Commentary by Michael Barone

November 11, 2016

Donald Trump's Astounding Victory: How and Why By Michael Barone

Astounding. That's the best word to describe the tumultuous election night and the (to most people) surprise victory of Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton hoped to win with votes of Northeasterners, including those who have moved south along Interstate 95 to North Carolina and Florida (44 electoral votes). Instead, Trump won with votes along the I-94 and I-80 corridors, from Pennsylvania through Ohio and Michigan to Wisconsin and Iowa (70 electoral votes).

November 8, 2016

2016: The Demise of Small-r Republican Politics by Michael Barone

Among the many complaints I have seen about this squalid presidential election -- the most dismal choice of major-party nominees since 1856 -- there's one that I find missing: that it shows how our politics have become less republican.

November 4, 2016

Is Team Clinton Booting the Election? By Michael Barone

In my Nov. 1 column, I looked at the presidential election through the lens of the old children's radio show "Let's Pretend" -- examining how things would look if it turned out that Donald Trump ends up winning.

November 1, 2016

Let's Play 'Let's Pretend' By Michael Barone

When I was a child, there was a Saturday morning radio program called "Let's Pretend." It used words and sounds to encourage young children to paint pictures in their heads of make-believe worlds.

October 28, 2016

So Far, Trump Not Sinking Down-Ballot Republicans By Michael Barone

Could a flailing Donald Trump campaign hurt down-ballot Republicans and cost the party majorities in the Senate and House? That seems possible, if he loses to Hillary Clinton by a margin similar to those in most current polls and if Americans keep on straight-ticket voting as they have increasingly in recent years.

October 25, 2016

The Politics These Two Unpopular Nominees Hath Wrought by Michael Barone

In last week's third and (thank goodness) final presidential debate, each candidate did an excellent job of presenting convincing arguments for why people shouldn't vote for the other.

October 21, 2016

Despite Trump, Demotic Protest Politics Doesn't Always Fail by Michael Barone

2016 has been a big year for protest politics -- not just in the United States, what with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump getting over 40 percent of primary votes, but also all over Europe and Latin America, where voters have been rejecting the advice of their nations' political, financial and media establishments.

October 18, 2016

Which Party Will Hold the Senate and House? By Michael Barone

Which party is going to control the House and hold a majority in the Senate in January 2017? Even if you regard the presidential contest as over -- a proposition for which there is powerful evidence, including Donald Trump's current campaign message choices -- the answers to those questions are, respectively, mildly and very unclear.

October 14, 2016

Donald Trump's Invisible Shackles By Michael Barone

"It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to," Donald Trump tweeted at the reasonable hour of 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

October 7, 2016

Robin Hood Economics Falls Flat in Debates by Michael Barone

Robin Hood is dead. Or at least seriously ailing. The politics of taking from the rich and giving to the poor -- the politics that philosophers from Aristotle to James Madison dreaded -- just doesn't seem to be working as it used to.

October 4, 2016

Voters Reject John Lennon's 'World as One' By Michael Barone

"The president believes the world will be a better place if all borders are eliminated -- from a trade perspective, from the viewpoint of economic development and in welcoming people from other cultures and countries."

September 30, 2016

What the Debate Tells About How Candidates Would Govern By Michael Barone

You've heard and read by now lots of spin and speculation about who won and where the polls are going to move after Monday's presidential debate. We'll know the answers to these questions soon. The more important question for the long run is how each of these candidates would govern. The debate provides no certain answers to that question, but it does offer some useful clues.

September 23, 2016

What Happens to the Democratic Party if Clinton Loses? by Michael Barone

There's been lots of speculation about the fate of the Republican Party if (as most of the prognosticators expect and hope) Donald Trump loses. There's been less speculation, though recent polling suggests it may be in order, about the fate of the Democratic Party if Hillary Clinton loses.

September 20, 2016

Will Democratic Success Breed Clinton's Failure? By Michael Barone

Success breeds failure. That's one of the melancholy lessons you learn in life. The success of policymakers in stamping out inflation in the 1980s and minimizing recessions for two decades also produced policies that contributed to the collapse of the housing and financial markets in 2007-08

September 16, 2016

The Year of Political Re-enactors by Micheal Barone

The thought came to me as I watched the Cleveland police clear away protesters from the city's Public Square. Half a dozen on horseback, nearly a dozen or so on heavy-duty bikes, the cops deftly corralled the protesters without so much as touching anyone, much as a border collie channels a flock of uncomprehending sheep.

September 13, 2016

How's That Fundamental Transformation Going? By Michael Barone

When Air Force One landed in China last week for the G-20 Summit, Chinese authorities didn't wheel out the usual staircase for the president to disembark. Instead he had to exit through an opening in the back of the enormous aircraft. It was, you might say, a pivot to Asia.

September 9, 2016

Why the Polls Are Tightening Up By Michael Barone

Maybe Hillary Clinton isn't going to be elected president after all. That's a thought that's evoking glee in some, nausea in others, terror in some and relief at the removal of an increasingly tedious figure from public view in still more.

September 7, 2016

Trump Calls for More High-Skill Immigration By Michael Barone

Would he go hard or go soft? That was the mainstream media template for judging Donald Trump's speech on immigration in Phoenix last Wednesday. The verdict: hard. "How Trump got from Point A to Point A on immigration," was the headline in the Washington Post's recap.

September 2, 2016

The Battle of the Secret Cabals By Michael Barone

Anyone contemplating this year's appalling presidential campaign may be tempted to explain what's happening by applying the third rule of bureaucratic organizations, enunciated by the late poet and definitive scholar of Soviet terrorism Robert Conquest.

August 30, 2016

Maybe Borders Aren't the Worst Invention Ever by Michael Barone

"Borders are the worst invention ever made by politicians." Those were the words of Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Union's European Commission, at the Alpbach Media Academy last Monday.

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