Author: Debra Saunders

As he panders for the youth vote, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders promises free tuition at public colleges and universities because, he says, “a college degree is the new high school diploma.” Rival Hillary Clinton supports President Barack Obama’s plan to make community college tuition-free — that is, publicly funded. Beware, America: Imagine how expensive […]

Purely as an act of political mischief, this Republican has toyed with the idea of voting in June for Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., in the race to fill Sen. Barbara Boxer’s seat. Under California’s “top two” primary rules, there’s the possibility that two Democrats could face each other in November. California Attorney General Kamala Harris, […]

Short of buying a house, paying for college is the number one expense any American will incur in our lifetimes. And today some Ivy League and specialty universities can run well above what the average home might cost.   I have a personal friend whose son is attending one of these universities which cater to […]

In this age of hypersensitivity, the more trivial an issue is, the more controversy surrounds it. This month, Oakland’s City Council voted 5-3 to adopt “Love Life” as the city’s motto. Supporters of the new slogan meant well — and really who can object to an exhortation to love life? But in an age where […]

The left is masterful at rewriting history. Witness HBO’s TV movie “Confirmation,” which aired Saturday, about Anita Hill’s accusations of sexual harassment 25 years ago, which almost derailed Clarence Thomas from becoming a Supreme Court justice. The drama’s makers claim that they didn’t take sides in depicting Thomas’ Senate confirmation hearings, even as a trailer […]

“Did ‘Hope and Change’ really mean: ‘Arguably, better than the very worst?’” political science professor P.S. Ruckman Jr. asked in his Pardon Power blog last week. With 61 new presidential commutations making the total to date 248, President Barack Obama had reached a number of commutations greater than those of the “past six presidents,” the […]

“Sometimes I think we’re so liberal that we’re OK stepping over dead people on our sidewalks,” Daniel Bergerac of the Castro Merchants Association and Castro Cares told me as we discussed the state of the streets of San Francisco. As he knows, people stepping over dead people does happen in San Francisco. Baghdad by the […]

In their infinite wisdom, Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Legislature have come up with five more reasons for California businesses not to hire new workers. They are introducing a bill to raise the state minimum wage gradually by $5 — from $10 an hour to $15 an hour by 2022 (and a year later […]

They’re both iconic figures in American culture who are known by their first names. California’s former governor is Arnold. The GOP presidential front-runner is The Donald. We Californians who lived through Arnold’s two terms in the governor’s office have watched The Donald’s presidential campaign unfold with a sense of deja vu. Donald Trump starred in […]

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to a small room — 135 attendees, not counting journalists — at Stanford University on Wednesday about the need for the United States’ “nimble and far-reaching” response to the Islamic State group, “an adversary that is constantly adapting and operating across multiple theaters.” Candidate Clinton was nimble and […]

Washington, D.C., should host an Olympics for finger-pointing. There would be no shortage of accomplished practitioners. Start with President Barack Obama, who, in introducing Judge Merrick Garland as his choice to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the big bench, asked the Senate “to give him a fair hearing and then an up-or-down vote.” He told […]

Watching FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” brings me back to the one day I spent in 1995 at Simpson’s murder trial. I play that day over and over in my head. The prosecution had spent an inordinate amount of time asking the coroner about an indentation in Nicole Simpson’s back caused, […]

I learned a new word at Wednesday night’s Univision Democratic debate — “Hispandering.” Univision’s Maria Elena Salinas asked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whether she was flip-flopping on her erstwhile opposition to “illegal immigrants.” (It’s interesting Salinas did not say “undocumented.” She said “illegal” immigrants.) Or was Clinton “Hispandering”? Salinas explained that the term […]

Bay Area Rapid Transit Director Joel Keller wants to pass a bill that would make it illegal for individuals to take up more than one seat on the train. Call it the one-seat-per-butt rule. Keller told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Michael Cabanatuan that the measure is not intended to target homeless people; it’s really aimed […]

Yes, Donald Trump is the front-runner in a crowded Republican primary field. Yes, he can draw votes from Democrats. But those two facts don’t mean Trump can win in the general election. As 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney argued during a speech designed to stop the Trump surge in its tracks, “Trump relishes any poll […]

I could vote for Ted Cruz in the California primary, I realized as I learned the senator from Texas won not only his home state on Super Tuesday but also Oklahoma. Cruz also beat Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses and claimed the top spot in the Alaska caucuses Tuesday. OK, so maybe I’ve scolded […]

When you go to the California Democratic Party’s convention, and you happen to be the rare registered Republican in the press corps, you have to come prepared with an answer to The Question: Can I vote for Donald Trump in November? (My answer: I don’t have to decide now. Trump hasn’t won the primary.) It’s […]

Ever since Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez shot and killed Kate Steinle on a warm July evening as she strolled along Pier 14 with her father, San Francisco’s Sanctuary City policy has enraged swaths of the rest of America. Lopez-Sanchez, you see, had been convicted of multiple felonies and deported five times. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would […]

This month, Twitter announced it has a Trust and Safety Council because, as CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted, “Twitter stands for freedom of expression, speaking truth to power, and empowering dialogue. That starts with safety.” Apparently the social media platform’s powerful CEO hasn’t figured out that when you pat yourself on the back for speaking truth […]

During a CNN town hall last week, Donald Trump offered up that he probably works too hard and if he had worked “a little bit less,” he “probably wouldn’t have had two marriages that didn’t work out.” Moderator Anderson Cooper then thanked Trump for participating in the event, and the last town hall before South […]

I view Apple with almost as much loathing as I save for overzealous federal prosecutors. My last Apple phone was a lemon. The “Genius Bar” isn’t. When I hear Apple extol its vaunted regard for privacy, I think of all the invasive personal questions my iPhone used to ask before I could download a free […]

Even before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released his before-the-corpse-is-cold statement suggesting that the next president should pick Justice Antonin Scalia’s successor, it was clear the Republican Senate is not going to confirm whomever President Obama picks. There’s too much at stake. A new Democratic justice would shift the balance of power on the big […]

When he initially retired from the system in 2011, there were 173,000 inmates in the state’s prisons, California Secretary of Corrections and Rehabilitation Scott Kernan told The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board at a meeting in Sacramento on Thursday. While Kernan was running his consulting business, the number of inmates dropped dramatically. A panel of […]

“There are too many people in America who don’t feel connected. They’ve got victories that no one celebrates with them. And they’ve got defeats, and pain sometimes, that they have to absorb themselves,” Ohio Gov. John Kasich said in a speech that celebrated his second-place showing in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday. It was a […]

“There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” said former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in a message to young women voters at a weekend campaign event for Hillary Clinton. Clinton punctuated Albright’s comment with her loud, phony laugh. Team Clinton later pointed out that Albright has used that line […]

The San Francisco Unified School District’s board is poised to expand its Condom Availability Program for high school students into middle schools. The school district no longer offers Algebra I as an eighth-grade course — Algebra I has been folded into a two-year, eighth-grade and ninth-grade class that is supposed to be more comprehensive. But […]

Iowa was like a rainstorm that cleared away some of the nasty pollution clogging the air. Those last 10 polls that predicted Donald Trump would finish in first place? Wrong. The conventional wisdom about a high turnout sealing the deal for Trump proved — repeat — wrong. I am not a fan of the winner, […]

For me, the big question isn’t which team wins in that football thing this weekend. The real big question is whether local anarchists and malcontents will try to shut down any big-name bridges, freeways or otherwise jam up the Bay Area’s Super Bowl festivities. Social media and news organizations report chatter of a big protest […]

On Jan. 14, the National Park Service announced that Yosemite’s iconic Ahwahnee Hotel will become the Majestic Yosemite Hotel on March 1. A news release explained that because of a trademark dispute with outgoing concessionaire Delaware North of Buffalo, N.Y., the Wawona Hotel will become Big Trees Lodge and Curry Village will become Half Dome […]