Author: Michael Barone

“The most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t change Washington from the inside,” Barack Obama said in an interview Thursday on the Spanish-language Univision network. “You can only change it from the outside.” A better way to put it is that Barack Obama has proved he can’t change Washington from the inside. One […]

People, not least himself, have often compared Barack Obama to Franklin D. Roosevelt. You know the narrative. He came to office in a financial crisis and proceeded to take government action to revive the economy and expand government to help the little guy. That narrative was developed by great New Deal historians like Arthur Schlesinger […]

In Libya, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three colleagues were murdered Tuesday. Earlier that day, protesters in Egypt stormed the U.S. embassy and tore down the American flag. It was “the day the roof fell in,” proclaimed blogger and historian Walter Russell Mead. Barack Obama’s “efforts to reconcile the U.S. and moderate Islamism — in […]

One of the services of the Simpson-Bowles Commission was to set out a path for tax reform, with lower income tax rates and removal of many tax preferences — or, to use the commission’s term, tax expenditures. It’s an approach that has been tried before and worked. Ronald Reagan called for such a reform in […]

The consensus on Barack Obama’s acceptance speech Thursday night, and in effect on the Democratic National Convention as a whole, is that it was a bust. One reason may be optics. Obama was scheduled to deliver the speech in a stadium seating 64,000 people. But on Wednesday, after Charlotte, N.C., had been pummeled by periodic […]

“One question, Mr. President,” read the words on the front cover of this week’s Economist, behind a silhouette of the back of Barack Obama’s head, “just what would you do with another four years?” It’s a good question, and one that’s still open as Barack Obama prepares to deliver his acceptance speech at the Democratic […]

The 40th Republican National Convention is now history, and political strategists and pundits are poring over the poll numbers to see whether Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are getting a post-convention bounce in what have been very closely divided polls. Romney’s convention managers made some correct and some interesting decisions. First, don’t relitigate 2008, as […]

TAMPA, Fla. — The Republicans who are assembled here have been told time and time again that Barack Obama’s great advantage over Mitt Romney is likability. And many of the 15,000 or so journalists who endured the gusts of rain on Monday and groaned in the sun on the 1.5-mile walk from the nearest parking […]

Today, the 40th Republican National Convention assembles in hurricane-threatened Tampa, Fla. Seven days later, the 46th Democratic National Convention will assemble in presumably non-hurricane-threatened Charlotte, N.C. Thousands of delegates, many thousands more press personnel and even more political enthusiasts will be on hand. Vendors will sell political buttons to collectors (does anyone wear them anymore?), […]

Readers with long memories may recall that Charles E. Wilson, president of General Motors and nominee for secretary of defense, got into trouble when he told a Senate committee, “What is good for the country is good for General Motors, and what’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” That was in 1953, […]

Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan was supposed to be a problem for the Republicans. So said a chorus of chortling Democrats. So said a gaggle of anonymous seasoned Republican operatives. All of which was echoed gleefully by mainstream media. The problem, these purveyors of the conventional wisdom all said, was Medicare — to be […]

On the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk harbor, a coatless Mitt Romney named a tieless Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee. Romney’s choice was not much of a surprise after he told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Thursday that he wanted someone with a “vision for the country, that adds something to the political discourse about […]

Our presidential elections, pundits sometimes remind us, are not national contests, but rather contests in 50 states and the District of Columbia. And since most states lean heavily to one party or the other these days, the only real contests are in a dozen or so target states. Once upon a time, most states were […]

Traumas suffered by a society generations ago can still have a negative effect centuries later. This is something Americans of a certain age should have no difficulty understanding. Half a century ago, we had to grapple with a dysfunctional and unjustifiable system of legally imposed racial segregation. It was a legacy of the Civil War […]

Americans keep behaving in ways that baffle the liberal mainstream media. Two examples figured prominently — or should have — in last week’s news. One is the runoff primary for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Texas. Former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz thumped incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, 57 to 43 percent. […]

“Answered prayers,” Saint Teresa of Avila is supposed to have said, “cause more tears than those that go unanswered.” Especially, I fear, the answered prayers of political scientists. These days, you hear academics and pundits bemoaning hyperpartisanship of our politics. It has never been worse, some say. This shows a certain ignorance about history. Go […]

Does the 2012 campaign look a lot like the 2004 campaign? Many Democrats think so. And there are some resemblances. As in 2004, current polling suggests a close race and shows only about a dozen states in contention. As in 2004, the incumbent has been running negative ads against the challenger, hoping to disqualify him […]

Only a few lonely media outlets responded to the Aurora Mall murders by calling for stricter gun control measures. President Barack Obama and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper made eloquent statements, as did Mitt Romney, but neither the two Democrats nor the Republican called for changes in gun laws. Many conservatives and gun rights advocates took […]

This is a tale of two cities. No, not Dickens’ phlegmatic London and passionate Paris. Nor the two neighborhoods Charles Murray contrasted in his recent bestseller “Coming Apart” — prosperous but isolated Belmont (actually, Mitt Romney’s home for decades) and needy and disorganized Fishtown. These two cities have names you may not recognize but which […]

Perhaps the rain made the teleprompter unreadable. That’s one thought I had on pondering Barack Obama’s comments to a rain-soaked rally in Roanoke, Va., last Friday. Perhaps he didn’t really mean what he said. Or perhaps — as is often the case with people — when unanchored from a prepared text he revealed what he […]

LONDON — 1776 is a number with great resonance for Americans, but not one you expect to be featured on a British government website. But there it is, on the home page of the United Kingdom’s Department of Education: “As of 1 April 2012, there are 1776 academies open in England.” Academies, as you might […]

LONDON — The best view of London’s Olympic Park is from the picture windows at the top floor of the John Lewis department store in the vast Westfield Stratford mall five miles east of the Tower of London. It’s not the London tourists usually see. Westfield Stratford is an upscale American-style mall, and the sleek […]

“A step in the right direction.” That’s what Barack Obama said in Poland, Ohio, about Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment report, which showed only 80,000 net new jobs and unemployment remaining at 8.2 percent. The thought will occur to many, not all of them Obama detractors, that this was at best a baby step. […]

That’s more or less what happened last Sunday in Mexico, at least as far as most American journalists (including me) are concerned. That’s a vivid contrast with the last three presidential elections in Mexico, which had enormous consequences for that country and for the United States. I happened to be in Mexico on vacation in […]

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision upholding the Obama administration’s health care legislation was a victory for the president, his administration and his party. Their most ambitious legislative achievement has not been nullified, and they are not left in obvious disarray. But it is only a partial victory and in some ways not a victory at […]

The Supreme Court’s decision announced Monday in the Arizona v. United States case opens the way for sensible reform of our immigration laws. Barack Obama and his administration have taken heart that the court overturned Arizona’s state penalties for illegal immigrants. The idea is that states can’t pile higher penalties on top of those voted […]

As Barack Obama’s lead over Mitt Romney in the polls narrows, and his presumed fundraising advantage seems about to become a disadvantage, it’s alibi time for some of his backers. His problem, they say, is that some voters don’t like him because he’s black. Or they don’t like his policies because they don’t like having […]

What’s up with the white working class vote? For years, the horny-handed blue-collar worker was the star of the New Deal Democratic coalition. It was for him, and his wife and family, that Democrats taxed the rich, invented Social Security and supported militant labor unions. Well, that was then, and this is now. White working […]

Who does Barack Obama listen to? Not Republican politicians. Evidently weeks go by between his conversations with Speaker John Boehner, who determines what legislation comes to the House floor. Not Democratic politicians. We have it on good authority that he seldom talks to Democratic members of Congress. Lyndon Johnson used to be on the phone […]

We pundits have been busy crunching the results in last Tuesday’s Wisconsin recall election and have noted that the public-employee unions sustained a huge defeat. Some have also looked west, to California, where San Diego and San Jose voters Tuesday voted 66 and 69 percent to cut back public-employee pensions. Those cities voted 63 and […]