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Check out iHaveNet.com for social and political commentary 127 50 As the economy twists downward for most of us -- as the politics of money tightens like a noose around everything we love -- I think about the disintegration of human values, which insane logic and the Republicans tells us we can no longer afford http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/A-Shortage-of-Mercy_2013-03-2622.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Sometimes what I fear most is that the disintegration of public life -- indeed, the very idea of the public good -- is complete. The vultures and profiteers swarm around the carcass and make a profit and that's all that matters http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Separation-of-Profit-and-State_2013-03-2621.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST We're still legislating and regulating private morality, while at the same time ignoring the much larger crisis of public morality in America. What powerful people do in their boardrooms is the public's business. Our democracy needs protection from the depredations of big money http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Morality-Brigade_2013-03-3004.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST The nation is once again polarized, but I don't hear our politicians talking about social justice or the public good. They're talking instead about the budget deficit and sequestration. At bottom, though, the issue is still social justice http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/What-Would-RFK-Do_2013-03-3003.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST There was a time when the lines between the practices of politics and journalism were clear-cut. Professional politicians did their thing; professional journalists did theirs. Seldom did the two meet in public opinion forums http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Politics-and-Journalism_Partisan-Echo-Chambers_2013-03-2605.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Multiple-match public financing has the potential to deliver a government that takes the side of the people, not the side of money. On that hope alone, it's worth a try http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Campaign-Finance-Reform-Brings-About-Strategic-Shifts_2013-03-2624.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Not everyone who depends on the federal government is suffering in these austere times. The USDA is on the verge of purchasing 400,000 tons of sugar in a massive bailout of domestic sugar processors. It's the sweetest of deals for the big companies http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Big-Sugar-Subsidy-How-Sweet-It-Is_2013-03-2602.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Whenever somebody says something like, 'Now, I know this isn't PC, but...,' watch out. It probably means they're about to say something rude. In the case of Dr. Ben Carson, the world-famous neurosurgeon, the rudeness was pointedly public http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Dr-Ben-Carson_New-Right-Wing-Hero_2013-03-2603.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Just because things can be put on the same list doesn't mean they are necessarily similar. I bring this up for the simple reason that we're hearing a lot about how the GOP must deal with 'abortion and gay marriage' as if they are almost the same issue http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/One-of-These-Things-is-Not-Like-the-Other_2013-03-2604.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Today's GOP believes its solemn duty is to mow down workers' rights and wage protections. The onslaught is incredibly well-organized, particularly at the state level, where the well-manicured hand of the American Legislative Exchange Council is all over it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/GOP-Assault-on-Workers-Rights-Continues_2013-03-2625.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST The ruminations of Jeb Bush, son of one former president and younger brother of another, on maybe seeking the presidency in 2016 raises among other possibilities another campaign clash of the Bush and Clinton dynasties http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/One-More-Bush_2013-03-2609.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST For all the clamor from the White House and many in Congress to address the American scourge of gun violence, signs continue to point to a half-measure solution at best http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Gun-Control-Timid-Advocates_2013-03-2613.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST There's a little known fact about guns in America, and it's one that the firearms industry and its political allies don't like to dwell on: The rate of gun ownership in America is declining. This has been the case for decades http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Gun-Lobby-Defends-Their-Cynical-Business-Model_2013-03-2619.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Let there be no cheers for Rob Portman. The Ohio senator, a conservative Republican, did something conservative Republicans do not do. He came out for same-sex marriage. And what prompted this? The senator made his U-turn because of Will http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Senator-Rob-Portman_Right-Decision-Wrong-Reason_2013-03-2618.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Recently, politicians who helped craft the Affordable Care Act celebrated in self-congratulatory style the third anniversary of that monstrosity which will soon extinguish health care as we've known it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obamacare_Unhappy-Anniversary_2013-03-2601.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Paul Ryan's revamped plan to balance the budget includes a pledge to 'repeal and replace Obamacare.' With slow economic and job growth continuing to plague the country, a decision to pivot back to that first-term battleground challenges common sense http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fighting-the-Last-Political-War_2013-03-2611.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, in an ambitious effort to direct a party makeover in wake of its defeat last November, has targeted the next presidential cycle's debates and primaries http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republican-RNC-Power-Grab_2013-03-2615.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST In what unfortunately has been labeled an 'autopsy' of the Republican defeat last November, surgeons of the party establishment and its most conservative offshoot had their scalpels out recently, carving up the corpse http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-GOP-Goes-Under-the-Knife_2013-03-2614.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Will Republican leaders listen to their own report that calls for minority outreach? First, they have to convince their party's right-wingers to avoid making younger and nonwhite voters feel about as welcome as a cheeseburger at a vegan buffet http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/GOP-Republican-Reboot_A-Grand-Open-Party_2013-03-2110.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Among the casualties of the 2012 presidential election, along with Mitt Romney, was the vanishing breed of moderate Republicans of which he once was a star, until his embarrassing lurch into conservatism http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Demise-of-Moderate-Republicanism_2013-03-2612.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Jeb Bush, has long advocated a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, roughly in line with current thinking of a bipartisan group in Congress. Yet in his new book, Bush has flip-flopped on the question of the path to citizenship http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/GOP-Needs-to-Make-Up-its-Mind-on-Immigration-Reform_2013-03-2620.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Libertarianism has a better brand name than conservatism these days, particularly among young people. Conservatives shouldn't be freaking out about this any more than libertarians should start a victory dance http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fusion-Power-on-the-Right_2013-03-2115.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Perhaps it's time for both sides to consider an underappreciated fact of American life: The system we are trying to perpetuate was created for the explicit benefit of the so-called greatest generation, the most coddled and cared for cohort in American history http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Greatest-Generation-the-Most-Entitled_2013-03-2113.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST It is the very definition of liberalism run amok, a good idea (people should limit their intake of sugary soft drinks) driven headlong into the weeds of overkill, overregulation and basic preposterousness http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Michael-Bloomberg_Freedom-to-Make-Stupid-Decisions_2013-03-2617.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST After all the thunder and lightning signifying nothing but more Republican obstructionism, former Sen. Chuck Hagel has taken over at the Pentagon, vowing a realistic approach to America's military role in the world http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Chuck-Hagel-Survives_2013-03-2607.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Republicans and Democrats are blaming one another for cuts to the defense budget. But with annual deficits of $1 trillion and a total debt nearing $17 trillion, the United States was bound to re-examine its expensive overseas commitments and strategic profile http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/American-Recessional_2013-03-3001.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Obama takes a bunch of Republican senators to dinner and invites the losing GOP vice-presidential nominee to lunch. Meanwhile, a Republican filibusters for 13 hours against theoretical use of unmanned drones on our own soil. What's going on here? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/On-Talking-Things-Out_2013-03-2610.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST If you took Rand Paul duck hunting, he'd probably shoot the decoy. That's the impression he gave when he took the floor of the Senate for a 13-hour rambling real-life imitation of Jimmy Stewart's filibuster in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Rand-Paul-Filibuster-Stunt-Misses-the-Point_2013-03-2109.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST A Democratic president clings to his constitutional right to rain death from the sky on American citizens drinking Frappuccinos, and conservatives attack the Republican senator who complains about it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/What-Rand-Paul-Got-Right_2013-03-2114.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST President Obama should listen to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the 'founder' of shuttle diplomacy. Kissinger sees little hope in the 'Arab Spring,' nor is he optimistic about peace in the region following the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Flight-of-Fancy_2013-03-2106.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Shouldn't conservative Republicans be ecstatic by New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie's record? Not the folks at CPAC, which decided not to invite one of the party's superstars to its annual gathering http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Downside-of-Conservative-Orthodoxy_2013-03-2103.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST What can you do with a man like Chris Christie? The answer, according to many with the conservative movement: Throw him overboard. The popular governor of New Jersey has certainly angered many conservatives http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/CPAC-Unwise-to-Snub-Chris-Christie_2013-03-2111.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST The Iraq war justifiably led to a lot of media soul-searching about how journalists were too credulous of the Bush administration's arguments. A similar discussion about how we got stuck in the Obamacare quagmire seems long overdue http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Its-I-Told-You-So-on-Obamacare_2013-03-2112.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST After three months of licking the wounds of his defeat, Mitt Romney surfaced on Fox News with a somewhat unexpected rationale for his disappointing election outcome. What cost him the White House, he seemed to say, was Obamacare http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Mitt-Romney-Surprising-Post-Mortem_2013-03-2608.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST In this era of debt and fiscal dysfunction, it's less than heartening to learn from the Congressional Research Service that the nation's four living former Presidents received $3.7 million in pensions and operating expenses last year from American taxpayers http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Do-We-Need-to-Maintain-A-Dole-For-Former-Presidents_2013-03-2616.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST We're back in 'Hooverville,' the name given to shanty towns that popped up during the Great Depression. It isn't that bad yet, though the Obama administration is forecasting gloom and doom if Republicans don't cave on another tax increase http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Sequesterville_2013-03-2104.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST At the end of 1995 and stretching into January 1996, the federal government 'shut down' because of an impasse between President Clinton and House Republicans. The issue was increased taxes vs. less spending. Sound familiar? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Extortionist-in-Chief_2013-03-2101.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Given his track record, former President Clinton is not the person I would consult about 'committed, loving relationships.' Clinton used those words in a recent op-ed, urging the Supreme Court to overturn the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Sound-of-Inevitability_2013-03-2105.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Jerry Brown, who first served at age 38 as California's chief executive (1976-83), has returned at age 74 in the third year of his third term (2011-2015), arguably going stronger than ever http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Bringing-California-Back_2013-03-2606.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST California now works on the principle of the mordida, or 'bite.' Its government assumes that it can take something extra from residents for the privilege of living in their special state. Gov. Jerry Brown made that assumption explicit in his latest back-and-forth http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-California-Mordida_2013-03-3002.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST You have to credit Rick Scott for coming around on Medicaid expansion. I never thought it would happen. Yet now Scott is one of eight Republican governors to announce their support for it. How refreshing to see fierce opposition give way to reasoned acceptance http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/GOP-Governors-Still-Know-a-Good-Deal-When-They-See-One_2013-03-2623.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Governor Rick Scott was one of those tea party stars whom voters believed had the courage of his convictions to block The Affordable Care Act. But recently, Scott made an abrupt about-face, embracing a three-year expansion of Medicaid coverage http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Governor-Scott-to-Florida-Voters-Never-Mind_2013-03-2102.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST In Florida, not much is asked of the lieutenant governor. It's a sham job, devoid of responsibility. Your typical day is spent attending dull functions that the governor chooses to avoid. Unless you end up like Jennifer Carroll http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Another-Scandal-in-Tallahassee-You-Bet_2013-03-2108.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Rick Scott campaigned for governor on the promise of running Florida like a big business, but the one big business -- Citizens Property Insurance Corp. -- that Florida actually runs is out of control http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/This-Florida-Citizen-Outraged-by-Citizens-Insurance_2013-03-2107.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST With the Iraq war fading into memory even as the country still simmers, the United States peace movement faces the need to reframe its message. The peace movement needs to make it clear not only what it is against, but what it is for http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/The-United-States-of-America-after-Hegemony_2013-04-0201.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Sometimes Supreme Court Justice Scalia reminds me of the grumpy old cranks in the balcony of 'The Muppet Show.' And talk Scalia did during oral arguments over the survival of a controversial provision in the 1965 Voting Rights Act http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/The-Supreme-Court-Ponders-if-Is-Racism-Over_2013-03-2104.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST I can only hope that the scourge of racism is finally purged from the 10 New Hampshire towns covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires local officials to get permission on any changes to their election laws http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/The-Supreme-Court-Ruling-on-Racial-Progress_2013-03-2105.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Some years back, Detroit leaders announced a 'Renaissance' for the city. Detroit needs more than a Renaissance. It needs a revival, but that is not likely to happen as long as Democrats maintain their political stranglehold http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/Detroit-Decline_2013-03-2101.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST The Maryland legislature recently voted to abolish capital punishment in the state, making Maryland the sixth state in the last six years to eliminate the death penalty http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/Death-and-Life-in-Maryland_2013-03-2102.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST Now that they're facing Washington's first serious push for new gun violence prevention laws since the Columbine massacre, gun lobbyists are grasping at straw http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/Signs-that-the-NRA-is-Losing_2013-03-2103.html Mon, 15 April 2013 13:48:00 EST In his first term President Obama was criticized for trash-talking the one-percenters while enjoying the aristocracy of Martha's Vineyard and the nation's most exclusive golf courses. Now, that paradox has continued right off the bat in the second term http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Gilded-Class-Warriors_2013-02-2502.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST A leaked United States Department of Justice white paper supporting the killing of terrorists overseas who happen to hold American citizenship is causing mass hyperventilation across America http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Assassination-Memo-a-First-Step-in-Setting-New-Warfare-Parameters_2013-02-2504.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Just as Lenin's body remains on public display in Russia, because one never knows when he might be useful to rally the masses, so, too, does the ghost of the late Joseph McCarthy remain a useful symbol for Democrats in Washington http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Double-Threats_2013-02-2006.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Dear David from Georgia: I want to thank you for the email you sent me recently. It made me laugh out loud. It seems you are somewhat unhappy that I took a shot at Rush Limbaugh http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Rush-to-the-Defense-Not-So-Fast_2013-02-2033.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The Republican Party, as presently constituted, is now widely perceived as a handy whipping boy for the Democrats. Why in the world would the Dems want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? The GOP has been great at antagonizing significant parts of the electorate http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Why-Annihilate-the-GOP_2013-02-2024.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Maybe the party is finally over. Meaning not simply the Grand Old Party, but more specifically the bacchanal of the bizarre and carnival of crazy to which it has lately devolved. Except now we see signs suggesting maybe a corner has been turned http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/A-New-GOP-or-Just-A-Cosmetic-Touchup_2013-02-2032.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Building roads and schools is a big reason why God created Democrats in the first place. And identifying the Next Big Thing -- and taking credit for it -- is something of a vocation for many liberal policymakers. But are these really the drivers of economic growth? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Government-Spending-That-Is-not-Smart_2013-02-2018.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The first few weeks of the second Obama administration have signaled that a more assertive president now sits behind the Oval Office desk than the one who settled in there after his first inauguration four years ago http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Second-Coming_2013-02-2025.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST One of the great things about American politics is its capacity for punishing hubris. For the ancient Greeks, hubris was defined as taking too much pleasure in the humiliation of your foes. In its modern usage it usually means the pride that comes before the fall http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Operation-Hubris_2013-02-2022.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST After losing the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, the Republican Party should be painfully aware of their need to step outside of the conservative bubble and talk to people who are not already voting for them http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Can-the-Republican-Party-Escape-Its-Bubble_2013-02-2010.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Since conservatives are losing the culture which in turn leads to losing at politics, maybe that money could be better spent on producing some cultural ammo of our own? It's a bad idea http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Leave-Liberal-Hollywood-to-the-Liberals_2013-02-2023.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The GOP has its troubles. Long-term demographic trends; often-irrational animosity; a thumbless grasp of the culture on the part of many Republicans: All of these things create a headwind for the conservative movement. But here's the weird part http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Can-GOP-Local-Success-Translate-to-Federal-Level_2013-02-2017.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST House Republicans don't seem to get it. After getting pummeled by Hispanic voters in the 2012 election, they now want to create an underclass of 11 million people -- mostly Latinos -- by denying undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/United-States-Should-not-Create-Underclass-of-Immigrants_2013-02-2036.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Senator Marco Rubio's manufactured outrage over President Barack Obama's leaked immigration proposal illustrates the current Republican dilemma: They have to sound like they're doing battle with this president even when they agree with him http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Rubio-vs-an-Invisible-Obama_2013-02-2014.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Marco Rubio, the Republicans' big Hispanic hope for 2016, is a smart politician who might still make it to his party's presidential ticket, but he blew it big time during his nationally broadcast State of the Union rebuttal speech http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Marco-Rubio-Problem-Was-not-the-Water_2013-02-2037.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Secret Valentine's Day memo to Senator Marco Rubio from the Strategy Office of the Republican National Committee on unorthodox rebuttal to the President's State of the Union Address http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Marco-Rubio-and-the-Republican-Thirst-for-Leadership_2013-02-2009.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST A blame-storm has broken out between Republican pragmatists who want to win elections and the zealots who love to argue. You can see that big divide most recently in the rebuttals to Obama's State of the Union Address http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-GOP-Republican-Civil-War-Stumbles-On_2013-02-2013.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Ever since Mitt Romney lost, there's been a lot of talk about how the Republican Party needs to 'rebrand' itself. However, Rubio, Ryan, Jindal and Cantor are a pretty good counterargument to those who think the Republican Party is doomed http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Two-Cheers-for-Republican-Rebranding_2013-02-2020.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Of all the words spoken, written about, broadcast or even just mused over the President's State of the Union address, none were more pointedly delivered than his direct appeal for tighter gun-control legislation: 'They deserve a vote' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/President-Obama_Blunt-Challenge-to-Congress_2013-02-2030.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST When you're a bigwig of industry, perched up high above the hoi polloi, maybe you really do think that the laws of politics, economics and even gravity are suspended, or are at least twisted, to your benefit. That's the only conclusion I can draw http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Conservative-Business-Leaders-Should-Widen-Their-Scope_2013-02-2035.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Rush Limbaugh thinks John Lewis should have been armed. Right. Because a shootout between protesters and state troopers would have done so much more to secure the right to vote. Incredibly, that's not the stupidest thing anyone has said recently http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Calling-Out-Bugnut-Idiocy_2013-02-2031.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Unlike the Sandy Hook School massacre, the horrific death of Hadiya Pendleton might not have been enough all by itself to spark Senate hearings on gun violence. Yet as an urban teen, her tragic case is sadly far more typical http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/No-Easy-Answers-for-Gun-Violence-in-America_2013-02-2011.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST If we are to free ourselves of this gun violence terror, we will have to change our minds. Victims of tyranny have three options. They can adjust, they can resent but turn anger inward, or they can resist and fight back http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Gun-Violence_A-Time-to-Resist_2013-02-2016.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The state of the union would be much better if government were smaller and if people were allowed to keep and spend more of their hard-earned money. President Obama takes the liberal view; Marco Rubio the conservative view http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Recycling-Old-and-Failed-Ideas_2013-02-2005.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST It's sometimes said that a lame-duck president is a weakened leader from the first day of his last term. But President Obama has issued a blunt pushback against the lame-duck sentence http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/President-Obama_An-Energized-Lame-Duck_2013-02-2029.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The overall failure of American foreign policy during the first Obama presidency was foreseeable. He appointed advisers from past administrations representing the conventional liberal views of the period. In military matters, he inevitably was the prisoner of the Pentagon http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Place-in-History-Already-Assured_2013-02-2503.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Whoever leaked the Justice Department's 16-page confidential 'white paper' memo on the use of armed drones to NBC News sparked a long-overdue debate about something that makes both political sides feel uneasy: targeted killings by drone http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-License-to-Kill-by-Drone_2013-02-2012.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST There hasn't been a huge outcry from those who attacked President Bush for his doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against terrorists. Recall, too, the vitriol directed at Vice President Dick Cheney for defending 'enhanced interrogation' techniques http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Drone-Double-Standard_2013-02-2003.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST 'Zero Dark Thirty,' the film about the hunt for and killing of Osama bin Laden, got a fresh infusion of buzz when outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta confirmed again that enhanced interrogation techniques aided the effort to find bin Laden http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Torture-Helped-Get-bin-Laden_2013-02-2019.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Our politics have become so polarized and corrupted that a president of the United States cannot even attend an event devoted to drawing people closer to God and bridge partisan and cultural divides without being lectured about his policies http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Let-Us-Prey_2013-02-2004.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST In an earlier era, Dr. Benjamin Carson's speech before the National Prayer Breakfast last week would have been a really big deal rather than mere fodder for a brief squall on Twitter and cable news http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/A-Message-to-Obama-Served-Cold_2013-02-2021.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The core issue as I see it is whether the government has the right to define a church as a building in which people congregate on Sundays and whether a private company headed by a religious person qualifies for conscience exemptions http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Government-Should-Not-Define-Church_2013-02-2002.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST A rare phenomenon occurred on Capitol Hill the other day when two ranking officials of the Obama administration testified that they had differed with the president they still served over providing arms to the rebels in Syria http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Where-The-Buck-Still-Stops_2013-02-2026.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST I thought I'd give the GOP a little friendly advice. Some in the party leadership are preparing to woo Latino voters. They're fixing up a package of immigration reforms in the hopes of rekindling a relationship they dumped during the last election http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republicans-Make-Nice-But-Are-Their-Hearts-True_2013-02-2034.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST Nothing about illegal immigration quite adds up. Conservative corporate employers still support the idea of imported, cheap, non-union labor -- in a strange alliance with liberal activists who want the larger blocs of Latino voters http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Incoherent-Immigration-Reform_2013-02-2501.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST South Floridians are accustomed to the sight of blue-jacketed federal agents swarming a doctor's office and marching out with boxes of files. Normally this is unpleasant news for the doctor. But it's even worse news for Senator Bob Menendez http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Eye-Doctor-and-the-I-Pol_2013-02-2008.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST '60 Minutes' is known for hard-hitting, aggressive journalism. The program on which Steve Kroft interviewed President Obama (at his request, no less) and outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fell far short of that high standard http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/60-Minutes-Missed-Opportunity_2013-02-2001.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The anticipated verbal duel between President Obama and Republican Senator Marco Rubio was an obvious mismatch. It seemed a case of man vs. boy, and of a perhaps overly ambitious agenda for the future vs. the same old GOP naysaying http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-and-Rubio_A-Study-in-Contrasts_2013-02-2028.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST President Obama's first State of the Union address of his second term, following in the fashion of his second inaugural address, focused on the state of the nation at home http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/State-of-the-Union-At-Home-and-Abroad_2013-02-2027.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The proposed increase puts more money into the hands of families that desperately need it, allowing them to buy a bit more and thereby keep others working. A decent society should do no less. Some conservatives say decency has nothing to do with it http://www.ihavenet.com/economy/The-Minimum-Wage-and-The-Meaning-of-a-Decent-Society_2013-02-2503.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST We are in the most anemic recovery in modern history. The president talks about boosting the economy and rebuilding the middle class, but Washington isn't doing squat. Apart from the Fed, the government is heading in exactly the wrong direction http://www.ihavenet.com/economy/The-Hoax-of-Austerity-Economics_2013-02-2502.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST There are a hundred places in the world that need the help U.S. power and money can provide. But we have to ask, how much can we do and how much do we have the will to do? How effective would diplomacy be? http://www.ihavenet.com/humor/Diplomacy-Lying-Politely_Best-of-Andy-Rooney_2013-02-1904.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST International law progresses through violations. We invented targeted assassination and we had to push it. At first there were protrusions that made it hard to insert into the legal molds. Now, it is in the center of the bounds of legitimacy http://www.ihavenet.com/World/United-States-and-Israel-Push-The-Boundaries-of-International-Law_2013-02-2504.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The Distinguished Warfare Medal will recognize those whose ability to incinerate a designated target from the comfort of an office chair wasn't prohibitively affected by a jumpy trigger finger on the joystick from a mid-shift java jolt http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/Pentagon-Keyboard-Jockeys-Can-Now-Out-Decorate-Combat-Heroes_2013-02-2501.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST The worst type of history is that inspired by political rivalry. The Iraq story is no exception; the received wisdom is largely shaped by Democrats vilifying the legacy of George W. Bush. The result is that most of the criticism focuses on the invasion itself and its aftermath http://www.ihavenet.com/Middle-East/Iraq_One-Day-The-World-Will-Thank-Bush-For-Shaking-Up-The-Arab-Region_2013-02-2503.html Tue, 12 March 2013 10:18:00 EST After eight years of tightened access to government records under the Bush administration, open-government advocates were hopeful when Barack Obama promised greater transparency http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Has-Obama-Kept-His-Open-Government-Pledge_2013-02-1101.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The Constitution mandates the president to address Congress on the State of the Union. But, what began as a handwritten note to Congress has evolved into televised political theatre in which a sitting president is nothing if not bold http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/State-of-the-Union-Address-Allows-Presidents-to-Outline-Agenda_2013-02-1101.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union Address -- the first of his second term in office. The speech to a joint session of Congress will be watched by millions across the nation and around the world http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/State-of-the-Union-Address-Likely-to-Focus-on-Domestic-Issues_2013-02-0801.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST President Barack Obama has renewed his call for Republicans to work with him to achieve a large deficit reduction package, but says any deal must be balanced http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Again-Offers-to-Negotiate-Big-Deficit-Deal_2013-02-0802.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST A bipartisan group of senators has just lit a soggy fuse under the immigration debate. This manifesto of mediocrity fails to address the biggest immigration problems facing America -- starting with the question of 'Why' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Immigration-Reform-Plan-is-a-Farce_2013-01-2904.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The GOP crack-up was probably inevitable. Inconsistencies and tensions within the GOP have been growing for years -- ever since Ronald Reagan put together the coalition. All Obama has done is finally find ways to exploit these inconsistencies http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/GOP-Crack-up-and-Unraveling-of-the-Republican-Coalition_2013-01-2905.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST Some political commentators are dancing on what they believe to be the grave of the Republican Party, claiming that the only way the GOP can have a viable future is for them to behave like Democrats http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/GOP-Rest-in-Peace_2013-01-2901.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST Some 46 million Americans live in poverty, about 15 percent of the population, levels not seen since before Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Can President Obama succeed in reviving the prospects of the poor http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/A-Time-to-Build_2013-01-2902.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The new Obama assertiveness may well turn out to be a formula for more of the same Republican obstructionism. He is clearly hoping that, by taking his case to the country campaign-style, he may break the legislative logjam http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Second-Term-Challenge_2013-01-28-14.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The 2012 election has shaken the GOP, as have the post-fiscal cliff polls. Yet, the Republican Party may not care what a majority of Americans thinks. The survival of most Republican members of Congress depends on primary victories http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Debt-Ceiling-Strategy-Could-Put-The-Squeeze-on-GOP_2013-01-2903.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST I don't think Obama gave a good inaugural address this time. I think it was a great one. After decades of being fed the lie that government isn't the solution but rather the problem, it was refreshing to hear a president sound like an unapologetic liberal http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Inauguration-Speech-Battle-Hymn-of-the-Republic_2013-01-3002.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST President Obama's second inauguration definitely had its high points: his uncharacteristically liberal speech and weather that broke 30 degrees. However, like Paul Ryan and Henry Marsh, I had a bad day on the mall http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Why-I-am-Singing-the-Obama-Inauguration-Blues_2013-01-3001.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST It was a liberal speech by a liberal president. That sums up the commentariat's assessment of President Obama's second inaugural address. However, his speech didn't satisfy liberal longings in some key respects http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Inaugural-Address-Not-Progressive-Enough_2013-01-2819.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST Standing at Obama's side, even more visibly during the second inaugural festivities than before, has been Vice President Joe Biden, not merely in ceremonial roles but as a key supporting player in Obama's most prominent second-term initiatives http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Taking-Joe-Biden-Seriously_2013-01-28-16.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's swan song before the House and Senate was in a sense a prelude to any future bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. It gave Republicans a last chance to cast her as irresponsible http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republicans-Targeting-Hillary-Clinton_2013-01-28-15.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST It was darkly amusing to watch Republicans go after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Capitol Hill hearings about the tragic fiasco in Benghazi. But the Grand Old Party's attack dogs were barking up the wrong tree http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Hillary-Clinton-Grilled-on-Benghazi_Punches-Back_2013-01-28-08.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST In her recent testimony on Benghazi, Hillary Clinton brilliantly fudged, dodged and filibustered. Of course, she's a pro. Aided by a ridiculous format, she outfoxed most of the Republicans with ease http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Hillary-Clinton-Dodgy-Testimony-Benghazi_2013-01-28-12.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST I don't expect you to vote Republican, never mind admit you're simply a liberal. But please stop preening about your fiscal conservatism, particularly as you condemn the GOP for not being fiscal conservatives http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Wake-Up-Socially-Liberal-Fiscal-Conservatives_2013-01-28-11.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST Obama was once right about the deficits. But the antidote for the profligacy of the Bush administration was not to increase the borrowing even more. What, then, explains the vast gulf between the prior Obama rhetoric and his current record on deficits http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/When-Big-Deficits-Became-Good_2013-01-2820.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST Recently, it was announced that a group of Republicans and Democrats agreed to get together once in a while and chat. This made news nationwide. Does that not tell you all you need to know about the sorry state of American politics http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/No-Labels-No-Excuses_Sorry-State-of-American-Politics_2013-01-28-17.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The inauguration of a re-elected president should signify the country's satisfaction with his first term. Nevertheless, of the last seven presidential repeaters, arguably only two undertook another four years with wide public approval http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Another-Second-Inauguration_2013-01-28-13.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST President Obama's critics are shocked, shocked to hear him sound in his second inaugural address like what he is, a liberal progressive. In other words, how dare he wage a vigorous defense of what he really believes http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/President-Obama-2-The-Sequel_2013-01-28-07.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST Bill Clinton's assertion in his 1996 that 'the era of big government is over' was a bit premature. In light of President Obama's Second Inaugural Address, the era of big government has just begun http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Big-Government-2_Cal-Thomas_2013-01-28-06.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The dawn is the symbolic beginning of the new day and thus, the symbolic end of the old. Keep that in mind as people parse Barack Obama's second inaugural address. Keep it in mind as they debate What It All Means http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Oh-Yesterday-Went-Suddenly_Obama-second-inaugural-address_2013-01-28-18.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST It's hard to recognize that the conservative movement's problems are mostly problems of success. The Republican Party's problems are much more recognizable as the problems of failure, including the failure to recognize its limits http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Time-to-Grow-Up-GOP_2013-01-28-10.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST Forty years after the Supreme Court opened the door to legalized abortion, the number of aborted babies has reached roughly 55 million. Think of that. Fifty-five million potential what -- doctors, athletes, mothers and fathers http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Roe-v-Wade-at-40_Cal-Thomas_2013-01-28-05.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST A petulant and confrontational President Obama spoke like an emperor or supreme ruler. All that was missing was a scepter and a crown. This president exceeds even Bill Clinton in his ability to evade, prevaricate and dissemble http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/An-Imperial-President-Obama_Cal-Thomas_2013-01-28-04.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST When President Obama told supporters that he would morph his campaign into a new nonprofit that would accept unlimited corporate donations, the announcement set off a familiar round of griping from campaign finance reformers http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Flip-Flops-on-Money-in-Politics_2013-02-1102.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The latest effort to 'control' guns in America is as likely to deter someone intent on breaking the law as outlawing lust would affect one's libido. What's in a heart can't be controlled by restricting what's in a hand http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Control-Politicians-Not-Guns_Cal-Thomas_2013-01-28-03.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST First reactions to President Obama's package of gun control ideas seem to be criticism that it's too ambitious. Predictions are being heard that he will fall far short of his aspirations and even fail to restore the ban on assault weapons http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/Obama-Goes-Big-on-Gun-Control-But-Can-He-Deliver_2013-01-28-07.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST It's only fitting that the NRA's biggest tool in Florida is Rep. Dennis Baxley, a Republican who does whatever the gun lobby wants. Baxley made headlines by suggesting that weapons should be carried by employees at public schools http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/Appropriate-Job-for-Big-NRA-Backer_2013-01-28-02.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST As the son of a woman, the husband of a woman and the father of daughters and granddaughters, I celebrate the record number of females who are now United States senators. However, I do see some differences http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Female-vs-Male-Senators_Cal-Thomas_2013-01-28-01.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST President Obama has named Chuck Hagel as his nominee for secretary of defense. The interesting question is, why. Why waste the political capital. Why pass over more qualified candidates who would sail through confirmation http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Chuck-Hagel-A-Petty-Decision-by-Obama_2013-01-28-09.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST President Obama's choice for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel has a resume most politicians can envy: a clean senatorial record, no ethical lapses and two purple hearts. However, biography isn't policy http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Chuck-Hagel-and-Defense_Cal-Thomas_2013-01-28-02.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The belief that the U.S. could and should assume such a global role and expect positive results derives from an invincible political ignorance and a credulous faith in an historical process leading ever upwards towards democracy http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/American-Policy-as-Global-Security-Provider-Built-on-Plymouth-Rock_2013-01-2815.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The United States is moving away from the view that it has the primary responsibility for trying to manage the world on behalf of itself and its allies. Instead, that burden is shifting to those who have immediate interests http://www.ihavenet.com/World/Avoiding-the-Wars-That-Never-End_2013-01-3001.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The website is called the Sandy Hook Promise. It advances no particular agenda, except to proclaim the value of life. And in so doing, the site's organizers -- residents of Newtown wounded by the tragedy -- quietly insist that this matters http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/I-Am-Because-You-Are_2013-01-2813.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST It's that time again, so I've collected a few facts about presidential inaugurations. Maybe you can surprise your friends with them http://www.ihavenet.com/humor/Presidents_Warm-Coats-and-Inaugural-Memories_Best-of-Andy-Rooney_2013-01-2202.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST The war on marijuana is going up in smoke, and it's about time. There is no bigger waste of money and resources in all law enforcement. Failure is too polite a description for the long campaign to eliminate the pot trade. A colossal flop is what it is http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/War-On-Pot-Has-Gone-Up-in-Smoke_2013-01-28-01.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST It's a myth that the right to bear arms stemmed from the Founders' wish that Americans be free to stage an armed rebellion against our own government, should it become tyrannical http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/Guns-and-Second-Amendment-Vigilantes_2013-01-3001.html Tue, 12 February 2013 14:50:00 EST President Obama tells White House reporters raising borrowing limit is necessary to meet bills nation has 'already racked up' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Calls-for-Debt-Ceiling-Increase-2013-01-14-06.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Despite Mitt Romney's heartless tendencies, President Barack Obama didn't get my vote either. I feel there are certain minimum standards that any president, regardless of party, should be required to meet http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Do-not-Blame-Me-if-Obama-Second-Term-Disappoints-2013-01-14-05.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Raising the debt limit just allows the United States to pay our bills for money that Congress has already spent http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Debt-Ceiling-Lets-Pay-Our-Bills-2013-01-14-02.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Some say that money doesn't count all that much. Even though billionaires and big corporations poured huge amounts into the 2012 election, they lost big. They learned the lesson and won't try to buy another election. Baloney http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Billionaires-Long-Game_2013-01-07-10.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Only a few days into the new year, the Grand Old Party has a huge political hangover from the events that rang in 2013. First came the escape from the fiscal cliff. Then the surrender of the GOP's never-new-taxes pledge http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republicans_Groping-Old-Party_JW_2013-01-07-07.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST The United States Congress simply postponed its tough decisions on federal spending until March http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/On-to-the-Next-Cliff-2013-01-14-03.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Everything that everyone loathes about Washington was present in the 'fiscal cliff' bill just passed by Congress. It is 153 pages long. It was delivered in the middle of the night; and it was loaded with pork http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Congress-and-the-Fiscal-Cliff_More-of-the-Same_Cal-Thomas_2013-01-07-01.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST While many spun the hurried late-night move as a victory for the middle class, it was a win paid for with new tax cuts worth hundreds of billions of dollars for America's wealthiest families http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Dropped-Ball-2013-01-14-01.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST So we've come full circle. On it goes, battle after battle in what seems an unending war that began with the election of Tea Party Republicans in November 2010. The war isn't really over the federal budget deficit http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fiscal-Cliff-Deal-Will-Not-End-War-Between-Democrats-and-Republicans_2013-01-07-09.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Vice President Joe Biden, the Republicans' favorite punching bag, gave his critics nothing to laugh about as President Obama's ultimate fireman in rescuing the country from the fiscal cliff it teetered on as 2012 ended http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fiscal-Cliff_Joe-Biden-Has-the-Last-Laugh_JW_2013-01-07-06.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Who won the budget standoff? In one sense, everyone scored a 'victory.' However, the real winners don't come into focus until we take in the big picture http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fiscal-Cliff-Deal_When-Uncle-Sam-Pays-Dividends-2013-01-14-04.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST By all accounts, President Obama won the fiscal cliff showdown. Why anyone would take much pride in this kind of 'win' is beyond me. It's a bit like being the least filthy toddler in the mud pit http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Winning-Ugly-Obama-and-the-Fiscal-Cliff_Jonah-Goldberg_2013-01-07-03.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST President Obama has four priorities: immigration reform, stabilizing the economy through debt reduction and infrastructure repair, generating more energy production, and protecting the middle class from higher taxes http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/President-Obama-2013-Priorities-and-Guns_JW_2013-01-07-05.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST It would be nice to feel, after one of the most costly and abrasive presidential campaigns in our nation's history, that the fog has cleared from the miasma of the year 2012, revealing bright prospects for a better 2013 http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Year-That-Was-in-Politics_JW_2013-01-07-04.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST The year 2012 should have taught us that dreaming is no answer to reality; 2013 will determine how well we learned that lesson http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-When-Dreams-Died_2013-01-07-08.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST One of my New Year's resolutions is to work harder to persuade ideological friends and foes alike that the way to reduce partisanship and maximize happiness in America is to embrace federalism http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Federalism-Do-not-Tread-on-Six-Toed-Cats_Jonah-Goldberg_2013-01-07-02.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST United States power is threatened by the decline of the middle class and the potential creation of two Americas without a common interest http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/The-Crisis-of-the-Middle-Class-and-American-Power_2013-01-14-01.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST With so many foreigners wanting to become U.S. citizens, it's still a shock to know someone who has relinquished his citizenship. It is another reason for simplifying the U.S. tax code http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/What-Price-United-States-Citizenship_CT_2013-01-07-01.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST The United States is a nation of immigrants. That is the ultimate cliche and the absolute truth http://www.ihavenet.com/World/The-Geopolitics-of-Immigration_2013-01-14-03.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST There is a new-year stampede developing in the United States that we have not seen for a long time http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/The-Great-New-Year-Stampede_2013-01-07-07.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Most Republicans consider the whole idea of spending federal money to repair the nation's crumbling infrastructure nothing short of sacrilege. And yet they're perfectly happy to spend billions of dollars to build roads, bridges and schools in foreign countries http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republicans-Would-Rather-Upgrade-Afghan-Infrastructure-Than-Our-Own_JB_20121224-05.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST The big fight of the hour is over how best to deal with the self-made fiscal cliff crisis. Or is it a 'fiscal bluff?' Both sides know what they need to do, but, since all of the options will bring pain, each side drags its heels http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Who-is-Afraid-of-the-Fiscal-Cliff_CP_20121223-03.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST There is now only one commandment in the new Kingdom of Fairness: Make less than $250,000, and the government will ensure that you get your fair share. Make more than that, and the government will demand that you pay your fair share http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Kingdom-of-Fairness_VDH_20121224-03.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Strip away the false piety offered by Republican lawmakers rationalizing their decision to abandon a pledge that they will never ever, ever, ever vote to raise taxes, and that's pretty much what the explanation boils down to http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fiscal-Cliff-Never-Ever-Ever-Ever_LPJ_20121223-12.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST President Obama has turned a corner from his earlier wishful thinking about playing nice with obstruction-minded Republicans in Congress. Now, to get his way, he needs to apply the Lyndon Johnson weapon of the iron fist in the velvet glove http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Plays-His-High-Cards_JW_20121223-08.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST For much of 2012, Obama waged a veritable class war against conservatives, as if they were all right-wing clones of Donald Trump and the Koch brothers. But modern Democrats are as likely to be very wealthy as are Republicans http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Let-The-Real-Fat-Cats-Pay-Their-Fair-Share_VDH_20121224-04.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST So far, there is no sign of a shifting of the tectonic plates of the conservatism on which the tea party movement was built. Nor are there any indications that more moderate views will soon be prevailing in the GOP http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Tea-Party-Down-But-Not-Out_MS_20121223-13.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST It really is no secret that Republicans want to make it harder for people to vote. Some are even up-front about it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/GOP-Voter-Suppression-Continues_RB_20121224-01.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST You'd think Republican leaders would comprehend the futility of sucking up to the beet-faced Limbaugh fringe and pushing an agenda that most Americans viewed as extreme, exclusive and intrusive http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/How-the-GOP-Can-Blow-Another-Election_CH_20121223-01.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST In the scramble to make the GOP more diverse, a lot of people are looking at Asian Americans, whom many believe are a natural constituency for the party. But, the challenge for Republicans is harder than many appreciate http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-GOP-Not-a-Club-for-Christians_JG_20121223-05.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST I expected to see Republicans make some changes. But even I have been surprised to see so many changes so soon, beginning with the Grand Old Party's brand new vigor for making new amigos with Hispanic voter http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Amnesty-Not-Looking-So-Bad-to-GOP_CP_20121223-02.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Listening to Senator Marco Rubio and Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and of late the GOP vice presidential candidate, I sensed more than a generational shift in party leadership. It was a 'back to the future' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republicans-You-Gotta-Have-Hope_Cal-Thomas.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST To understand why Republicans have a 'branding problem,' you first need to understand how the system is rigged against conservatives. Such is the schizophrenic dysfunction of our politics http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Federalism-Could-Be-Solution-to-GOP-Branding-Problem_JG_20121223-06.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Politicians often use the phrase to justify policies to their liking. It can also be applied to the latest in a long list of their outrageous behaviors, as well as to those of President Obama http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Politicians-No-Skin-in-the-Game_Cal-Thomas.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST After 24 years in the United States Senate, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the first and only Jewish politician nominated to a national major party ticket, in 2000, had some advice for his colleagues in his farewell speech on the Senate floor http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Goodbye-Senator-Joe-Lieberman_JW_20121223-10.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST In a profession like politics and in a town like the nation's capital, the decision of Republican Jim DeMint of South Carolina voluntarily surrendering his seat for a think-tank job would have been unthinkable some years ago http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Jim-DeMint-Resignation-A-Senate-loss-or-gain_JW_20121223-09.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Words have power. If anyone wonders whether conservatives have taken the lead in effective political catch phrases, the term 'right to work' should remove all doubt http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Right-To-Words-that-Work_CP_20121223-04.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST When will liberals stop living in the past? Specifically, when will they accept that they aren't all that stands between a wonderful, tolerant America and Jim Crow? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Liberal-Obsession-with-Race-is-Growing-Old_JG_20121223-07.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Just wait until corporate executives finish slashing the hours of their workers to under 30 per week. By slighting workers the hours they need to make any kind of decent living, employers will be able to dump their health insurance obligations http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Some-Companies-Resorting-to-Extremes-to-Dodge-Obamacare_RB_20121224-02.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST The 'fiscal cliff' isn't nearly the biggest cliff we face -- if we're talking about dangerous precipices looming on the horizon. While the so-called 'fiscal cliff' could be dangerous, these other three cliffs pose far greater perils http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/The-Other-Cliffs_RR_20121224-02.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST America's children are shortchanged on almost every issue we face as a society. Not only are we failing to protect our children from deranged people wielding semi-automatic guns, we're not protecting them from poverty. And we're not protecting their health http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/Take-Care-of-the-Children_RR_20121224-04.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST If President Barack Obama appoints John Kerry as secretary of state to replace Hillary Clinton when he starts his second term next month, as some administration officials anticipate, you may see a somewhat greater U.S. focus on Latin American affairs http://www.ihavenet.com/Latin-America/United-States-May-Pay-More-Attention-to-Latin-America-in-Obama-Second-Term_AO-20121224-03.html Tue, 22 January 2013 07:00:00 EST Like things you spot in your side-view mirror, many of the budget numbers flitting around the debt talks are larger than they appear http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fiscal-Cliff_Snake-Oil-Deficit-Savings_ow-12101.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The 'fiscal cliff' is a manufactured panic that is all about politicians and corporate interests getting things they want -- things that don't have much to do with the 'crisis' anyway http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fiscal-Cliff_The-Fiscal-Hoax_ow-12102.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST They say that Social Security is the third rail of American politics: Touch it and you die. That dictum extends to Medicare and Medicaid. I'd like to take this opportunity to remind President Obama and Congress of why that is http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fiscal-Cliff-Grand-Bargain-May-Be-Anything-But_MS-12047.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The White House and Republican lawmakers are furiously negotiating a 'grand bargain.' Unfortunately, their deal may include unnecessary and arbitrary Social Security and Medicare cuts http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fiscal-Cliff_Dodging-the-Fiscal-Swindle_ow-12104.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The GOP seems to be obsessed with Talmudic interpretations of Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge. You see, if the Bush tax cuts expire, we'll all pay a lot more in taxes. But letting them expire wouldn't violate the pledge http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Fiscal-Cliff-and-Brain-lock-Inside-the-Beltway_JG.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST As official Washington nervously ponders the approaching fiscal cliff and the potential economic chaos it entails, President Obama faces a precipice of his own in the challenge of making use of his re-election victory http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Own-Cliff_Jules-Witcover-12045.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The pressure is growing in the face-off over the so-called 'fiscal cliff' in Washington. The president put his plan on the table. Republican Speaker John Boehner rejected it out of hand. And then . . . and then nothing http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Fiscal-Cliff-Obscures-Lack-of-Shared-Sacrifice_JJ.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Don't fall for the hype. The fiscal cliff is not a product of nature. Essentially, Congress is threatening to blow up the economy unless Congress agrees not to blow up the economy http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Fiscal-Cliff-False-Fears-and-Horrors_JJ.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Congress returned to 'work' to complete its lame-duck session before taking another holiday. Their task is to avoid the 'fiscal cliff,' a geological construct of their own making http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Taxpayers-Revolt_Cal-Thomas.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST As President Obama and Republicans in Congress approach the much-feared fiscal cliff of automatic deep budget cuts by year's end, his re-election victory may be his best trump card to get new revenue and avoid calamitous hemorrhaging to the social safety net http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republicans-The-Party-of-No_Jules-Witcover-12044.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST You don't need smarts, courage, or vision to change history. You just need a ton of money, the sort of fortune that 86-year-old Peter Peterson has amassed over his years wheeling and dealing on Wall Street http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/For-Petes-Sake-Whats-Happened-to-Our-Democracy_ow-12103.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Obama was re-elected by painting his Republican opponents as heartless in favoring lower taxes for the rich; as nativists for opposing the Dream Act amnesty for illegal immigrants; and as callous in battling the federal takeover of health care http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Let-Obama-be-Obama_VDH-12049.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST As Hillary Clinton nears her promised resignation at the end of the first Obama term, and absent any Sherman-like statement that she will not run for president again, she'll be leaving the administration at a peak of her popularity http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Ascendant-Hillary-Clinton_Jules-Witcover-12043.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Despite the partisan bickering and gridlock in Washington, I am encouraged by the surprisingly bipartisan coalitions that backed recent state victories. Maybe we can all get along http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Right-and-Left-Get-Along-Outside-Washington_Clarence-Page.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST What a coincidence. It is intriguing to watch Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln' biopic about Abraham Lincoln at a time when the current president is receiving secession petitions via the Internet http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/If-At-First-You-Do-not-Secede_Clarence-Page.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The vote totals (Obama won by about 3.5 million) don't look like a blowout for liberalism. But it would be wrong to analyze what happened this election year strictly through lens of what happened on the presidential level http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republican-Problems-are-About-More-than-Just-Packaging_TC-120411.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Conservatives have been dreaming that a political reincarnation of Ronald Reagan would lead them to an electoral promised land. Senator Marco Rubio closely represents the substance and style that made Ronald Reagan who he was is http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Marco-Rubio-A-Hispanic-Ronald-Reagan_Cal-Thomas.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST There is one area where Obama could be transformative and bipartisan while helping both the middle class and the poor. He could show some leadership on the state of the black family, and the American family in general http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Needs-a-Family-Plan_JG.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST There was a time when a president and the opposition party in Congress could agree on certain basics, such as the right of the chief executive to select members of his cabinet with no fuss or bother http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/An-Unsightly-Scrap-Over-Cabinet-Nomination_Jules-Witcover-12046.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Do race and gender bias fuel the raging Senate fight that has erupted for remarkably little reason over United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice's possible nomination to be secretary of state? I think not http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Throwing-Rice-A-GOP-In-Crowd_Clarence-Page.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Sometimes it takes the passing from the scene of a strong yet reasonable and accommodating voice to show how valuable and in short supply that commodity is in today's political discourse http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Decline-of-Moderate-Republicanism_Jules-Witcover-12042.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Right now, many in Washington -- particularly the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus -- insist that Republican attacks on U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice are racist and, yawn, sexist http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/To-Appeal-to-Black-Voters-GOP-Must-Run-Gauntlet-of-Racism-Accusations_JG.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST I'm appalled by the carelessness and indifference of the BP executives responsible for the disaster. But holding corporations criminally liable reinforces the same fallacy that gave us Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/BP-is-Not-a-Criminal_RR-120410.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Having just come through a bruising national election when it felt at times like the future of the Enlightenment was at stake, there is nothing like finding refuge and diversion in a darkened theater and its typically too-cramped seats http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/When-the-Curtain-Rises_RB-12048.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST His critics could not have made a better case that Romney is as an out-of-touch rich guy. No wonder major Republican political figures lined up to denounce him and write off any future for him in the party http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Mitt-Romney-Own-Gift_Jules-Witcover-12041.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Opportunity for everyone is fast becoming Hollywood fiction. Ironically, Hollywood may be one of the few pockets where upward mobility is based on merit. Silicon Valley is another. But for the vast majority another story is emerging: a new plutocracy of the super-wealthy is cementing its hold on the top http://www.ihavenet.com/United-States/The-Land-of-Opportunity-is-Becoming-Hollywood-Fiction_Global-Viewpoint.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Papa John's and other employers are punishing their workers for President Obama's re-election victory http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Corporate-Bosses-Gone-Berserk-over-Obama-win_ow.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST A major player in the debt crisis debate is a new corporate coalition called 'Fix the Debt.' They've recruited more than 80 CEOs of America's most powerful corporations and raised $60 million for a big media and lobbying blitz http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Trojan-Horse-in-the-Debt-Debate_ow.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The Pentagon's budget has plenty of fat, but cuts need to be targeted. We can easily spend much less on our troops, wars, and military research without becoming less safe http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Real-Problem-with-Military-Spending_ow.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Our lawmakers have an opportunity to negotiate a better budget deal for this country http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Without-Unity-United-States-Will-Tumble-Over-the-Fiscal-Cliff_ow.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Normally, the need to amass campaign war chests naturally makes candidates tone down rhetoric that might offend their deep-pocketed supporters. But this year the visceral anger that so many voters felt towards the 1 percent escaped the normal, 'acceptable' bounds http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Classy-Election-of-2012_ow.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Republicans and billionaires expected better returns than Karl Rove pulled off on Election Day 2012 http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Karl-Rove-The-Biggest-Loser-in-Politics_ow.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Widespread efforts to suppress voting by people of color and the poor through a rash of voter ID laws make it clear that we still need the landmark 1965 legislation today http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Will-the-Supreme-Court-Dismantle-the-Voting-Rights-Act_ow.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST As the dust settles in the wake of the latest presidential election, where can the open-minded voter turn these days for reasonably unbiased analysis and commentary on the state of political affairs? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Pollution-of-Political-Discourse_Jules-Witcover.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST America, you are an idiot. You are a moocher, a zombie, soulless, mouth-breathing, ignorant, greedy, self-indulgent, envious, shallow and lazy. The foregoing is a summation of 'analysis' from conservative pundits and media figures http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Sad-State-of-the-Conservative-Zealots-with-Microphones_Leonard-Pitts.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST As if Mitt Romney's defeat weren't a cross enough to bear, the kind of campaign he ran could make him uniquely a man on the outside of his party looking in http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Mitt-Romney-Uncertain-Legacy_Jules-Witcover.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Apparently, like tragic Greek heroes, administrations grow arrogant after their re-election wins. They believe that they are invincible and that heir public approval is permanent rather than fickle http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Obama-Re-Election-Oh-We-Forgot-to-Tell-You_Victor-Davis-Hanson.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST With the election behind us, I had hoped our politicians would get beyond games of chicken. No such luck http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republicans-and-Democrats-Playing-Game-of-Economic-Chicken_Robert-Reich.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST 'Duty, Honor, Country' is the West Point motto, but it seems to have lost what once was its compelling power over the men of the Long Gray Line, as they pursue the military careers that follow graduation http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Petraeus-Yet-Another-High-Ranking-Military-Official-Mired-in-Scandal_William-Pfaff.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus over an extramarital affair has raised and will continue to raise a number of questions http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/David-Petraeus-Sex-and-the-City-of-Washington_Cal-Thomas.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Past CIA officers have withheld information so presidents will have 'plausible deniability.' In the matter of David Petraeus' career-killing extramarital affair, President Obama is stuck with a deniable plausibility http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/David-Petraeus-What-Obama-Did-Not-Need-to-Know_Clarence-Page.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST We're seeing the eagerness to know, and to judge, in the latest and still-unraveling sex scandal among the mighty -- the sudden resignation of retired Army Gen. David Petraeus from the CIA http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/David-Petraeus_The-Public-Need-to-Know-or-Not_Jules-Witcover.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST French public reaction to American CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus' suicide-bombing of his own career demonstrates a lack of understanding of the perceived offense in favor of a blind defense of libertinism http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-French-View-of-The-Petraeus-Sex-Scandal_Rachel-Marsden.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Mitt Romney finally has it figured out. He knows why he lost. Guess what? It was all President Barack Obama's fault. Of course, that's not exactly the way Romney puts it. He puts it in a way that sounds even sillier than that http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Results-Mitt-Romney-Gifts-Gaffe_Clarence-Page.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Defeated presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who helped do himself in with his closed-door characterization of nearly half of all Americans as content to live off federal handouts, wasted no time doubling down on the theory http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Results_Mitt-Romney-Self-Destructs-Again_Jules-Witcover.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The 2012 elections put the 'progress' back in 'progressive.' Americans pushed the tea party aside and voted for an expansive and egalitarian constitutional vision where government plays an active role in problem-solving http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Electorate-No-Longer-in-a-Tea-Partying-Mood_Robyn-Blumner.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST As the numbers rolled in and one battleground state after another fell to President Barack Obama, it was time for despondent conservatives to drop the feel-better projections and start the feel-better rationalizations http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Results-Real-Facts-Catch-Up-with-the-Conservative-Spin-Doctors_Clarence-Page.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Historically, the losing party turns introspective and asks itself how to attract more voters. Some Republicans are suggesting that social issues be jettisoned and the GOP should become more like Democrats. Why, then, have two parties? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Results-Changing-America_Cal-Thomas.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST It's not to say that the conservative movement and the Republican Party are doing great. They're not. But whether fueled by left-wing glee or right-wing dread, rumors of the right's death are exaggerated http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Results_The-Right-Is-Not-Waving-a-White-Flag_Jonah-Goldberg.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST While Republican leaders console themselves that they salvaged control of the House from the defeat of Mitt Romney, they need to ponder the long-term future of the party of Lincoln and of Ronald Reagan http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Whither-the-GOP_Jules-Witcover.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST There are no smiles among the Republicans, however, only a pressing question: Can the GOP fix itself? Can a party whose appeal is wholly white and mainly male learn to appeal to a rainbow electorate which is neither? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/GOP-Biggest-Problem-is-Itself_Leonard-Pitts.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST I still don't like compassionate conservatism or its conception of the role of government. But given the election results, I have to acknowledge that Bush was more prescient than I appreciated at the time http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Results_Compassionate-Conservatism-Redux_Jonah-Goldberg.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST President Barack Obama's re-election was a huge victory for Latino voters, one that will transform U.S. presidential elections for the foreseeable future http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-was-a-Turning-Point-for-Latinos_Andres-Oppenheimer.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST If the GOP wants to have a shot at governing this country in the coming decades, they will have to shed their stereotyped thinking and understand the Latino electorate http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Republicans-Need-to-Rethink-Future-Latinos-Here-to-Help_Mary-Sanchez.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The bad news is that Florida screwed up another big election. The good news is that it doesn't matter this time. By now, Floridians have stoically accepted our laughingstock role in the Electoral College http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Results-Once-Again-Florida-is-the-National-Punchline_Carl-Hiaasen.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST As Republicans reflect on what went wrong, they should think back on when Republicans organized a grandstanding hearing on contraception coverage under Obamacare, in which they proclaimed it an affront to an employer's religious freedom http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/GOP-Defeated-by-Single-Women_Robyn-Blumner.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Elections have consequences. President Obama's stunning re-election victory came dramatically from the same emerging majority coalition brought him to the presidency in 2008 http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Results_The-Obama-Mandate_JJ.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The Progressives won. I don't mean the people who voted Democrat who call themselves 'progressive.' Though they won, too. I mean the Progressives who've been waging a century-long effort to transform our government into a European-style state http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Results_Victory-for-Creatures-of-the-State_Jonah-Goldberg.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Before this chance for post-election reflection completely vanishes, though, let's talk election reform -- and begin to push for it. Congress needs to act to clean up the mishmash of rules, modernize the process, and address the real problems http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Election-Reform_Let-Make-Sure-Every-Vote-Matters_Mary-Sanchez.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST President Barack Obama captured a number of battleground states including Ohio on Tuesday's election to beat Republican rival Mitt Romney and won another four-year term in the White House http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_Obama-Re-Elected-as-President.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST U.S. President Barack Obama said that the 'best is yet to come' for the country during his reelection victory speech in his hometown Chicago http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_Obama-Victory-Speech-Talks-About-Reconciliation-and-Hope.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Republican nominee Mitt Romney conceded the presidential race to incumbent Barack Obama and gave a brief address to his supporters in Boston http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_Romney-Ends-Presidential-Run-Congratulates-Obama-Election-Win-in-Concession-Speech.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Tuesday's general elections saw the Republicans maintaining rule in the House of Representatives while the Democrats kept control of the Senate http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_GOP-Retains-House-Majority-But-Democrats-Keep-Control-of-Senate.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The widely noted aspect of Barack Obama's reelection victory was its social and class character. The president was reelected by a majority of American minorities http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_Obama-Re-election-the-Result-of-Increasingly-Diverse-Electorate_WP.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST One can argue that voters did more than re-elect Obama. They also repudiated the scorched-earth extremism and acute cognitive dissonance that have come to characterize the Republican Party in recent years http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Voters-Said-No-to-Republican-Politics-of-Pitchforks_LP.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST In the closing hours of President Obama's drive for re-election, he sounded a most unusual rallying cry to his supporters. He urged them to join him in 'keeping on keeping on' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Obama-Presses-On_JW.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Great nations and proud empires have always collapsed from within before they were conquered from without. President Obama's re-election mirrors the self-indulgent, greedy and envious nation we are rapidly becoming http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Four-More-Years-of-Decline_Cal-Thomas.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST I went to bed last night feeling an enormous inner cry of relief that the neocons and right-wing crazies were held at bay for four more years. Now what? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_An-America-Yet-to-Be-Born_RK.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The temptation to claim a 'status quo' outcome from the election ignores broader trends in this year's health and Medicare debates, according to longtime congressional observers http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_Democrats-Medicare-Offensive-Falls-Flat-Against-GOP_KH.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Some analysts predict the mounting pressures to reduce federal spending will complicate efforts to implement the law, known as the Affordable Care Act http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_Federal-Deficit-Talks-Could-Impact-Obama-Moves-On-Health-Law_KH.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Barack Obama won a moderately close victory over Mitt Romney on Tuesday. But oddly, nothing much has changed. The country is still split nearly 50/50 http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_Groundhog-Day-in-America_VDH.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST It shouldn't come as a big surprise that a whopping 70 percent of Latino likely voters supported President Obama, while only 25 percent supported Gov. Mitt Romney. There are 10 major reasons for that http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_10-Reasons-Latinos-Voted-for-Obama_AO.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The vitriol is worse than I ever recall. Worse than the Palin-induced smarm of 2008. Worse than the swift-boat lies of 2004. Worse, even, than the anything-goes craziness of 2000 and its ensuing bitterness. It's almost a civil war http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Result_The-New-American-Civil-War_RR.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST Presidential elections decide only who wins the White House and a congressional majority. What will happen if Mitt Romney wins the White House, but Democrats maintain a Senate majority? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_What-is-Next_Cal-Thomas.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST An intense kerfuffle broke out over the poll-prognosticator Nate Silver. Silver, a statistician, has been predicting a decisive Obama victory for a very long time, based on his very complicated statistical model http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Nate-Silver-Numbers-Racket_JG.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST There are so many bad constitutional amendments on Florida's ballot that it's hard to know where to start. The most deceptive is Amendment 8, which is fraudulently captioned 'Religious Freedom' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Florida-Voters-Will-Not-Be-Fooled-Again-or-Will-We_CH.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST The mythology of the Cuban Missile Crisis, along with accounts of the cool resolve of President John F. Kennedy in answering Nikita Khrushchev's emollient first letter rather than the tougher second one, has proved surprisingly durable http://www.ihavenet.com/World-United-States_A-Date-with-History-The-Cuban-Missile-Crisis.html Wed, 12 November 2012 17:30:00 EST CBS News chief Washington correspondent and anchor of "Face the Nation" Bob Schieffer says the presidential race is "an absolute dead heat," and that the winner will be the candidate who get the most voters to the polls http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Presidential-race-will-be-all-about-turnout.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Republican Mitt Romney tells a Cleveland, Ohio crowd that re-election of President Barack Obama would mean more partisan gridlock in Washington http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Says-Obama-Victory-Would-Mean-More-Gridlock.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST President Obama told thousands lining the streets of downtown Concord, New Hampshire that voters can trust what he tells them, as opposed to what he says are the repackaged ideas of rival Mitt Romney http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Obama-You-Know-I-Tell-the-Truth.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Two days ahead of the election, Republican Mitt Romney is renewing his pledge to work with Democrats on Capitol Hill if elected http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Pledges-Bipartisanship-in-Final-Push.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST The 2012 US election campaign has had its share of memorable moments, from the topsy-turvy Republican primary battle to the heated presidential debates http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Gaffes-and-Zingers-Highlights-of-Mitt-Romney-Campaign.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Women were the winning force behind Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, and still favor the president in polls. But Mitt Romney has worked hard to gain ground http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Women-Voters-Kingmakers-in-2012.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST President Obama told voters in Iowa that he kept his promises to end the war in Iraq, provide health insurance for millions and bring Osama bin Laden to justice http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Obama-Weve-Got-More-Work-to-Do.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Many say that the country has never been as deeply divided. It might be useful to consider that while the electorate at the moment appears evenly and deeply divided, unlike what many say, that does not reveal deep divisions in our society http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_United-States-Presidential-Elections-in-Perspective_SF.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Judging from what President Obama's campaign manager David Axelrod told me, early voting figures show that Latinos nationwide are turning out in larger numbers than in 2008, which is great news for Obama http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Early-Latino-Turnout-Could-Swing-Vote_AO.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Ladies, I write to you because this is our election. Both President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney desperately need us to win, which means it is up to us to determine the path of this nation http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_A-Letter-to-Women-Voters_RB.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST As we go into the final days of a dismal presidential campaign, the biggest issue on which the candidates have given us the clearest choice is whether the rich should pay more in taxes http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_The-Final-Days-The-Biggest-Issue-and-The-Clearest-Choice_RR.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Only a dozen years after the infamous Florida recount fiasco that put the loser of the national popular vote in the Oval Office, the specter of a repetition appears to be a possible outcome in 2012 http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Another-Electoral-College-Nightmare_JW.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Regardless of who wins the presidential election, one thing seems certain: Americans are about to learn some hard lessons. That is, whoever ends up being elected will be required to work within the confines of current economic forces http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Why-We-are-Still-in-Deep-Trouble-No-Matter-Who-Wins-The-Presidency_RM.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Words have a way of coming back to haunt Mitt Romney, especially when he says them in front of TV cameras. No, Team Romney insisted, their candidate does not really want to abolish the FEMA, even if his words make him sound like he does http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_FEMA-vs-Romnesia_CP.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Only days before the presidential election, Superstorm Sandy handed President Obama an unanticipated spotlight in which to act as commander-in-chief http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_An-Unscripted-October-Surprise-Superstorm-Sandy_JW.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST On the heels of Superstorm Sandy, a minor whirlwind has been unleashed over how its aftermath may affect the remaining days of the presidential campaign. The immediate response was simple and predictable http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Stormy-Weather-Politics_JW.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST If President Obama had the time for some introspection on the campaign trail, he might take offense at all the media speculation that his response to Hurricane Sandy will give him the edge going into Election Day http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Hurricane-Sandy-Saves-Obama-From-Himself_JG.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Presidents alter the trajectory of nations and the life prospects of citizens, from FDR giving us Social Security and LBJ giving us Medicare, to the disastrous policies of George W. Bush. Here are five ways Mitt Romney would indelibly alter the USA if elected http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_A-Romney-Presidency-Would-Erase-Decades-of-Progress_RB.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Voters are faced with a clear choice. Mitt Romney is a wealthy man -- a plutocrat -- who champions a plutocrat's agenda. He would cut taxes on the wealthy and eliminate taxes on profits multinationals reporting abroad http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_President-Obama-Has-Earned-Our-Trust-and-Our-Vote_JJ.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST They still say President Obama wasn't born in the United States. Just the other day, Mitt Romney surrogate John Sununu, honest to God, called him 'lazy' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Conservatives-Long-for-the-Sad-Days-of-Yesteryear_LPJ.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST President Obama may be wrong on many issues, but he is right on this one: he may win the election because Republicans have totally alienated Hispanic voters http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_The-Key-Election-Factor-Hispanic-Turnout_AO.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST In 2008, Barack 'No Drama' Obama was the coolest presidential candidate America had ever seen -- young, hip, Ivy League, mellifluous and black, with a melodic and exotic name http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_The-Uncool-President_VDH.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST This election will tell us what kind of America we believe in. Is it the one our Founders bequeathed to their posterity of limited government, or is it the one re-made in the image of liberal paternalistic government? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_The-2012-Choice_Cal-Thomas.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Sarah Palin hereby accuses President Barack Obama of the high crime of shucking and jiving or, more precisely, a 'shuck and jive shtick' with 'Benghazi lies.' Evidence? She don't need no blinkin' evidence http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Busting-Myths-about-Benghazi_CP.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST If you want to understand why conservatives have lost faith in the so-called mainstream media, you need to ponder the question: Where is the Benghazi feeding frenzy? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Benghazi-No-Mere-October-surprise_JG.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST One of the most telling aspects of the 2012 presidential campaign now racing to its end is the matter of the vanishing former two-term Republican president. His name is so seldom mentioned http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_The-Vanishing-Act-of-Dubya-George-W-Bush_JW.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST After less than two years in Congress, Rep. Allen West has raised $15 million to get himself re-elected. That's a mountain of money, but you'd need every dime if your job was to make West look like a calm, responsible person http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Not-an-Easy-Makeover-for-Florida-Representative-Allen-West_CH.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST If women are such a coveted voting demographic, why are so many male politicians hell bent on offending us? Senate candidate Richard Mourdock of Indiana is the latest office seeker to rankle when discussing rape, pregnancy and abortion http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_What-Men-of-the-GOP-Do-not-Get-About-Rape-and-Abortion_MS.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST '... And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.' -- Richard Mourdock, GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_In-GOP-View-Life-is-Sacred-Except-When-Its-Not_LPJ.html Mon, 5 November 2012 10:40:00 EST Mitt Romney certainly has a lot of faith in America's influence in the Middle East. During Monday night's debate, he seemed confident he could end Islamic militancy. It sounds so easy http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-the-Wrong-Man-to-Handle-United-States-Foreign-Policy_Joel-Brinkley.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST In the final presidential debate, Mitt Romney benignly agreed with the president time and time again on the foreign policy issues that were supposed to divide them. What happened? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-AWOL-in-Foreign-Policy-Debate_Jules-Witcover.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST There's a good chance that American voters will screw up the 2012 presidential election http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_How-the-Election-Could-Go-Wrong-for-Romney_Rachel-Marsden.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST We're closing in on Election Day, but the questions about what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would do if elected are only growing larger. Rarely before has a presidential ticket campaigned on such a blank slate http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-and-his-Question-Mark-Economy_RR.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST An unprecedented flood of money is going into political ads. Much of it from independent front groups that are spending ever-greater sums of money from anonymous donors largely on attack ads. What is going on? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Political-Ads-Will-Money-Talk_JJ.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST President Obama began a cross-country rush to hold onto office in tough economic times with a new booklet outlining his second-term agenda and a closing argument that the choice comes down to trust http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_With-Time-Short-Obama-and-Romney-Hit-Key-States.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Republican nominee Mitt Romney appears with his running mate Paul Ryan in Nevada. Both slammed President Barack Obama for the lack of what they say is an agenda for another term http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Romney-One-Campaign-Taking-on-Water.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST The road to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory is a bit more complicated. The AP's Kelly Daschle explain http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_The-Winning-Road-to-270-Electoral-Votes.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Barack Obama pummeled Mitt Romney on foreign policy, casting him as outdated and 'all over the map' -- while the Republican White House challenger sought to cast himself as a more moderate candidate http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Obama-Blasts-Romney-in-Foreign-Policy-Debate.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST The main topic of the final Presidential debate in the campaign was foreign policy. The candidates also tried to bring the discussion back to the economy http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Foreign-Affairs-Debate-Analysis.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Conservative political pundit, Ann Coulter, is being criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike for a tweet where she called President Barack Obama a 'retard' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Ann-Coulter-Calls-President-Obama-Offensive-Name.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Ohio is an important swing state in this presidential election. CBS News' Dean Reynolds watched the final presidential debate with a group of people in Steubenville, Ohio http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_What-Did-Ohioans-Think-of-the-Debate.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST I think mandatory voting is an abomination, and I don't lose any sleep over the influence partisans have on U.S. elections. But early voting still strikes me as a terrible idea http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_A-Vote-for-Election-Day_Jonah-Goldberg.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Obama has effectively cornered the market on foreign and defense policy, leaving Team Romney on the defensive, struggling to land punches on Obama's record http://www.ihavenet.com/World-United-States_Foreign-Policy_Principled-Pragmatism-Beats-Bush-style-Bluster_WT.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST If a fourth-grade teacher was moderating the final presidential debate ... http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Teacher-Would-Show-Them-How-To-Run-A-Debate_CH.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST It's not just budget arithmetic that separates President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney; it's vocabulary, too http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Presidential-Candidates-Not-Speaking-the-Same-Language_RB.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST After more than a year of fighting over the pace of economic recovery, the race for the White House comes down to President Obama's supposedly strong suit, the conduct of foreign policy http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Foreign-Policy-Comes-to-the-Fore_JW.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST The principal problem with Mitt Romney's foreign policy statements is not that his position swings widely, or that he often reverses himself, according to the audience and the daily news http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Foreign-Policy-a-Puzzle-that-Does-not-Fit-Together_WP.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST It was one of those jokes that isn't, one of those barbs that captures something painfully true. And so it goes in the conservative War on Reality http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Reality-Product-of-the-Vast-Left-Wing-Conspiracy_LPJ.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Polls of 'likely voters' are notoriously imprecise because they reflect everyone who says they're likely to vote -- including those who hope to but won't, as well as those who won't but don't want to admit it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_The-Politics-of-Fear-and-the-Party-of-Non-Voters_RR.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Sensata Technologies does sophisticated work creating sensors for automobiles. It enjoyed record profits last year. But not enough for its owner -- Bain Capital -- which is moving the jobs and the machinery to China http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Bainport-A-Taste-of-the-Romney-Economy_JJ.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST The new stealth campaign against three Florida Supreme Court justices is being backed by those meddling right-wing billionaires, Charles and David Koch. They love to throw their money around http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Billionaire-Koch-Brothers-Try-to-Buy-Court_Carl-Hiaasen.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST The focus on style over substance in the presidential campaign debates has been an evident and disturbing aspect for voters hungering for more enlightment on the candidates' positions http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Hubris-Shows-Through-in-Town-Hall-Debate_JW.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST On the stump and in the recent debates, the president has been taking credit for things that are symptoms of a bad economy and touting them as major accomplishments http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Obama-Economic-Spin-A-New-Pony-or-Manure_JG.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST We need moderators to press candidates to discuss fundamental issues that too often are cut out of the debate. And we need them to press for answers beyond the talking points and help Americans see where candidates really stand http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Moderators-Must-Push-Debates-Past-Talking-Points_JJ.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST In form, President Obama came back strongly in the second debate with Mitt Romney, but substantively he continues to lag behind the Republican candidate. That's because the president has a record to defend and it isn't a good one http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_The-Second-Presidential-Debate_Cal-Thomas.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Mitt's obvious devotion to one woman doesn't have a great deal of relevance to women voters. Women are increasingly the household breadwinners. Yet women still earn less then men do http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Case-to-Women-Fails-to-Convince_MS.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Mitt Romney's wince-inducing suggestion for gender equality, 'binders full of women,' has become almost as much of major Mitt-ism from the second presidential debate as 'Big Bird' was in the first http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Binders-Bind_Clarence-Page.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST President Obama did what he had to do in his second debate with Mitt Romney. He showed enough fight to revive fellow Democrats dispirited by his soporific performance in their first encounter http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Obama-Debate-Recovery_JW.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST The American Left used to champion free expression. We were lectured -- correctly -- that the price of being repulsed by occasional crude talk and art was worth paying http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Left-Wants-Multiculturalism-to-Trump-Free-Speech_VDH.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Mitt Romney is correct in his indictment of the Obama administration for its numerous failures -- especially in the Middle East -- and his embrace of Ronald Reagan's 'peace through strength' philosophy http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Needed-A-New-Foreign-Policy_Cal-Thomas.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Some Obama defenders will say that Bush's deficits made it harder to deal with the crisis. That seems reasonable, even if it's a red herring in the debate about what caused the crisis http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Quit-Blaming-Bush_JG.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Almost everything we have been told about Libya over the last two years is untrue. A free Libya was supposed to be proof of President Obama's enlightened reset Middle East policy http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/A-Bright-and-Shining-Libyan-Lie_VDH.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST In a campaign season where lying has become a centerpiece political strategy, there is no greater lie than Florida's Amendment 8 http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Florida-Amendment-8-An-Assault-on-Church-State-Separation_RB.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST In the debate between Vice President Joe Biden and his Republican challenger Rep. Paul Ryan, the real winner was off stage: President Barack Obama http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_VP-Debate-Winner-Barack-Obama_Clarence-Page.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST While VP candidates are most often little seen and less heard, their debates have become increasingly valuable. They shed light on the political wisdom of the presidential nominees http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_As-Vice-President-Role-Grows-Spotlight-Becomes-Brighter_JW.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Had Vice President Joe Biden behaved toward Sarah Palin in their 2008 debate the way he behaved toward Paul Ryan in their debate, he might have been denounced as a patronizing misogynist http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Biden-vs-Ryan-Old-vs-New_Cal-Thomas.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Apparently, Paul Ryan and Joe Biden are both theocrats willing, nay eager, to use state power to impose their religious views on the rest of us http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Red-Blue-and-Faithful_JG.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST Candidates are as trapped with who they are as the rest of us. They have only their own personalities, their own intelligence or lack of it, their own virtues and their own defects http://www.ihavenet.com/humor/Andy-Rooney_Presidential-Debates-Reveal-More-About-the-Candidates-and-Less_Best-of-Andy-Rooney.html Tue, 23 October 2012 22:30:00 EST I feel sorry for Mitt Romney. By now, he has offended just about every American group, except billionaires, morons, and robots. To stand a chance, he must get his act together right now http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney_Memo-to-Mitt-and-Ann-Romney_ow.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Americans are finally beginning to see how radical the Republican Party has become and are repudiating it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-Biggest-Problem-is-His-Own-Part_Robert-Reich.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Few among the voting public have the luxury of feeling good. This is where Romney's disconnect with voters lies, and it's this striking emotional disparity that must be bridged prior to Election Day http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-Can-Win-By-Doing-One-Thing_Rachel-Marsden.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST In advance of the first debate, Republican nominee Mitt Romney has had plenty of advice from prominent kibitzers on what he must do to boost his flagging chances against President Obama http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-on-the-Spot_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST While political scientists argue that, with a few exceptions, the personal face-offs have not been decisive, they have become high television drama, and this year's series should be no exception http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Presidential-Debates-Present-Opportunity-and-Peril-for-Mitt-Romney_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST If history is any guide, much attention will be paid to the political horse race. Much debate commentary will be about technique. This is all cute but irrelevant http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Presidential-Debate-Look-for-the-Plans-Not-the-Puns_JJ.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Only days before the first critical presidential debate of 2012, why is the campaign of Mitt Romney suddenly showing signs of imploding? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_His-Campaign-Sliding-Mitt-Romney-Must-Deliver-in-Debate_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Like Mitt Romney, most Americans who amass grand fortunes have a substantial head start http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney_The-Self-Made-Hallucination-of-Americas-Rich_ow.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Unemployment is still above 8 percent, job gains aren't even keeping up with population growth, the economy is barely moving forward. And yet, according to most polls, the Romney-Ryan ticket is falling further and further behind. How can this be? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Why-Mitt-Romney-and-Paul-Ryan-are-Going-Down_Robert-Reich.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Can Mitt Romney possibly recover? Pundits and pollsters are beginning to doubt it. However, rumors of Romney's demise are premature for at least four reasons http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Four-Reasons-Why-Mitt-Romney-Might-Still-Win_Robert-Reich.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Seldom do America's two great passions come into sharp focus together as they have in the uproar over the role of the referees in each field, in the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign and the NFL season http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_America-Needs-Good-Refs-On-the-Gridiron-and-in-Politics_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Most political campaigns are guilty of exaggeration. Some distort the truth. But rarely if ever has one resorted to such bald-faced lies -- even after they're shown to be lies http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_How-the-GOP-Protects-Its-Falsehoods_RR.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST There was only one debate in 1980 between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Yet there was more to the 1980 campaign than the game-changing debate rhetoric -- and some of the details are relevant to 2012 http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_2012-Election-Could-Mirror-1980-Race_VDH.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST A civil war is brewing within the Republican Party. It's a fight between two familiar factions: the party establishment vs the right-wingers http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Republican-GOP-Civil-War-Simmers_cp.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Mitt Romney had his best opportunity to reach out to Hispanics and increase his support among Latino voters when he appeared before a Univision/Facebook forum. He blew it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-Missed-Big-Chance-with-Latino-Voters_AO.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Mitt Romney has been trying harder to connect with Latino voters. Through it all, he gave misleading answers and sidestepped important issues. It seems that his new Latino outreach is as fake as his new skin tone http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-Losing-Bid-to-Win-the-Latino-Vote_ow.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST We are in another presidential election cycle where persuading the electorate using facts, evidence and reasoning is lost to emotional manipulation and lies http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Does-Political-Discourse-Need-Geneva-Conventions_rb.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST With his intemperate criticisms of the handling of the anti-American episodes in Egypt and Libya, Mitt Romney has leaped before looking into the arena of President Obama's greatest political strength http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Another-Episode-in-Mitt-Romney-Foreign-Policy-Follies_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Blundering into unfamiliar foreign-policy territory by accusing President Obama of apologizing in the current Mideast crisis, Mitt Romney has compounded the political misstep by throwing more fuel on the fire http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Team-Romney-Doubles-Down_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST If the 47 percent gaffe concretizes the caricature of an out-of-touch rich guy, it's important to remember that Mitt Romney is hardly alone in his sentiments http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_In-Defense-of-the-47-Percent_lpj.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST It took Mitt Romney's unguarded remarks to a private audience of similarly well-heeled campaign contributors to lay bare the callowness of his whole bid for the presidency http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-The-High-Cost-of-Candor_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST One inescapable conclusion is that it is much easier to make more wealth if you had a nice chunk handed to you at birth or by marriage http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_It-was-a-privilege-Mitt-Romney_ms.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST The 2012 race has turned into one of Aesop's classic fables. After each new media blitz against the no-frills Romney, a far cooler Obama races ahead in the polls -- only to fall back to about even http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_The-Obama-Hare-and-Romney-the-Tortoise_VDH.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Life expectancy is the measure of civilization. Life expectancy is a meter of our character. Yet this subject remains almost invisible on the campaign trail http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_An-American-Shame-that-Both-Candidates-Ignore_jj.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST We're finding lots of new ways to argue about it, even if our theories are no less sharply divided than the rest of our politics http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Revisiting-Wilsons-Truly-Disadvantaged_cp.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Because the poor tend not to vote, they are often ignored by political campaigns seeking to appeal to 'likely voters.' But this reality makes the poor potential swing voters http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_The-Poor-Americas-Forgotten-Swing-Voters_jj.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Today's Republicans are capable of adoring select right-wing African-Americans. The Jim Crow revival they're pushing -- the large-scale disenfranchisement of primarily minority voters -- is pragmatic http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Republicans-Pragmatic-Racism_rk.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Did anyone think the release of Mitt Romney's tax returns would satisfy Democrats and make them focus on the real issues in this campaign http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-Taxes-Who-Cares_Cal-Thomas.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Mitt Romney has been no more unequivocal than in his full-throated embrace of the pledge to 'repeal and replace Obamacare.' But with the presidential nomination now in hand, leakage in the commitment is already visible http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Waffling-on-Obamacare-will-Not-Help-Mitt-Romney_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Something unexpected happened when I came across the Democratic National Convention on CNN. Bill Clinton was talking on stage, and he was every bit as compelling http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Why-They-Call-Bill-Clinton-Big-Dog.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Bubba is back. As a word man, I was most impressed at the Democratic National Convention by Bill Clinton's skillful speech, much of it ad-libbed http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Bill-Clinton-Secret-Make-Little-Words-Matter_cp.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST It was no surprise that it fell to former President Bill Clinton to respond to the Republican taunt that the country is worse off now than when Barack Obama took over four years ago http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Bill-Clinton-Delivers_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Forward is a perfectly appropriate slogan for progressives. For progressives, what counts as moving forward depends entirely on where you want to go -- and where you think you've been http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Forward-to-What-Democrats_jg.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST What do you do after hope and change have failed? This was the question Barack Obama needed to answer in accepting his party's nomination for a second term http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_The-New-Obama-Shows-Muscle_lpj.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Granted, the rebuke was only implicit: Sister Simone Campbell never specifically mentioned the new GOP slogan of rugged individualism. But it was no less powerful for that http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Words-of-Wisdom-from-a-Nun_lpj.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Here's what Mitt Romney must be thinking about his 'likability' numbers http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Likable-Mitt-Romney_rb.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST If Mitt Romney really wants to give voters away, I'm sure Obama would be delighted to take them http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-Misjudges-Voters_cp.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Every candidate commits a gaffe. It becomes a major cause for concern when a pattern sets in that creates a negative image with voters. That's what is happening with Mitt Romney http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-Troubling-Pattern_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Mitt Romney returned to Florida, only this time his handlers cautioned donors not to make video recordings at private fund-raising events. In other words, take out your checkbook but pocket your iPhone http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-Party-Checks-OK-iPhones-Not.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST There's another video, this one of Mitt Romney speaking to donors at a fundraiser in Boca Raton http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Distractions-and-Diversions_Cal-Thomas.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Mitt Romney's uphill struggle to convince doubting lower-income voters that he cares about them has taken another devastating hit with his worst-yet act of political self-destruction http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_The-Self-Immolation-of-Mitt-Romney_jw.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST The kind of big government the Right likes is the kind that keeps certain people from voting http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_The-Latest-Battle-in-the-War-on-Voting_ow.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Are we better off than four years ago? Politically, the exact numbers are less important than how voters feel -- and a lot of us are feeling pretty miserable these days http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Better-Off-Today-Do-not-Ask_cp.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Four years later, it's worth asking, 'What has Obama learned?' Several journalists have asked that exact question. And Obama's answers raise another question: Can Obama learn? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_What-has-Obama-Learned_jg.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Obama insists that the GOP represents old ideas. It's a remarkable claim for a president who has taken to FDR. That doesn't make it bad, necessarily, but ... http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Obama-Sells-Old-Ideas-as-New_jg.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST The re-election campaign is that George W. Bush left such a terrible mess that Barack Obama could hardly be expected to clean it up in four years http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Let-George-W-Bush-Be_VDH.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Mitt Romney should be ashamed. The way he behaved after the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, is not befitting a candidate for President http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney_Do-We-Want-This-Foolish-Man_Joel-Brinkley.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST The mainstream media needs to step up its reporting on poverty as a campaign issue http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Poor-Visibility_ow.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Whether you run a marathon or run for office, facts -- and integrity -- matter. Paul Ryan can run, but he can't hide the truth about himself http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Paul-Ryan-Runs-Into-the-Truth_ow.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST There's no excuse for the fantasies repeated by myth-building politicians like the evening's star speaker, presidential nominee Mitt Romney http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Team-Romney-War-Against-Facts.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST At a time when the two parties usually reach out to grab every swing voter they can woo, this year's conventions were unusually obsessed with firing up the base http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Both-Parties-Go-to-Extremes_cp.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Foreign affairs have fallen off the map for both major presidential candidates. Even though our relations with the rest of the world have a direct, undeniable bearing on the economic issues http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Candidates-Have-De-Emphasized-Foreign-Affairs_Joel-Brinkley.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Going by the conventional rules of American politics, the Democratic Convention was an unmitigated disaster. And, going by the same rules, GOP convention was a disaster, too http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Campaign-2012-in-a-Nutshell-Wrong-Ideas-vs-No-Ideas_jg.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST Forget the pundits about which party's message will hit home with voters. From the perspective of millions of Americans who watched the conventions on TV, the difference was striking http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Memo-to-GOP-Demography-is-Destiny_ms.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST In the context of American politics, I often argue that the left has grown confused about all this. They've tried to turn government itself into tribal enterprise of some kind http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Tribe-of-Liberty_jg.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST If extremists learn the lesson that we will abandon a core principle because they throw tantrums or even commit murder, what does that tell them about us? What might we next be bullied into doing? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Price-of-Freedom_lpj.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST The Medicare 'death panels' bogeyman is back, reintroduced by, of all people, Paul Ryan, the man who would reform the Medicare entitlement http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Paul-Ryan-Calling-the-Kettle-Black-with-Medicare-Scare-Tactics_rb.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST If lawmakers really want to stop blank checks for spending binges, they should start with the Pentagon http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/House-of-Representatives-Armed-with-Irony_ow.html Wed, 3 October 2012 10:25:00 EST A new poll released shows President Barack Obama leading GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney 48 to 43 per cent among likely voters http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Obama-Leads-Romney-in-Post-Conventions-Poll.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST The idea that you should vote for a leader based on his policy intentions is inherently flawed. Fortune moots the most deeply held policies and the finest leader may not reveal his intentions http://www.ihavenet.com/Character-Policy-the-Selection-and-Election-of-Leaders_sf.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST I don't really buy that the political climate has gotten so much worse. But even if it has, that hasn't led to more political violence. Rather, it has led to the politicization of violence http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Politicization-of-Violence_JG.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Who's buying our democracy? Wall Street financiers, the Koch brothers, among others. It's a perfect storm -- the combination of three waves that are about to drown government as we know it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Selling-of-American-Democracy-The-Perfect-Storm_RR.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST George W. Bush is being erased by the GOP as if an entire eight years of American history hadn't happened. The GOP is counting on America's short-term memory to blot out the previous Republican President http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Republicans-Erasing-George-W-Bush_RR.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST The more we know about Paul Ryan, the more obvious it becomes that he and Romney aren't a winning combination for America http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election-Losing-Latino-Votes_ow.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Mike Lofgren's book 'The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted,' is an engrossing autopsy of the current political reality http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Party-is-Over-Longtime-GOPer-Dissects-Modern-Political-Landscape_RB.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Paul Ryan sounds great, but three days after being picked -- Ryan went to Las Vegas to pay homage to Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who is the poster boy for using money to become 'politically connected' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Paul-Ryan-Faux-Populism_RR.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST The 2012 election campaign is upon us, and from what we've seen so far, the tenor of the 'messaging' is not what anybody would term enlightening http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Rise-Up-Middle-Class-Rise-Up_MS.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Here's a modest proposal I offer free of charge to President Obama and Mitt Romney: Every American should get a mandatory minimum of three weeks paid vacation a year http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_A-Modest-Proposal-Three-Weeks-of-Paid-Vacation_RR.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Paul Ryan exemplifies the social Darwinism at the core of today's Republican Party: Reward the rich, penalize the poor, let everyone else fend for themselves http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_The-Paul-Ryan-Choice_RR.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST We tell ourselves stories in order to vote. Which is why Mitt Romney maintains a huge lead in the polls among blue-collar white men http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-and-his--Misguided-Blue-Collar-Voting-Bloc_RB.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST One of the key things to watch is whether the Romney-Ryan ticket will be able to connect with Hispanics and improve its dismal approval ratings among Latino voters http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_What-Mitt-Romney-Could-Do-to-Connect-with-Hispanics_AO.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Groucho Marx was said to have declared that he wouldn't want to be a member of a club that would have him as a member. One wonders whether Mitt Romney may feel deep down the same way about his Republican Party http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-and-the-Republican-Club_JW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Hurricane Isaac may have spared Tampa its most severe hit, but the Republican National Convention taking place there nevertheless has been left with a clean-up job regarding the GOP itself http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Republican-National-Convention-Hurricane-Isaac-Impact-on-the-GOP_JW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Depending on how Romney and Ryan play it, they'll either gain mileage with the voting public, or crash into a pole. Nothing stands in their way except themselves http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Five-Things-Mitt-Romney-Needs-from-GOP-convention_RM.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST As the 2012 Republican National Convention gathers, I find my thoughts going back to San Francisco in 1964. It was was the one at which Barry Goldwater was nominated for president http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Republican-National-Convention-The-Goldwater-Legacy_JW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Mitt Romney was already polling at historically low numbers among Hispanic voters before his decision to name Paul Ryan as his running mate. Now, Romney risks a total debacle among Hispanic voters http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Mitt-Romney-Risks-Hispanic-Debacle-in-November_AO.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST If they were honest with voters, their bumper sticker would read: 'Ryan-Romney 2012' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Mitt-Romney-Runs-Away-from-his-Running-Mate_OW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Paul Ryan brings to the Romney campaign the tea party's style of magical thinking, a blissfully simplistic, ideologically driven world view http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Paul-Ryan-Magical-Thinking_Clarence-Page.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST In picking Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney has finally found a way to get the Republican Party to love him. Now all he has to do is find acceptance in the rest of the country http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Finds-Love-in-the-GOP-with-Paul-Ryan_JW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST With his choice of Paul Ryan, this should put an end to all hopes that Romney is a closet Republican business moderate, only adopting extreme positions to appeal to the Republican primary base http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_What-Paul-Ryan-Choice-Says-About-Mitt-Romney_JJ.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST The Wall Street Journal editorial 'Why Not Paul Ryan?' made the case for his selection as the Republican vice-presidential nominee in this statement: 'Romney can win a big election over big issues. He'll lose a small one' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Romney-Ryan-Real-change_Cal-Thomas.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Is this the nastiest campaign ever? That's a toughie. Past campaigns have set the bar so low that, to quote a Romney senior advisor, 'I don't think a world champion limbo dancer could get any lower' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Obama-vs-Romney-Meanest-campaign-ever_Clarence-Page.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST To no one's surprise, Joe Biden said what was on his mind the other day down. To no one's surprise either, the Romney campaign pounced on the notoriously free-speaking politician like a feline on catnip http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Thats-Joe-Biden-Gaffe_JW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST One of the few things Americans on both sides of the partisan divide can agree on is that this election is shaping up to be vexingly petty http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Mitt-Romney-More-Gaffes-Like-This-Please_JG.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST For all the media clamor for Mitt Romney to come clean on his past tax returns, maybe his campaign advisers would be better off just advising him to keep quiet on the matter, before he gaffes again http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Muzzle-Mitt-Romney-on-Taxes-Now_JW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST A debate is a 'formal contest in which the affirmative and negative sides of a proposition are advocated by opposing speakers.' That is not what will take place between President Obama and Mitt Romney http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_A-Debate-About-The-Presidential-Debates_Cal-Thomas.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Mitt Romney probably should not try to joke about President Barack Obama's birth certificate. It's potentially offensive and, worse, he's not very good at it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Decoding-Mitt-Romney-Odd-Humor_Clarence-Page.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST As with most things Mitt Romney says, it's hard to appreciate the full breadth and depth of the blandness of his delivery from just reading the words on the page http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_After-Romney-Birth-Certificate-Joke-Dems-Play-the-Race-Card_JG.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Two of my pundit colleagues -- David Brooks and Peggy Noonan -- have written about this 'boring' and 'inconsequential' presidential campaign http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Boring-2012-Presidential-Campaign_Cal-Thomas.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Mitt Romney's assault against President Barack Obama's welfare reform policy sounds good, except that it gets in the way of putting welfare recipients to work http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Welfare-Queen_Clarence-Page.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST When Mitt Romney strides to center stage to deliver his acceptance speech, he might draw inspiration from an unlikely source: the song 'I Am What I Am' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Opportunity_Cal-Thomas.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST It's time to close the tax loopholes that subsidize runaway executive compensation http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Subsidizing-Free-Lunches-for-American-CEOs_OW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST The Bush tax cuts siphon off money that could fund education and other crucial programs http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Washington-Are-You-Listening_OW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Raise taxes on the rich? 'Class warfare' rail the Republicans. Any discussion of inequality, says Mitt Romney, should be held privately. Yet the Romney agenda opens a new offensive in class warfare http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-and-Class-Warfare_JJ.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST A mountain of misleading rhetoric from big Pentagon contractors has buried the facts http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Indefensible-The-Truth-About-Pentagon-Spending_ow.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Despite the fact that he has no academic training in history or related fields at all, David Barton has become the go-to man for much of the religious far right http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/David-Barton-Make-Believe-Version-of-American-History_OW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Despite the tea party's well-known fiscal focus, the anti-tax budget-slashing movement's most underappreciated energy source may be its evangelical Christians http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Onward-Christian-Teavangelicals_Clarence-Page.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Politics tends to wring all seriousness out of speech. Sometimes this is a demonstration of unforgivable ignorance http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Campaigns-Touch-Briefly-on-the-Wars_WP.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST To call Senator Harry Reid a 'mad dog' is an affront to the canine community. Reid was completely sane when he spread hearsay about an anonymous Bain Capital investor who allegedly told him Mitt Romney paid no taxes for 10 years http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mad-Dog-Harry-Reid_Cal-Thomas.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Todd Akin's ludicrous outburst about 'legitimate rape' may turn out to be another pothole in Mitt Romney's already uphill road to narrow President Obama's wide polling lead among women voters http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-and-Republican-Woes-with-Women_JW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Todd Akin could have worked on the script for the 1983 Monty Python movie, 'The Meaning of Life': 'If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down' http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Rape-Patriarchy-and-the-Bomb_RCK.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Ladies, remember what your mothers told you about men who regard women as sex objects? They're no good. Keep that in mind when pondering the Republican Party platform this year http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Akin-Offers-Unflattering-Glimpse-of-Widely-Shared-Republican-Attitudes_MS.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST It always amuses me when conservatives, who rail relentlessly against 'political correctness' when it comes from the left, turn against one of their own like Todd Akin for saying what he really means http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Todd-Akin-Legitimate-Pain_Clarence-Page.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Todd Akin's idiocy appears to be infectious. The evil genius of the Missouri congressman's comments is that they lend themselves to such broad interpretations -- and misinterpretations http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Todd-Akin-Idiocy-is-Infectious_JG.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Todd Akin's fame -- more accurately, his infamy -- now reaches all the way to the Congo http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_Todd-Akin-Ignorance-Hardly-Unique_LPJ.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST No recent development has underlined the decline of political party clout more than beleaguered Senate Republican nominee Todd Akin's refusal to accede to GOP leadership demands http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Decline-of-Party-Power_JW.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST It's trapping season. The bait in the latest case is the issue of abortion in cases of rape. The hunter's target is Rep. Todd Akin, a Missouri Republican http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Trapping-Season_Cal-Thomas.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST What caught my eye were the numbers reported in key segments of Obama's political base: He led among African Americans 'by 94 percent to 0 percent.' Say what? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Mitt-Romney-Zero-Percenters_Clarence-Page.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST The GOP needs to figure out a way to become more appealing to new constituencies, particularly younger voters and Latinos. Boring white guys aren't great for that project http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/No-More-Boring-White-Guys-for-the-GOP_JG.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST As gas prices climb back toward $4 a gallon, the Obama administration -- facing a tough re-election campaign and rising Middle East tensions -- is once again considering tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Eating-America-Seed-Corn_VDH.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan confirms that this campaign is going to be mainly about domestic issues. Yet foreign affairs is important as the United States staggers forward into the void http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections_Romney-and-Ryan-Project-Vague-Foreign-Policy_WP.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST In 1995, Barack Obama released 'Dreams From My Father,' a compelling memoir full of stories about his life that persuaded many people that this young man had a great political future http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Election_President-Obama-A-Storied-Presidency_JG.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Consider the disconnects: California's combined income and sales taxes are among the nation's highest, but the state's deficit is still about $16 billion http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/There-is-No-California_VDH.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST The paper industry's titans have teamed up with practitioners of the legislative black arts to turn their sludge into a slick tax loophole http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Koch-Brothers-Moonshine_ow.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST Income inequality is rising in most rich countries, and has been for many years. People are angry, especially in these tough times http://www.ihavenet.com/World_No-Need-for-a-Witch-Hunt-Over-Executive-Pay_TWT.html Sun, 16 September 2012 20:18:00 EST As the American presidential election approaches, the dominant conviction expressed by members of both parties is that the country is gravely in decline http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections-US-National-Debate-is-a-Disgrace_wp.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST It turns out that Mitt Romney wants America's health care system to look more like Israel's government controlled health care system http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Romney-Lauds-Israel-for-Socialized-Federally-Controlled-Health-Care-System_rb.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Robert Kilmer has had enough. And he proposes a solution. Namely, a TV series in which politicians debate the issues under two simple rules http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/A-Solution-to-the-Problem-of-Roaring-Mouths-Saying-Nothing_lpj.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST It's more evidence of the prime directive of the GOP: Ask not what you can do for your country; just focus on getting Obama out of the White House http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/What-Should-Come-First-Partisan-Advantage-or-National-Security_ms.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Mitt Romney a living portrait of Mr. Wall Street Man. As his candidacy unfolds, it's allowing us commoners to get a peek into how the privileged few rig the rules for their own gain http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/How-Mitt-Romney-Got-His-Wealth_OW.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Mitt Romney can fall back on the view that the two past tax returns he has released meet the legal requirement. In the court of public opinion, however, Romney risks encouraging doubts http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Mitt-Romney-Tax-Returns-Put-up-or-Shut-Up_jw.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Could it be that President Obama's best chance for re-election in November is ... Mitt Romney? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Is-Obama-Best-Hope-The-Inadequacy-of-His-Rival-Mitt-Romney_jw.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST The big question about Mitt Romnney's trip to England, Israel and Poland in the midst of his presidential campaign seems to be, or should be: Why? http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Mitt-Romney-Foreign-Folly_jw.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST If there figured to be any safe political ground for Mitt Romney on his little overseas gambit, it was Great Britain http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Mitt-Romney-An-Innocent-Abroad_jw.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST In the long lull before the Republican National Convention, party leaders and strategists for Mitt Romney are calculating how they can put their collective best foot forward http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Mitt-Romney-Showing-off-the-GOP_jw.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST The presidential election is about 100 days away. President Obama and Mitt Romney are roughly even in the various polls, with Obama holding slight leads in the key swing states http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Elections-100-Days-is-a-Long-Time_vdh.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Political gaffes are showing up increasingly in the form of what I call pseudo-gaffes. That's a truthful and seemingly inoffensive statement that, taken out of context, reinforces the worst impressions http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/2012-Presidential-Campaign-Truth-Meets-the-Gaffe-Factory_Clarence-Page.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Differences between the U.S. presidential candidates' foreign policy perspectives are less significant than they appear http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Election-the-Presidency-and-Foreign-Policy_sf.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST In the slow waltz on Capitol Hill over extending or dropping the Bush tax cuts due to expire at year's end, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid one-upped the House Republicans http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Tax-Cut-Kabuki_jw.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST This is shaping up to be the second election in a row that's about someone who isn't on the ballot: George W. Bush http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/De-Bushing-Mitt-Romney_jg.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST The Texas GOP has set itself explicitly against teaching children to be critical thinkers. That explains a lot http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Texas-GOP-Wages-War-on-Thinking_lpj.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Get to know it. This is the emerging political theme of 2012: the divide between the haves vs. have-nots. We live in the same America, but trust me, we don't all see it the same way http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Time-to-Listen-to-the-Other-America_rb.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST The Obama re-election team must be in panic mode. The president is stuck in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney, so in desperation it has reached out to the Big Dog, Bill Clinton, for help http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/President-Obama-You-are-No-Bill-Clinton_Cal-Thomas.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST What drives Barack Obama's 'doubters and haters'? So asks Obama biographer David Maraniss in a recent op-ed article for the Washington Post http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/What-is-Behind-Hatred-of-Obama_jg.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST If there were ever any hope that the Supreme Court's right wing would temper its assault on clean elections laws, that hope recently slipped away http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Cleaning-Up-Campaign-Finance_OW.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST The precedents the Roberts' Supreme Court is setting are making it easier for corporations to exercise the rights of American citizens without corresponding civic responsibilities http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/The-Supreme-Court-Incorporated_OW.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Talk about a 'post-racial' America when President Barack Obama was elected has pretty much gone away, for good reason. Even he didn't believe it http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/His-So-called-Post-Racial-Presidency_Clarence-Page.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST The worst economy since the Great Depression and you might think at least one of the candidates would come up with a few big ideas for how to get us out of it http://www.ihavenet.com/economy/The-Terrible-Economy-and-the-Anti-Election-of-2012_Robert-Reich.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST The world's super rich, according to a new report, are squirreling away phenomenal quantities of their cash in secret tax havens http://www.ihavenet.com/economy/Marching-Toward-Greater-Inequality_OW.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST In countries that go soft on taxing the rich, top business executives have a huge incentive to game the system and to squeeze out every bit of personal profit their power enables http://www.ihavenet.com/economy/The-Rich-Grabbing-Bigger-Slices-of-Pie_OW.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Looking at America's trillion-dollar student debt crisis, free-market purists have had a revelation. The crisis can be healed by getting government out of the student loan business. In other words, turn students into Wall Street commodities http://www.ihavenet.com/economy/Turning-College-Students-and-Student-Loan-Debt-into-a-Commodity_OW.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST In the wake of the Colorado catastrophe everyone seems to be calling for 'commonsense' gun laws. Unfortunately it's hard to tell whose sense is common enough these days http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/My-Quest-for-Common-Sense-Gun-Laws_Clarence-Page.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST As with other mass shootings, the killings at a movie theater in Aurora, trigger a familiar chain of reactions: horror, remorse, rage and a call for new restrictions on guns http://www.ihavenet.com/politics/Gun-Lobby-Fires-Up-Obama-Fear_Clarence-Page.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Why do so many Americans believe that to properly protect ourselves today, we need guns? http://www.ihavenet.com/World-United-States-One-Nation-Under-the-Gun-in-Aurora-Colorado_ow.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST Despite security measures, soft targets will always avail themselves to potential attackers http://www.ihavenet.com/World-The-Persistent-Threat-to-Soft-Targets_sf.html Mon, 20 August 2012 16:25:00 EST