Real Clear Politics

Thu, 17 May 2012 07:14:05 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 George Will, Washington Post
Bipartisanship, the supposed scarcity of which so distresses the high-minded, actually is disastrously prevalent.Since 2001, it has produced No Child Left Behind, a counterproductive federal intrusion in primary and secondary education; the McCain-Feingold speech rationing law (the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act); an unfunded prescription drug entitlement; troublemaking by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; government-directed capitalism from the Export-Import Bank; crony capitalism from energy subsidies; unseemly agriculture and transportation bills; continuous bailouts of an unreformed Postal...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/another_bipartisan_spending_boondoggle_280091.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/subsidized-college-loans-are-another-bipartisan-boondoogle/2012/05/16/gIQA8sefUU_story.html 100280091 AM Update George Will, Washington Post 138113 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:15:01 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast
At first blush, it looked so deftly orchestrated on Tuesday—Mitt Romney giving his blistering “prairie fire” speech on the debt, and John Boehner telling Pete Peterson and crowd that he relishes forcing another debt-ceiling showdown. The old one-two. Dominated the headlines. The speeches appeared to reflect a shift in focus to debts and deficits. But is this really where Romney wants to go? And in the company of Boehner? What’s next, an ethnic sensitivity speech at Mel Gibson’s place? http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/mitt_romney039s_tea_party_masters_280113.htmlhttp://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/17/michael-tomasky-on-mitt-romney-s-tea-party-masters.htmlhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/17/michael-tomasky-on-mitt-romney-s-tea-party-masters.html 100280113 AM Update Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast 137983 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:16:24 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Clive Crook, The Atlantic
As always Bill Galston and John Cassidy are well worth reading. In interesting new commentaries on the election, both think Obama has the edge, while emphasizing that it might be a close thing and warning Democrats against complacency. I hesitate to put my instincts up against their careful analyses, but if the election were tomorrow and I was forced to put money on one of the candidates, I'd say Romney. I also feel that unless something new and dramatic happens--as it usually does, admittedly--Romney's advantage is more likely to grow than diminish. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/why_i_think_obama_is_losing_280084.htmlhttp://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/why-i-think-obama-is-losing/257285/http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/why-i-think-obama-is-losing/257285/ 100280084 AM Update Clive Crook, The Atlantic 132606 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:17:46 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe
PRICES WERE out of control at the end of third-century Rome, and the Emperor Diocletian was determined to rein them in. In AD 301 he issued his famous Edict on Prices, a complex piece of legislation that banned speculation and established price ceilings for a wide range of goods and services. But the ambitious law failed. Though violators could be punished with death, inflation and speculation persisted. Goods were hoarded, or sold on the black market. The economic crisis worsened. Eventually the law was abandoned. Like countless rulers before and since, Diocletian discovered the hard way...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/on_health_care_state_doesn039t_know_best_280104.htmlhttp://articles.boston.com/2012-05-16/opinion/31709002_1_bill-mandates-price-ceilings-death-penaltyhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://articles.boston.com/2012-05-16/opinion/31709002_1_bill-mandates-price-ceilings-death-penalty 100280104 AM Update Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe 61150 Thu, 17 May 2012 05:30:12 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney was against Bill Clinton before he was for him.There was Romney, campaigning Tuesday in Iowa, praising the nation's last Democratic president and casting him as far superior to the current incumbent."Almost a generation ago, Bill Clinton announced that the era of big government was over," Romney declared. "Clinton was signaling to his own party that Democrats should no longer try to govern by proposing a new program for every problem." President Obama, he said, "tucked away the Clinton doctrine in his large drawer of discarded...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/17/romneys_clintonesque_moment_114178.htmlhttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/17/romneys_clintonesque_moment_114178.htmlhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/17/romneys_clintonesque_moment_114178.html 200280089 AM Update E.J. Dionne, Washington Post 138052 Thu, 17 May 2012 05:22:09 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Michael Barone, DC Examiner
Is it panic time at Obama headquarters in Chicago? You might get that impression from watching events -- and the polls -- over the past few weeks.In matchups against Mitt Romney, the president is leading by only 47 to 45 percent in the realclearpolitics.com average of recent polls. A CBS/New York Times panelback poll, in which interviewers call back respondents to a previous survey, showed Romney leading 46 to 43 percent -- and leading among women.http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/17/recent_news_could_cause_panic_for_obama_campaign_114181.htmlhttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/17/recent_news_could_cause_panic_for_obama_campaign_114181.htmlhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/17/recent_news_could_cause_panic_for_obama_campaign_114181.html 200280088 AM Update Michael Barone, DC Examiner 127697 Thu, 17 May 2012 05:22:20 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Charles Blow, New York Times
You gotta have faith. Democrats have it. Republicans don't. That is the finding of a USA Today/Gallup poll that was released on Tuesday. The poll found that:http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/16/believing_in_obama_280092.htmlhttp://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/believing-in-obama/ 100280092 AM Update Charles Blow, New York Times 138054 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:27:01 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Carol Marin, Chicago Sun-Times
All eyes will be on Barack Obama as he comes home to Chicago this weekend for the NATO Summit.Then again, Hillary Clinton, a Park Ridge native, is coming home, too.The president and his secretary of state are a stunning study in American politics. Not that there haven’t been, as historian Doris Kearns Goodwin instructs, teams of rivals before.http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/obama-clinton_that039s_the_ticket_280120.htmlhttp://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/12547260-452/obama-clinton-thats-the-ticket.htmlhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/12547260-452/obama-clinton-thats-the-ticket.html 100280120 AM Update Carol Marin, Chicago Sun-Times 138115 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:27:47 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Christian Schneider, New York Post
On Monday, local party officials began complaining bitterly about the lack of resources national Democratic groups are committing to the recall effort in Wisconsin. “We are frustrated by the lack of support from the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Governors Association,” a top Wisconsin Democratic Party official told The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent.Back in January, the complaints were coming from the other end: National Democrats were irked that labor unions and others planned to spend tens of millions of dollars to recall Gov. Scott Walker...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/dems_in_despair_on_wisconsin_280101.htmlhttp://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dems_in_despair_on_wisconsin_RE1DCoYzJdwbztcTLeTLVLhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dems_in_despair_on_wisconsin_RE1DCoYzJdwbztcTLeTLVL 100280101 AM Update Christian Schneider, New York Post 138116 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:28:30 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Tim Murphy, Mother Jones
In the six years since he effectively ended his Senate career with the most famous viral video in political history, George "Macaca" Allen has learned one very important lesson: If you can't watch what you say, watch whom you say it to.Which is why, as the former Republican senator from Virginia makes a run for his old seat, he's taking a few precautions. Opposition video trackers are shown the door whenever possible; reporters from magazines named after early-20th-century labor activists are brushed off.http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/george_quotmacacaquot_allen_reemerges_279865.htmlhttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/george-allen-macaca-gop-comebackhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/george-allen-macaca-gop-comeback 100279865 AM Update Tim Murphy, Mother Jones 138117 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:58:34 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Peter Wehner, Commentary
In his appearance on ABC’s “The View,” President Obama was asked how tight he thinks the campaign against Mitt Romney will be. To which the president responded, “When your name is Barack Obama, it’s always tight.”Actually, that’s not true.Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 was the most sweeping since 1980. He became the first Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson 44 years earlier to garner more than 50.1 percent of the vote. In the process, he took seven states that had twice voted for George W. Bush, including...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/it039s_not_about_your_name_mr_president_280121.htmlhttp://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/05/17/problem-not-your-name-obama/http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/05/17/problem-not-your-name-obama/ 100280121 AM Update Peter Wehner, Commentary 138054 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:30:28 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest
Remember when Occupy Wall Street was sweeping the nation? The media branded it the left's answer to the Tea Party, the start of a grand national mobilization; depending on who you ask, half of America once supported the OWS protestors, double the amount who back the Tea Party. The Huffington Post even launched a separate page devoted entirely to coverage of OWS.How the mighty have fallen. The New York Times may still be trying to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation on the decomposing OWS corpse, attributing continuing policy influence sans evidence of any kind to a movement that has...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/occupy_movement_rip_280087.htmlhttp://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/05/16/ows-rip/http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/05/16/ows-rip/ 100280087 AM Update Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest 136540 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:30:46 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Rich Karlgaard, Wall Street Journal
In March 1986, Microsoft ended its first day as a public company with a market capitalization of $780 million. Its value grew more than 700 times that over the next 13 years and made Bill Gates, in 1999, the richest man ever with a net worth of $101 billion. When Facebook goes public this Friday its market cap could easily hit $100 billion, bringing founder Mark Zuckerberg's net worth to more than $18 billion. That's about 50 times what Mr. Gates was worth after Microsoft's IPO.http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/the_future_is_more_than_facebook_280103.htmlhttp://www.realclearmarkets.com/http://mobile2.wsj.com/device/article.php?mid=1&CALL_URL=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304371504577406142515388550.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop 100280103 AM Update Rich Karlgaard, Wall Street Journal 136038 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:33:15 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Ben Shapiro, Big Government
The “tolerant” same-sex marriage left has struck again – this time, at the popular hangout The Grove, in Los Angeles. The owner of The Grove, Rick Caruso, tweeted that iconic boxing great and Philippines Congressman Manny Pacquiao would not be allowed “on the premises” thanks to Pacquiao’s outspoken opposition to same-sex marriage. “Boxer Manny Pacquiao is not welcome @TheGroveLA,” he tweeted. “@TheGroveLA is a gathering place for all Angelenos, not a place for intolerance.” Pacquiao was...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/thought_police_ban_gay_marriage_opponent_280085.htmlhttp://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/16/Pacquiao-banned-LA-Mallhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/16/Pacquiao-banned-LA-Mall 100280085 AM Update Ben Shapiro, Big Government 138118 Thu, 17 May 2012 08:22:04 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Alec MacGillis, The New Republic
One of the rewards of being a loyal Wall Street Journal subscriber is that one gets to read things one might not see anywhere else. For instance, in Wednesday's paper there was a chilling front-page scoop about the fact that it was an American drone that had tipped off the Turkish military to a suspected caravan of Kurdish militants near the Turkey-Iraq border last year—a caravan that turned out to be nothing but local penny-ante smugglers carrying gasoline and other goods, a fact that was discovered only after Turkish planes killed 34 of the 38 of the men.Or one might...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/about_that_obama_enemies_list_280128.htmlhttp://www.tnr.com/blog/the-stump/103348/about-obama-enemies-listhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-stump/103348/about-obama-enemies-list 100280128 AM Update Alec MacGillis, The New Republic Thu, 17 May 2012 07:53:45 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Andrew Napolitano, Reason
Earlier this week, the federal government announced that the Air Force might be dispatching drones to a backyard near you. The stated purpose of these spies in the sky is to assist local police to find missing persons or kidnap victims, or to chase bad guys.If the drone operator sees you doing anything of interest (Is your fertilizer for the roses or to fuel a bomb? Is that Sudafed for your cold or your meth habit? Are you smoking in front of your kids?), the feds say they may take a picture of you and keep it. The feds predict that they will dispatch or authorize about 30,000 of...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/is_there_a_drone_in_your_backyard_280123.htmlhttp://reason.com/archives/2012/05/17/is-there-a-drone-in-your-backyardhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://reason.com/archives/2012/05/17/is-there-a-drone-in-your-backyard 100280123 AM Update Andrew Napolitano, Reason 123068 Thu, 17 May 2012 07:57:38 -0500 05/17/2012/00/00/00 Heather Wilhelm, RealClearPolitics
I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel kind of bad for rich people. Money, the media repeatedly remind us, is terrible, particularly when it's in the hands of the fabled 1 percent -- like, say, Mitt Romney, who reportedly has $250 million jangling around in his undoubtedly fancy pants.Pundits remind us that earning this much money is an obvious sign of sheer, out-of-touch cluelessness. (If Romney were to win, the only president richer than him in the history of the United States would be George Washington, and we all know what an abysmal, slipshod job that guy did.)...http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/17/its_not_easy_being_rich__114171.htmlhttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/17/its_not_easy_being_rich__114171.htmlhttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/17/its_not_easy_being_rich__114171.html 200280094 AM Update Heather Wilhelm, RealClearPolitics 138125 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/europe_welcome_to_chicago_please_try_not_to_sneeze_280119.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-europe-20120517,0,2063937.story http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-europe-20120517,0,2063937.story 100280119 Editorials Thu, 17 May 2012 08:13:22 -0500 Chicago Tribune 138120 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/don039t_use_debt_ceiling_to_force_spending_cuts_280116.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-boehners-lamentable-desire-to-repeat-bad-history/2012/05/16/gIQAc3deUU_story.html 100280116 Editorials Thu, 17 May 2012 07:45:59 -0500 Washington Post 137964 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/harvard039s_quotwoman_of_colorquot_280115.html http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20220517harvards_woman_of_color/ http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20220517harvards_woman_of_color/ 100280115 Editorials Thu, 17 May 2012 07:46:45 -0500 Boston Herald 136544 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/05/17/gov_christie_plays_politics_on_health_care_280122.html http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20120516_Health_care_losing_to_politics.html http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20120516_Health_care_losing_to_politics.html 100280122 Editorials Thu, 17 May 2012 07:48:02 -0500 Philadelphia Inquirer 138121