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May 29, 2012

The 'Geezers' Are Right This Time By Froma Harrop

Alan Simpson let loose at a group of Californians who charged in a brochure that he and Erskine Bowles were "using the deficit to gut our Social Security." The former Republican senator from Wyoming sent the California Association of Retired Americans a characteristically colorful response, which I quote: "What a wretched group of seniors you must be to use the faces of the very people (the young) that we are trying to save, while the 'greedy geezers' like you use them as a tool and a front for your nefarious bunch of crap."

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May 28, 2012

Obama's Bain Attacks Could Backfire By Michael Barone

The ham-handed Barack Obama campaign attack ads on Mitt Romney's former firm Bain Capital have drawn a lot of ire from other Democrats.

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May 25, 2012

Where's the 'Beef'? Clinton's Answer to Romney Snark By Joe Conason

For Mitt Romney, the president's greatest vulnerability seems to be that Barack Obama is no Bill Clinton -- and he is seeking to exploit that perception in his public speeches attacking the incumbent. On Tuesday, the presumptive GOP nominee drew the contrast for an audience in Iowa, harking back to a famous Clinton speech in 1996.

May 25, 2012

'Austerity' Talk Is Just Political Cover for More Government Spending By Scott Rasmussen

The entire debate is clouded by a refusal of political leaders to talk honestly about spending. The air is filled with talk of brutal spending cuts in financially troubled Europe, but Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center, a pro-free market U.S. think tank, has shown that to be a lie.

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May 24, 2012

Keeping Business Honest By John Stossel

Instinctively, we look for people's motives. We need to know whom we can trust and whom we can't. We're especially skeptical of business because we know business wants our money.

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May 24, 2012

Bain And Our Screwed-Up Culture By Froma Harrop

We recently saluted Leslie Sabo for giving his life to save fellow soldiers in Vietnam 40 years ago. Injured after shielding a comrade with his body, the Pennsylvanian grabbed his grenade and stormed the foe's bunker. He died in the explosion. For his selflessness, America awarded Sabo the Congressional Medal of Honor.    

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May 22, 2012

The United States of Gambling By Froma Harrop

A surprising fact: Gamblers spent more last year at commercial casinos in Indiana than they did at non-Indian casinos in all but three other states -- not surprisingly, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The 11 casinos and two racinos (horse racing tracks with slots) are the Hoosier State's third-largest source of tax revenues.    

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May 21, 2012

Obama Pursues Higher Tax Rates, Growth Be Damned By Michael Barone

In the run-up to this weekend's G-8 summit at Camp David, journalists have unfavorably compared European "austerity" with Barack Obama's economic policies.

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May 19, 2012

The States That Put President's Over The Top By Geoffrey Skelley

We all think we know which states are the pivotal players in the Electoral College. The Crystal Ball's most recent look at the map showed that there are seven "Super Swing States:" Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.

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May 18, 2012

Sound and Fury: Feeding Frenzies In The Presidential Silly Season By Larry J. Sabato and Kyle Kondik

In the beginning, there was the Etch A Sketch.

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May 18, 2012

The Only True Way to Save Marriage From Obama By Joe Conason

For honoring his conscience on the issue of marriage equality, President Obama earned angry rebukes from all quarters on the right, including the Uncle Toms of the Log Cabin Republicans, who said he was "a day late and a dollar short"; teenage mom Bristol Palin, who mocked him for invoking his daughters in changing "thousands of years of thinking about marriage"; and 50-year-old virgin Ann Coulter, often engaged but never wed, who called his decision "a sign of desperation."

May 18, 2012

It's the Economy, Stupid By Scott Rasmussen

Mitt Romney has pulled a point or two ahead of President Obama in polls of likely voters. In polls of registered voters, Obama has the advantage. The president's job approval ratings are hovering in the upper 40 percent range, which suggests a close race.

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May 17, 2012

Grief Is Not a Mental Illness By Froma Harrop

We moderns seem determined to suppress all unhappiness with one exception: grief. The intense sadness following loss of a loved one still occupies a warm spot in our culture. We want that pain protected from the deadening analgesics of pharmaceuticals.

That explains the American Psychiatric Association's decision to retreat from a plan to categorize ordinary grief as an adjustment disorder. Some wanted to classify a response to significant loss -- deep sadness, insomnia, poor appetite, inability to concentrate, crying -- lasting more than two weeks as a depression rather than normal grief, drawing fire from both mental-health professionals and ordinary folk.

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May 17, 2012

Recent News Could Cause Panic for Obama Campaign By Michael Barone

Is it panic time at Obama headquarters in Chicago? You might get that impression from watching events -- and the polls -- over the past few weeks.

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May 16, 2012

Making Life Fair By John Stossel

When my wife was a liberal, she complained that libertarian reasoning is coldhearted. Since markets produce winners and losers -- and many losers did nothing wrong -- market competition is cruel. It must seem so. President Obama used the word "fair" in his last State of the Union address nine times.

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May 15, 2012

Silicon Slumming By Froma Harrop

The Victorian era gave birth to a very unpleasant custom called slumming. Parties of swells in London and New York would descend on impoverished neighborhoods as a form of entertainment. In addition to breaking up the tedium of their posh lives, the adventure made them feel superior.

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May 14, 2012

Three Different Ways to Look at the 2012 Campaign By Michael Barone

Last week, I wrote about the standings in the presidential race and said it looked like a long, hard slog through about a dozen clearly identified target states, much like the contests in 2000 and 2004. Call it the 2000/2004 long, hard slog scenario.

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May 11, 2012

Do Independent Voters Matter? By Todd Eberly

Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland, recently wrote a report for the centrist group Third Way about independent voters. Crystal Ball senior columnist Alan Abramowitz addressed that report in a recent article, and Eberly asked to respond. His point of view differs from Abramowitz's and the inclinations of the Crystal Ball staff, but in order to present readers a full view, we agreed to give Eberly a chance to share his views.

-- The Editors

Are independent voters a myth? That is certainly the conclusion of many who study political science. Research has demonstrated that, when pressed, independent voters often reveal significant partisan preferences: They lean Democratic or lean Republican. When leaners are reclassified and grouped among their partisan peers the share of pure independents in the electorate falls -- by some accounts -- to less than 10% of the electorate.

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May 11, 2012

Let's Not Overreact to the Judd Mutiny By Kyle Kondik

We would make a joke about President Obama only taking 59% of the West Virginia primary vote against a federal prison inmate named Keith Judd, but every possible one was exhausted on Twitter by Wednesday morning. Suffice it to say, it was an embarrassing performance for the president, albeit in a state he has no chance of winning in November.

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May 11, 2012

What the China Crisis (and His Gay Crisis) Revealed About Mitt By Joe Conason

Just as aspiring judges ought to possess the quality known as "judicial temperament," a would-be president should have certain obvious attributes of mind and character. Two incidents tested Mitt Romney this week -- and both times, his ambition overwhelmed his judgment.

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