Author: Dick Morris

What is holding up Hillary Clinton? With all the negatives piling up at her door, why is she still dominant among Democratic voters. Do the erased emails, the mounting evidence that she lied about Benghazi, the mountains of cash that have poured into the Clintons’ pockets make no difference? Have our Democratic cousins lost their […]

The Trans-Pacific Partnership has nothing to do with trade. While it officially embraces 12 countries plus the U.S., 76 percent of our trade with the 12 is with Mexico and Canada, already covered by NAFTA. Any growth exports is likely to have been already covered by NAFTA, making the TPP irrelevant to our trade relations. […]

Democrats are salivating at the prospect of recapturing the Senate in 2016. With 24 of the 34 seats up in this cycle now held by Republicans, the Dems are hoping to make up for the ground they lost in the upper chamber in 2010 and 2014. The decisions of Dan Coats, R-Ind., and Marco Rubio, […]

Being outside of Washington, D.C., is usually an advantage for a presidential aspirant as he confronts the crowded field of potential Republican candidates. Away from the taint and dealmaking of Washington, governors and former governors generally can run against Washington like Presidents Bush-43, Clinton and Reagan. But this year is different. Serving in the Senate […]

I was there in 1993 when Mike Huckabee beat the vaunted Clinton machine in their Arkansas backyard, even as the president pulled all the strings he could to defeat the Republican’s upstart bid for lieutenant governor. Those who, today, question his ability to match up with Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail should examine the […]

Imagine if Republicans could force President Obama to rescind his executive amnesty for immigrants coming to this country illegally. Or repeal the mandate to buy health insurance that lies at the core of Obamacare. Or revoke the EPA regulations that are increasingly embracing all aspects of American life in the name of stopping climate change. […]

A false choice dominates Republican thinking: Move to the center to get independents even though it offends your base and your principles, or you run to the right, lose swing voters and pray that the higher turnout will help you win. But that dichotomy applies only to social issues like abortion or gay marriage where […]

Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement, Congress could lose the power to restrict immigration. We could find ourselves back in the era before the 1920s when there were no restrictions on immigration and anyone from anywhere could come to our shores. And Republicans, from Mitch McConnell and John Boehner on down, are unwittingly […]

If Hillary is elected, hers’ will be the key voice in determining if Iran is obeying its commitments on nuclear weapons and how to respond if it isn’t. Under Hillary, would sanctions “snap back” almost automatically into place should Iran not keep its word? It will be up to Hillary to decide. But the fact […]

Hillary announced her candidacy proclaiming that she would be the spokesman for “everyday Americans” struggling to live the American Dream. Yet we must remember that three key policy planks of the Democratic Party are diametrically opposed to her supposed goal: immigration, Obamacare and the refusal to curb China’s currency manipulation. Immigration keeps wages down and […]

Hillary’s announcement seems aimed at attracting no publicity and providing no bump in her sagging poll numbers. No hoopla. No crowds. No women talking about the history being made. Just a stealth car trip to Iowa with tweets from gas stations. All this would seem defensive in the extreme. It would appear that she is […]

Those who say that Hillary is not being hurt by the email scandal need to have a look at the latest Quinnipiac Poll released on Thursday. Her lead in Iowa and Colorado has vanished, and she is no better than tied against all Republican candidates. In Iowa, her favorable rating is down to 45 percent […]

“Brothers will be brothers” seems to be the message of Todd Purdum’s article about the Clinton siblings. Comparing Hugh and Tony Rodham and Roger Clinton to the likes of Donald Nixon, Sam Johnson and Billy Carter misses the point. The brothers may be similar, but the way the president or candidate treated them is quite […]

Politicians depend on their ability to maneuver as their most basic survival skill. Force them to stand and exchange blows without the ability to shift their ground and they are as helpless as a kitten. Presidents, for example, fail when they get stuck and can no longer maneuver, as with Johnson on Vietnam, Nixon on […]

A CBS Poll conducted at the end of March shows that Americans accept, for now, Hillary Clinton’s explanation of why she kept all her emails on a non-government server. While 62 percent feel it was “inappropriate” to do so, they largely buy her explanation of why she did so. Forty-nine percent accept that it was […]

While the GOP nominating process is just beginning, CNN/ORC International issued a poll this week that sheds light on how it is unfolding. The survey tested the GOP candidates in a head-to-head: CNN/ORC Poll of all Republican Primary Voters –Jeb Bush 16 –Scott Walker 13 –Rand Paul 12 –Mike Huckabee 10 –Ben Carson 9 –Chris […]

Bill and Hillary Clinton have carefully cloaked the foreign money they’ve accepted in the garb of charitable fundraising. But alongside the hundreds of millions donated to their Foundation were tens of millions of personal income from foreign sources, devoid of disguise, a naked example of using political power for personal enrichment. Nowhere has this transaction […]

She can’t announce. Can’t raise funds. Can’t even face the allegations against her. While her political advisors may be urging her to be outspoken in her own defense, her lawyers are doubtless advising silence. Because the emails of the secretary of state almost inevitably allude to classified information, Hillary’s actions in running them through a […]

With friends like Obama, Hillary doesn’t need enemies. Asked about his secretary of state’s insistence on using her own email server, located in her house, the president was quick to contrast Hillary’s behavior with his own policy of “transparency.” “The policy of my administration,” the president noted, “is to encourage transparency, which is why my […]

The Hillary email scandal changes the calculus surrounding Elizabeth Warren’s consideration of a White House bid. Until now, getting into the race would be seen by the party faithful as a betrayal. In the name of personal ambition, she would have hurt the chances of the obvious nominee — Hillary. She would have paid a […]

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu totally changed the Iran/nuclear debate in his brilliant speech to Congress. Until he spoke, objections to the emerging draft treaty with Iran centered on technical, arcane issues like the number of centrifuges the agreement would let Iran continue to operate and the level of enrichment of uranium it would be […]

In his efforts to break free of the legacy of the Bush 43’s presidency, Jeb reminds one of the Michelangelo’s slave statues struggling against their stone fetters. Try as they might, they remain bound to the stone from whence they came. Whatever one thinks of W’s tenure as president, lets all remember that he left […]

The 3.8 percent point margin by which Obama defeated Romney in 2012 clouds the challenge the Republicans face in 2016. Unless they are able to improve their standing by 5-6 points in the key electoral states, they cannot win. Romney got 206 electoral votes (carrying his closest state, North Carolina, by only 2.2 points). To […]

The Republican primary emerging for the 2016 presidential nomination is unusual for its extreme sensitivity to events and the slightest efforts by candidates to promote their causes. All Scott Walker had to do to vault to the top of the polls was make some noises in Wisconsin, put out stories that he was running, and […]

Why is Hillary in hiding? No speeches. No major appearances. No tours. Just meetings with advisors and potential donors. She knows she faces a potentially dangerous situation, seeking first the nomination of a very left-wing party and then looking to get elected by an increasingly centrist country. Presidential candidates always face this divide, but rarely […]

The high-profile battle over Congressional efforts to extend and strengthen sanctions against Iran if it fails to dismantle its nuclear weapons program has ominous implications for Hillary’s likely 2016 candidacy. Obama’s high-profile veto threat, delivered in his State of the Union speech last week, has elevated this issue to the point where it has become […]

President Obama continued his war on private and nonprofit colleges this week with his State of the Union proposal to end the tax-free status of withdrawals from 529 college funds. As a result, were his bill to pass, taxpayers would face full taxation when they take their money out to pay for their children’s college. […]

The next time you run into Hillary Clinton, ask her how she feels about President Obama’s tax proposals in his State of the Union speech. Does she want to raise the capital gains tax to 28 percent? How about the fee on financial institutions? And, while she’s in the mood to answer questions, try asking […]

President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron both missed the point in their characterization of the terror attacks in Europe. Obama was way off the mark calling it “violent extremism” and “terrorism” but studiously avoiding the mention of Islam. Cameron was closer to the truth, bluntly saying that the attacks represented “a very serious […]

Amid the fierce partisan debate over everything from health care to terrorism, we ought to pause from time to time and reassess when one party has been proven right and the other incorrect in their policy choices. The current decline in gasoline prices at the pump to the $2 level offers a good case in […]