Real Genius By Susan Estrich
A year ago, David Axelrod, the president's senior adviser, was a genius. A year ago, Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff, was a wizard.
Political Commentary
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March 12, 2010
March 11, 2010
Dems Are Stuck With a Mess of Their Own Making By Michael Barone
There's a lively debate going on in the blogosphere and the press about whether Democrats would be better off passing or not passing a health care bill.
March 11, 2010
The New McCarthyism By Joe Conason
The national madness known as "McCarthyism" began 60 years ago in Wheeling, W.V., when Joseph R. McCarthy held up a scrap of paper that supposedly listed the names of 57 State Department officials he said were actually Communists and traitors.
March 11, 2010
Meg Whitman Can Run a Company, but Can She Govern? By Debra J. Saunders
It took me five months to get my first interview with former eBay CEO and California GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman, and when I did, it was after a press event where the news reporters were not allowed to ask questions. Swell.
March 10, 2010
An American Obsession with Freedom By Tony Blankley
The publishing of the Declaration of Independence 233 years ago by our Founders was responded to in London by two of the 18th century's greatest minds: Dr. Samuel Johnson (after whom a literary age was named) and Edmund Burke (the intellectual father of modern Anglo-American conservatism).
March 10, 2010
And the Winner Is... By Susan Estrich
Like most Americans, I haven't seen "The Hurt Locker," but I was still rooting for Kathryn Bigelow to claim the Best Director statue. This is, after all, 2010 -- a little late in the day for "first women," particularly in an industry that depends on women as much as men to buy tickets. If you believe the media accounts, another glass ceiling has now been broken. Were it only so simple.
March 10, 2010
Rockefeller: Stopping Obama’s Environmental “End-Around” By Howard Rich
With the "science" of global warming collapsing like a house of cards, the Copenhagen "climate change" conference accomplishing absolutely nothing and a massive energy tax hike going nowhere in the U.S. Senate, President Barack Obama is now faced with a conundrum.
March 9, 2010
The Volcker Rule: Beware Gremlins in Guccis By Froma Harrop
A big chunk of rock went missing from Mount Rushmore when Paul Volcker broke away in 2008 to stand stony-faced behind candidate Barack Obama. The former Federal Reserve chairman served as a reassuring presence from an older, more orderly financial era that had been sacrificed on the altar of deregulation.
March 9, 2010
Low-Tax Texas Beats Big-Government California By Michael Barone
"Stop messing with Texas!" That was the message Gov. Rick Perry bellowed on election night as he celebrated his victory over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor. In his reference to Texas' anti-littering slogan, Perry was making a point applicable to national as well as Texas politics and addressed to Democratic politicians as well as Republicans.
March 9, 2010
March Forth Means: Pearls Before Swine By Debra J. Saunders
The biggest problem with last week's March 4 Day of Action to Defend Education, which was organized to protest cuts in California's education spending: The event showed how little educators and students value education.
March 7, 2010
Could Washington Threats Spell Double-Dip? By Lawrence Kudlow
There’s a lot of loose talk on Wall Street right now about the risk of a double-dip recession. I’m not buying it. Now, I’m the first to admit there’s a good debate about the overall strength of the recovery rebound. But the recession ended last June, and I’m still thinking a 4 percent growth rate in 2010 is likely. That could spell another large rally in stocks.
March 6, 2010
The Courage of His Convictions By Susan Estrich
When you ask people why it is that they hate or distrust politicians, the usual answers, understandably so, are all about what gutless wonders most politicians are -- addicted to their polls, determined to stay there at all costs. Campaign promises are about getting elected; once there, they are quickly forgotten. Courage is not a word you hear very often in discussions about politics.
March 5, 2010
Appointments Are the President's Prerogative By Debra J. Saunders
In November, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to provide him with a list of Department of Justice political appointees who had represented enemy-combatant "detainees, or worked for organizations advocating on terrorism or detainee policy." The DOJ has not sent him the names.
March 5, 2010
GOP: “Contractually-Bound?” By Howard Rich
Seeking to capitalize on the righteous indignation voters are feeling toward President Barack Obama and his Congressional allies, a group of Republican politicians is dusting off an old playbook.
March 5, 2010
More On “One Giant Government Leap Backwards” By Lawrence Kudlow
Rather than a post-partisan olive branch to congressional Republicans and the American public, President Obama’s latest health-care speech was a declaration of war.
March 5, 2010
2010 Primaries: Gauging Anti-Incumbent Sentiment By Rhodes Cook
The 2010 primary season is under way, which at the congressional and gubernatorial levels is often no more than a quiet backwater in America’s electoral process. In recent years, only a few such incumbents have lost their bids for renomination, and only a handful more have had to break a sweat.
March 5, 2010
Will Senate Say Aloha to Racial Discrimination? By Michael Barone
What's the worst piece of legislation before Congress associated with the letter H? Most conservatives and Republicans, many moderates and independents, and even some liberals and Democrats would answer: one of the health care bills.
March 4, 2010
The Politics of Earthquakes By Joe Conason
If the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti carry any message for those of us fortunate enough not to live in those places, perhaps it is that government regulation could save your life -- while right-wing ideology may kill you someday.
March 4, 2010
Obama Not Gutless After All By Froma Harrop
The right accuses Barack Obama of dragging the country way left, and the left calls him gutless. The president is proving both of them wrong.
March 4, 2010
Stark, Raving, Maryland By Debra J. Saunders
Before she became House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi promised that if Democrats won control of the House, she would "drain the swamp" in Washington. How is she doing?
