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Looking for Plan B
Apparently, the populist revolt is real. Just weeks ago your columnist confidently predicted that Donald Trump could not win the Republican nomination because 70% of Republicans would not vote for him...
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Error is not weakness
Carly Fiorina was a terrible CEO at Hewlett Packard, Donald Trump alleges, who saw the share price crash. There is important context to this, which is that the shares of all tech companies crashed at...
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The end of the Speaker
This column acknowledged two weeks ago that the populist revolt in America is real. Well, it continues. That 50% of Republican primary voters prefer someone – either Trump, Carson, or Fiorina – who...
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Time for justice
Imagine someone tells you a story. It is a believable story, but there is no corroborating evidence. You only have the word of the person who told you the story. Now imagine that the person telling you...
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A very serious scandal
There were a little over 13,000 homicides in the US in 2013, including non-negligent manslaughter. Estimates have put the early deaths from nitrous oxide poisoning at up to 58,000. This column is...
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Good politics
One of the most powerful and memorable moments of the Democratic debate – a debate which has been followed by two actual and one potential candidate withdrawing – was Bernie Sanders telling his viewers...
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Who is the establishment candidate?
In 2008 this column pointed out that a successful two-term governor of Florida, with a solid track record both in governance and in winning the state for his party would have been a strong contender...
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Carson’s follies
Dr. Ben Carson is a brain surgeon, indeed a particularly fine one, by all accounts, and brain surgeons are notoriously smart. Perhaps we need to revise that assessment. Surgery, especially...
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A bad year for governors
Some months ago New Hampshire Republicans were polled not about who they wanted as president but about the sort of person they wanted. A solid margin preferred a governor to a senator. They also...
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Paris has changed things
Natalie Portman once said that everyone dreams of living in Paris. That may be an exaggeration, but the city certainly has a hold on many hearts, and it has grabbed hold of American politics. How to...
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The perils of circular reasoning
Apart from, perhaps, “it takes a village” the best known phrase that Hillary Clinton has ever coined is probably “vast right-wing conspiracy”. Perhaps she is hoping we will forget that she ever said...
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When a “loophole” is not a loophole
Close the “no-fly list loophole”. It’s a no-brainer. Loopholes should be closed. The trouble is the phrase is deeply misleading. It would be a loophole if the no-fly list had been developed to stop...
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The year of The Donald
This has been the year of Donald Trump. There is no denying this, and those commentators who expected his “campaign” would implode within a few weeks – this columnist included – were spectacularly...
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Cruz is qualified
Ted Cruz, who may now be the Republican front-runner, is constitutionally qualified to be president of the United States. The questioning of this is rather silly and based mostly on a flagrant...
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Democratic power realigns
Over the next year, the tectonic plates of power are going to shift in the Democratic Party, and New Yorkers are going to come to the fore. The president is in his final year as the leader of the...
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What if Hillary Clinton is indicted?
Let us begin with a simple declaration: your columnist has no inside track at the FBI, and no insight to offer on the question as to whether our former senator and Secretary of State has anything...
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What if the outsiders win?
Bernie Sanders has a good chance of winning Iowa and an excellent chance in New Hampshire. That would put Hillary Clinton in a weaker position than she was at the same point in 2008. Her polling is...
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A blow to the ethanol welfare queens
Governments around the world do a great many silly things. I am not talking about evil things, you understand, just, on this occasion, silly things. One of the silliest is agricultural subsidies....
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Taking a serious candidate seriously
John Kasich predicted that he would be “the story” coming out of New Hampshire. To a great extent he was. Kasich came second to a candidate who had been leading for the best part of a year. Trump’s...
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Who appoints judges?
New York’s Chuck Schumer is an influential senator on the question of judicial appointments. He is the all but certain next leader of senate Democrats, a lawyer and a member of the Judiciary...
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