Michael Barone is a Fox News Channel contributor and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics. He is Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner and a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel contributor and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics. Michael Barone was formerly a senior writer with U.S. News & World Report. He grew up in Detroit and Birmingham, Mich. He graduated from Harvard College (1966) and Yale Law School (1969), and was an editor of the Harvard Crimson and the Yale Law Journal. Barone served as law clerk to Judge Wade H. McCree Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1969 to 1971. From 1974 to 1981, he was vice president of the polling firm of Peter D. Hart Research Associates. From 1981 to 1988, he was a member of the editorial page staff of The Washington Post. From 1996 to 1998, he was senior staff editor at Reader's Digest. Barone is the principal co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, published by National Journal every two years. The first edition appeared in 1971, and the 17th edition, The Almanac of American Politics 2004, appeared in July 2003. He is also the author of Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan (Free Press, 1990), The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again (Regnery, 2001) and the just-released Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Competition for the Nation's Future (Crown Forum, May 2004). Over the years, Barone has written for many publications, including The Economist, The New York Times, The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic, National Review, The American Spectator, American Enterprise, The Times Literary Supplement and The Daily Telegraph of London. He is a contributor to the Fox News Channel and has appeared on many other television programs. Barone lives in Washington, D.C. He has traveled to all 50 states and all 435 congressional districts. He has also traveled to 37 foreign countries and has reported on recent elections in Russia, Mexico, Italy and Britain. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2009 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ As the final votes were being counted, it was possible to draw some lessons from Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in Virginia and the close, three-way governor's race in New Jersey, never mind that White House press... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/11/05/virginia,_new_jersey_races_showing_voters_changing_course 256dd9aa-e2b1-44ec-9f6b-555438b9b044 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT The recession is over, we are told. The Commerce Department announced Thursday that the economy grew in the third quarter of 2009 by 3.5 percent. Great, huh? Maybe not. About half that growth came from the Cash for... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/11/02/hold_the_champagne_happy_days_arent_here_again 929f572d-ebe8-4109-a3cc-fddaaa935dce Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Five days from now the voters of New Jersey and Virginia will elect governors. Voters in the 23rd district of New York and the 10th district of California will elect new members of the House of Representatives to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/10/29/four_races_will_test_the_strength_of_obamas_majority 5dd252c1-fc41-45ba-be3e-58d144e68a18 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT Barack Obama, who found time to go on a 24-hour jaunt to Copenhagen on Oct. 2 to seek the 2016 Olympics games for Chicago, apparently cannot find the time for a 24-hour trip to Berlin on Nov. 9 for a celebration of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/10/26/obama_at_odds_with_his_own_vision_for_the_world bfb10132-9a0f-4a57-9e0e-59cebd8dc383 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT "His father was a great friend of my father." The reference to William Ayers' father was how Mayor Richard M. Daley began his defense of Barack Obama for his association with the unrepentant Weather Underground... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/10/22/obama_hits_opponents_with_chicago_brass_knuckles 93490834-68a9-45ec-8eba-29141f096973 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT An interesting paradox. Last year, America elected a president who, in attitudes and policies, is closer to the elites of Western Europe than any of his predecessors. Yet in the nine months that he has been in... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/10/19/unlike_obama,_americans_reject_european_model 87cb39ea-8876-4500-bfd8-6054671627d3 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT The legislative process can also be a learning process, and as Congress considers health care legislation -- the latest act being the Senate Finance Committee's vote in favor of Chairman Max Baucus' bill, or... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/10/15/the_trouble_with_health_care_is_paying_for_it 6c501fac-ead5-4f4a-80ac-98e4ace76066 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT Some of the headlines in recent days are not worthy of belief. No, I'm not referring to the headlines that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, however odd that many seem to many (including, it seems, Obama... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/10/12/conceptual_language_hides_health_cares_costs 1c4a9e64-adb0-4978-8074-7826c5af1931 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT In trying to understand what is happening in the nation and world, we all employ narratives -- story lines that indicate where things are going and what is likely to happen next. We can check the validity of these... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/10/08/weak_himself,_obama_draws_strength_from_bush 4d7169a2-5f43-4b7b-8054-5309ceba76da Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT "This is not a war of choice," Barack Obama told the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Aug. 17. "This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9-11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/10/05/a_war_of_necessity_turns_out_not_so_necessary 90422914-7af9-4b7b-a33e-91be6774b2ba Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT As Sen. Max Baucus tries to squeeze a health care bill out of the Senate Finance Committee, and as Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry race to meet their latest deadline to introduce a bill to reduce carbon dioxide,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/10/01/democrats_win_lobbyists_but_lose_basic_reforms 0bbcaffa-c2de-4fc2-8603-94202d356921 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT "It is my deeply held belief," Barack Obama told the United Nations General Assembly, that "in the year 2009 -- more than at any point in human history -- the interests of nations and peoples are shared." That is,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/09/28/with_obama,_too_much_nuance,_not_enough_power fd1c86bd-dc96-4303-bdeb-c4854f645cf6 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT In the early 1980s, while planning a vacation in Latin America, I went to bookstores to look for histories of the region. All I could find were Marxist tracts arguing that "the people" were exploited by greedy... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/09/24/obamas_time_warp_the_us_is_still_the_bad_guy 8be71d69-7eb7-4621-acee-e87041472640 Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT It is an interesting phenomenon that the response of the left half of our political spectrum to criticism and argument is often to try to shut it down. Thus President Obama in his Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/09/21/strangers_to_dissent,_liberals_try_to_stifle_it 61a9e4d7-d5bc-4bd2-8f22-f14e89c34872 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT "The level of unemployment is unacceptably high. And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years." Who do you suppose said that? A Republican political operative? A Fox News political... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/09/17/job-killing_policies_could_doom_democrat_hopes 9567000e-b865-483d-a455-1c88684e3011 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT The dwindling number of readers of The New York Times were treated Wednesday to a column by Thomas Friedman extolling China's "one-party autocracy," which, he told us, "is led by a reasonably enlightened group of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/09/14/tom_friedman_hails_chinas_one-party_autocracy dfdf1a04-600b-48e7-8c42-56bdd28759cb Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT The resignation over the Labor Day weekend of White House "green jobs" czar Van Jones tells you some interesting things about the Obama administration. One of them is that a man who proclaimed himself a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/09/10/the_convenient_fantasies_of_president_obama 966734cc-f668-43e5-99c3-1cde88d05814 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT "Very active." That's what White House aides say Barack Obama is going to be this month. That's probably an understatement. Obama faces September deadlines on three issues, on each of which he could get himself in... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/09/07/obama_cannot_escape_hard_choices_in_september df7c6cc4-25ba-4ad0-8634-d7ab9ef5cce4 Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT Before leaving for his vacation on Martha's Vineyard, Barack Obama said the next big item on his legislative agenda -- well, after health care and cap-and-trade and maybe labor's bill to effectively abolish secret... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/09/03/new_facts_undercut_old_positions_on_immigration b15fa47a-3e20-4f68-ada5-26d4360aedef Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT Edward Kennedy was buried Saturday, the last son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the longest-serving member of the only royal political family our democratic republic has ever produced. Those who remember the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/08/31/the_end_of_americas_experiment_with_royalty 0ac3db77-dac7-4141-be25-e539dac18046 Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:01:00 GMT As it becomes clear that a large percentage of Americans are rebelling against the prospect of a larger, more intrusive government, including many whom Democratic politicians assume would see themselves as... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/08/27/obamas_lyrical_left_struggles_with_liberalism 71ec6151-8fc1-4591-9fcd-3ef74aff9722 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:01:00 GMT Colorado, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, has some claim to be on the leading edge of American politics. It produced antiwar, pro-environment Democrats like Sen. Gary Hart in the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/08/24/democrats_colorado_gold_rush_turns_into_a_bust 980a4f2d-2346-43d4-a280-efb6fe427285 Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:01:00 GMT "I am a pessimist by nature, which is why I have spent my life as a journalist instead of trying to be a leader, which requires optimism." So wrote Robert Novak, who died Tuesday, in his 2007 autobiography, "The... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/08/20/the_netroots_put_winning_ahead_of_convictions 637fe5a8-f06c-418c-b3c3-7e0e8213eb1b Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:01:00 GMT Dear Young Obama Voter, Congratulations. You have truly changed America. Those of you under 30 voted 66 percent to 32 percent for Barack Obama, an unprecedented margin. Your elders 30 and over voted for him,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/08/17/young_voters_should_take_another_look_at_obama fc8685ef-1a03-406c-8457-9fa5e2bcee45 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:01:00 GMT There are more conservatives than Republicans and more Democrats than liberals. That's one of the asymmetries between the parties that helps to explain the particular political spot we're in. The numbers are fairly http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/08/13/when_liberal_leaders_confront_a_centrist_nation 80d070bb-5110-44fc-a601-2dfd683334b7 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:01:00 GMT One video is worth a thousand words (or, as in this column, about 730). The video in question, put together by a group called Verum Serum, shows public statements by three advocates of single-payer (government... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/08/10/government_health_care_in_stealth_mode c82816eb-b241-4be1-be3f-89c01bb30f1a Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:01:00 GMT We Americans tend to take the great strengths of our country for granted. In the hubbub of political debate, we concentrate on things that are allegedly wrong with America and lose sight of our great achievements.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/08/06/obama_would_stifle_military_and_medical_creativity 800c0aa6-8fd1-4c49-a379-34f25455a63c Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:01:00 GMT A teachable moment last Thursday night -- no, I'm not referring to the beer-in-the-garden session featuring Professor Henry Gates and Sgt. James Crowley and the shirtsleeved president and vice president. We didn't learn... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/08/03/beware_the_high_cost_of_unintended_consequences ee010bce-0721-4e48-b0e6-4cac0dd7e876 Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:01:00 GMT Aura dazzles, but argument gets things done. Consider the debate on the Democrats' health care bill and the increasingly negative response to Barack Obama's performance. Democrats have the numbers to pass a health... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/07/30/obama_has_aura_but_doesnt_know_how_to_legislate 3dad7790-1e79-434d-9e4d-acd23b6d82c7 Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT With polls showing a drop in Barack Obama's job rating and sinking support for the Democrats' health care plans, there is evidence of collateral damage where you might not expect to find it: in the standing of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/07/27/stumbling_governors_signal_trouble_for_dems 1fea6fd6-1053-4fd5-8a09-7b7707c66dc0 Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT Thursday is the day things tend to come to a boil on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress have been in town for three or four days; they're planning their exits on Friday to meet other commitments; they've had a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/07/23/a_month_of_gloomy_thursdays_for_health_care_plan ec161a37-0ad8-4c93-8713-bf0ec6e1f378 Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT Once upon a time, British and American politics seemed to operate in tandem. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan came to office, both supposedly little experienced and out of the mainstream, at about the same time.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/07/20/britain_and_united_states_go_in_different_directions f6de88c1-5339-4e5c-9efd-425d19d43c7f Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:01:00 GMT "Never let a crisis go to waste," Barack Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said last November. The crisis he referred to was economic: the financial collapse and the rapidly deepening recession. The opportunity it... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/07/16/the_price_of_leaving_the_details_to_congress f24912bd-29e0-4115-a6b8-94d9755abbd4 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT Disarray. That's one word to describe the status of the Obama administration's legislative program as Congress heads into its final four weeks of work before the August recess. A watered-down cap-and-trade bill... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/07/14/chaos_on_capitol_hill_all_politics_is_loco 4633b403-67fb-40b1-bb30-515b9fae7f1a Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT The financial system collapsed. Housing prices cratered. Unemployment is at a record high for the last quarter-century. The Democratic president has a solidly positive job rating. And yet we Americans have not... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/07/09/getting_cold_feet_over_democratic_proposals 4b91144c-0655-4a57-a81f-5c0a8152db3c Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT One policy of the Obama administration that has understandably attracted little public attention is its proposal to make the Federal Reserve a "systemic risk regulator." It's a well-intentioned attempt to prevent... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/07/06/we_need_a_systemic_risk_advisor,_not_a_regulator 816c2850-e91d-4a5e-bb59-65774a01361d Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT The Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, the case of the New Haven firefighters, was a ringing endorsement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964's ban on racial discrimination and a repudiation of Supreme Court... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/07/02/firefighter_case_shows_seamy_side_of_racial_politics 0e4ef760-ae74-49e1-a32b-41858d765b6f Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT Democrats' plans to pass major health care legislation have been stymied, at least for the moment, by the Congressional Budget Office's cost estimates. To the consternation and apparent surprise of leading Democrats,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/06/29/no_excuse_for_dems_sticker_shock_on_health_care ef2e8bf0-f983-4346-bbb4-0e4f5818f622 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT There is a tendency for newly installed presidents, like adolescents suddenly liberated from adult supervision, to do the exact opposite of what their predecessors did. Presidents of both parties indulge in this... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/06/25/the_adolescent_angst_of_barack_obama 9227e04b-aba9-4629-9520-28023198bf43 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT We pundits like to analyze our presidents and so, as Barack Obama deals with difficult problems ranging from health care legislation to upheaval in Iran, let me offer my Three Rules of Obama. First, Obama likes to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/06/22/dodge_facts,_skip_details,_govern_chicago-style 74a72b09-e8f8-45f5-817f-0d2b7fe4850c Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT Many psephologists -- derived from the word for pebbles, which the ancient Greeks used as ballots -- study who wins and loses elections. Lately, I've been looking more closely at turnout. For we live, though most... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/06/18/all_politics_is_turnout_--_and_enthusiasm_is_key fd65fb97-faf6-4cff-8cb7-e6e6bc65567b Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT It shouldn't come as a complete surprise that, as Stephen Hayes reported in The Weekly Standard, detainees in Afghanistan are now being advised of their Miranda rights by American interrogators -- that they have a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/06/16/when_detainees_get_rights_they_dont_deserve e14c5668-5b79-4736-ba4a-242e7071c9de Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT Barack Obama has said he wants to pass a national health care bill this year, with a government insurance policy option. Democratic congressional leaders have called for passage of such a bill before the beginning of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/06/11/qualms_and_questions_about_obamas_health_plan 28a4065e-1770-4699-88db-85153850e178 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT For a man of his impressive educational credentials, Barack Obama has sometimes shown a surprising ignorance of history. During the 2008 campaign, when challenged on his pledge to meet with foreign tyrants without... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/06/08/obama_needs_to_brush_up_on_middle_east_history 0fbb5139-3873-44af-b98d-5bd5572b7487 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT Two cases likely to be decided this month by the Supreme Court -- one of them an appeal in a Connecticut case decided by a panel including Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor -- could result in significant... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/06/04/advancing_civil_rights_by_overturning_old_laws bcb30958-7749-4071-8515-d8682e2cd6e2 Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT Move to the center. That's the advice Republicans are getting from quarters friendly and otherwise. It seems to make a certain amount of sense. If opinion is arrayed along a single-dimension, left-to-right spectrum... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/06/01/gop_should_run_against_the_power_of_the_center b3656a5b-c6a4-44ac-8020-77bfec61c3b4 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:51:34 GMT Barack Obama has named his nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. What's the likely fallout, politically and judicially? Politically, Obama gets a plus for naming... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/05/29/will_sotomayors_style_blunt_her_liberal_views 590edea9-6615-4cdf-8029-2977d73c4bfc Fri, 29 May 2009 04:01:00 GMT When former Vice President Dan Quayle scheduled a big speech, President Bill Clinton didn't hop in and schedule one for the hour before. When former Vice President Al Gore scheduled a big speech, President George W.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/05/27/no_time_for_tea-and-crumpet_interrogations a0648180-6c97-465a-a116-6c311efe9b70 Wed, 27 May 2009 04:01:00 GMT Last November, 131 million Americans voted, and the whole world took notice. Over the last month, about 700 million Indians voted, and most Americans, like most of the world, didn't much notice. To be sure, American http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/05/21/why_the_us_should_listen_to_indias_voters 5cbea7ba-44bf-4c10-9ff3-5206529d98bf Thu, 21 May 2009 04:01:00 GMT Step by step, Barack Obama has been reversing himself on antiterrorist policy. Last month, he announced he would not appeal a federal court decision ordering the government to release photographs of terrorist... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2009/05/19/obama_changes_course_on_antiterrorism bd6fa072-5a38-45e5-834f-1c4f8d379417 Tue, 19 May 2009 04:01:00 GMT