what about cultural factors? Is the middle class going down partly because it stopped acting middle class?
December 26, 2011
Obama Succeeds Abroad When He Follows Bush, Clinton By Michael Barone
The world usually turns out to work differently from what American presidents expected when they were campaigning.
Franklin Roosevelt campaigned on domestic issues in 1932 and ran a more isolationist foreign policy for his first years in office than any of the Republican presidents elected in the 1920s. But he became aware of the threat that Adolf Hitler posed earlier than most, and changed course accordingly.
December 23, 2011
'Cool' Cities Are Not Necessarily Warm By Froma Harrop
The soft economy has left lots of Americans in place, whether they want to be or not. That would include the most mobile group, young people. But to the extent that adults ages 25 to 34 are still moving, their preferred destinations seem to be "cool cities," according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. What are the so-called cool cities? Denver, Houston, Dallas, Seattle, Raleigh, Austin, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Ore., among others.
December 22, 2011
Paul Ryan’s Old-Fashioned American Vision By Lawrence Kudlow
When you think of Republican congressman Paul Ryan, terms like earnest, serious, and important come to mind. So does the term old-fashioned. Ryan comes from an old-fashioned place, the blue-collar town of Janesville, Wisconsin. He cherishes the old-fashioned values of a faithful family man. He even looks old-fashioned, with his white shirts and striped ties. And he uses old-fashioned argument skills, persuasively weaving big-picture themes with the numbers that back them up.
December 22, 2011
The Lethal Fantasies of Dear Old Ron Paul By Joe Conason
The latest evidence of simmering racial resentment on the American political fringe showed up Monday in a Facebook post by a California man who urged the assassination of the president and his two daughters in obscene, racist language.
December 22, 2011
New Hampshire Quick to Divorce Candidates, Not Marry Them By Michael Barone
Three weeks out from the New Hampshire primary, and voters in the Granite State don't seem to have settled firmly on one of the Republican presidential candidates.
December 20, 2011
Romney, Paul and a Game of Musical Chairs in Iowa By Scott Rasmussen
Following the roller-coaster poll results from Iowa has been entertaining for some - and frustrating for many. In five consecutive Rasmussen Reports polls, five different candidates came out on top: Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and now Mitt Romney. Adding to the confusion, most Iowa voters are still deciding and could change their mind before the January 3 caucuses.
December 20, 2011
Gifts for the Unemployed By Froma Harrop
To many rational economists, holiday gift-giving is "an orgy of wealth-destruction," writes Dan Ariely in The Wall Street Journal. A behavioral economist at Duke University, Ariely makes pro-gifting arguments while acknowledging the bah-humbug view, which goes as follows: Givers often spend money on things others don't necessarily want, and the recipients frequently think the present cost less than the price actually paid for it. 'Tis more rational to give cash.
December 19, 2011
A Democrat Reaches Across the Aisle on Medicare By Michael Barone
It's highly unusual in a presidential debate for two Republican candidates -- the two leading in current national polls -- to heap praise on a liberal Democratic senator. But in the Fox News debate in Sioux City, Iowa, Thursday night, both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney had very good words to say for Oregon's Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden.
December 16, 2011
The Republican Closet That Won't Stay Closed By Joe Conason
If these are the last weeks of Rick Perry's ridiculous presidential campaign, his desperation is turning him into a nasty clown indeed. By publicly attacking the gays and lesbians who have chosen to serve their country in uniform, the Texas governor seems to have gained ground in Iowa.
December 15, 2011
Romney Bets on Old Rules as Newt Moves Under Radar By Michael Barone
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- "We're not going to lose in New Hampshire." So says Mitt Romney's state coordinator, Jason McBride.
Stuart Stevens, the Romney campaign's TV ad-maker, expresses similar confidence. Asked if Romney might finish second in New Hampshire, his answer is an unhesitating "no."
December 15, 2011
Driving Under the Influence of Cellphones By Froma Harrop
Moving at a stately 30 miles an hour, the woman drove her tank-like vehicle right through the stop sign and almost through me as I crossed the street. Like the psychiatrist assigning mental illness at the mere sound of crazy shouting, I didn't have to look at the motorist. I just knew from her behavior that she was yakking on a cellphone. Sure enough, she was.
December 14, 2011
Newt's Past and Future Leadership By Tony Blankley
Almost all political commentators agree on one thing. The Republican presidential campaign is unlike any we have experienced. It is not a campaign of steady trends and continuities, but rather of emotional reversals and discontinuities. Perhaps this is so because the last 3 to 4 years have been a shocking time of discontinuities and reversals for America.
December 13, 2011
Obama’s Big Class-Warfare Theme By Lawrence Kudlow
Following the GOP debate that nearly the whole world watched on Saturday night, the president on Sunday made it very clear that he will not back off his class-warfare vision in the coming year. Obama told Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes that middle-class inequality will be his big theme, and that somehow successful earners, investors, and small-business owners are to blame.
