Political Commentary

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December 15, 2012South Carolina Doubles Down on 2014 By Geoffrey Skelley
When Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) unexpectedly announced that he planned to resign his seat in early 2013 to become president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, he set in motion an odd American political occurrence: the double-barreled Senate election. This is when there is both a Senate special election and a regularly-scheduled Senate election held on the same day in the same state. In 2014, South Carolina will have a special election for the rest of DeMint's term at the same time Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) is up for reelection.
December 14, 2012House 2014:  A Narrowing Battlefield? By Kyle Kondik
Ticket-splitters are getting rarer and rarer, at least based on the dwindling number of congressional districts where different parties won the presidential vote and the House seat. And that potentially reduces the number of targets for both sides as we examine 2014’s House playing field.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            December 14, 2012Health Care Law Is Still Fighting For Its Life By Scott Rasmussen
Having survived the Supreme Court and the November elections, President Obama's health care law now faces an even bigger hurdle: the reality of making it work.
December 14, 2012Raising Medicare Age Won't Save Money But Will Cost Lives By Joe Conason
Raising taxes on the rich alone won't close the deficit or erase the national debt, as Republicans superciliously inform us over and over again. But in their negotiations with the White House to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, congressional Republicans seem obsessed with a change in Medicare eligibility whose budgetary impact (when compared with ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy) is truly negligible -- but whose human toll would be immense.
December 13, 2012Fiscal Cliff Creates Problems That Don't Faze Obama By Michael Barone
Is Barack Obama bluffing when he threatens to go over the fiscal cliff if Republicans refuse to agree to higher tax rates on high earners?
December 13, 2012Crashing Federal Hypocrisy on Pot By Froma Harrop
Ah, the great American West, where man can generally breathe free and also inhale -- woman, too. Thank you, thank you, voters in Colorado and Washington state, for legalizing marijuana. But will Washington, D.C., leave you alone? Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department will weigh its response to the state referenda.
December 12, 2012Government Gone Bad By John Stossel
Politicians claim they make our lives better by passing laws. But laws rarely improve life. They go wrong. Unintended consequences are inevitable.
Most voters don't pay enough attention to notice. They read headlines. They watch the Rose Garden signing ceremonies and hear the pundits declare that progress was made. Bipartisanship! Something got done. We assume a problem was solved.
December 11, 2012Debt-ceiling Nonsense Once Again By Froma Harrop
Nothing like a debt-ceiling brawl to raise the public's anxiety levels. The Republican threat two summers ago to let America default on its borrowing helped lower America's credit rating and sent consumer confidence back into intensive care. The people were not amused.
December 10, 2012Mexican Migration May Be Over By Michael Barone
Is mass migration from Mexico to the United States a thing of the past? At least for the moment, it is. Last May, the Pew Hispanic Center, in a study based on U.S. and Mexican statistics, reported that net migration from Mexico to this country had fallen to zero from 2005 to 2010.
December 7, 2012Arithmetic For Republicans: Why Boehner's 'Offer' Just Doesn't Add Up By Joe Conason
If President Obama honestly wants to negotiate an agreement with Republicans before the year-end fiscal deadline, he must be deeply frustrated. And if he doesn't really want to negotiate with them, then he should be delighted, for the same reason: Their latest "offer" laid before him by House Speaker John Boehner demonstrates again their refusal to reveal their true intentions -- and their inability to do simple arithmetic.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            December 7, 2012Republicans Miss the Point on 'Fiscal Cliff' Debate By Scott Rasmussen
President Obama is winning the messaging wars in the "fiscal cliff" debate largely because Republicans aren't even in the game.   
The GOP leadership in Washington keeps talking as if the issue is deficit reduction, while the president is talking about fairness.   
December 6, 2012Higher Tax Rates Won't Support Entitlement State By Michael Barone
The fiscal cliff negotiations seem to be foundering on Barack Obama's insistence on higher tax rates on high earners and House Republican leaders' insistence on opposing them. The president believes he has a mandate from voters for his position, and House Republicans believe they have a mandate from voters for theirs.
December 6, 2012Feds Subsidize Risk on Farms as Well as Beaches By Froma Harrop
As global warming causes more serious and frequent shoreline flooding, indignation rises over federal programs helping owners of beach properties rebuild in places the ocean wants to take back. Superstorm Sandy was a lollapalooza in terms of waterfront damage and demands on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's resources.
December 5, 2012Food Bunk By John Stossel
With America's "fiscal cliff" approaching, pundits wring their hands over the supposed catastrophe that government spending cuts will bring. A scare newsletter called "Food Poisoning Bulletin" warns that if government reduces food inspections, "food will be less safe ... (because) marginal companies ... (will) cut corners."
December 4, 2012Meet the Undressed: Newswomen on TV By Froma Harrop
On a recent "Meet the Press," host David Gregory presided in a tailored jacket and tie. Panelists Al Sharpton, David Brooks and Ken Burns appeared similarly professional. But the two female panelists, Andrea Mitchell and Carly Fiorina, seemed ready for cocktails, not coffee, in form-fitting dresses, arms naked to the world.
December 3, 2012Men Find Careers in Collecting Disability By Michael Barone
Americans are very generous to people with disabilities. Since passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990, millions of public and private dollars have been spent on curb cuts, bus lifts and special elevators.
November 30, 2012Elder Lobby Should Back off on Medicare By Froma Harrop
AARP's shot over the bow on the fiscal cliff talks is most unpleasant. Perhaps you've seen the ad on TV. As seniors go about their day, a stern female voice says of Medicare and Social Security, "We earned them." She goes on, "If Washington tries to cram decisions about the future of these programs into a last-minute budget deal, we'll all pay the price." She left out "down your throat."
November 30, 20122014 Senate Preview: Can Republicans Finally Turn Potential Into Reality? By Kyle Kondik and Larry J. Sabato
As the 2012 election fades into the history books, we begin our first look at the 2014 contests for Senate, House and Governor. Let’s start with the Senate, which will be the site of an intense battle for control once again. Before looking ahead at the Republicans’ prospects to gain the six seats they need to win control of the Senate, it is first important -- though for Republicans, painful -- to look back at the past two Senate cycles.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            November 30, 2012President's First-term Gamble Will Determine Success of Second Term By Scott Rasmussen
One little noticed and quite remarkable aspect of Election 2012 is that Barack Obama won a majority of the popular vote for the second consecutive time. With the exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt's four-term run in the 1930s and '40s, it's the first time the Democrats have won a majority of the presidential vote in back-to-back elections since 1836.
November 29, 2012The Tyranny of Good Intentions at U.S. Colleges By Michael Barone
In 1902, journalist Lincoln Steffens wrote a book called "The Shame of the Cities." At the time, Americans took pride in big cities, with their towering skyscrapers, productive factories and prominent cultural institutions.    