Members of AIG's financial-products unit should take heart. Yes, Obama administration pay czar Kenneth Feinberg is coming down on them with the awesome power of his czardom, dictating that their pay not exceed $200,000 a year. ...more

October 28, 2009

Common sense tells us a number of things about government from the local to the federal level. First, just a cursory review of our Founders' commentaries tell us they intended us to be a nation of people, not governments. Secondly, we can no longer afford our governments; the corollary of which is that we now can no longer even afford ourselves - given that feds have been engaging in pandering populism since the New Deal with a creative spending frenzy which has effectively bankrupt the taxpayer. (The cost of all our wars has been chicken feed compared to these spending programs.) ...more

March 27, 2009

To win the White House, President Barack Obama grew adept at navigating obstacles. But few of those challenges tested his communication and political skills as much as this past week's outbreak of populism, in which he sought to contain, control and, finally, channel the searing outrage over bonuses paid by companies being kept afloat by the government. Along the way, he turned to anger. "I don't want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry. I'm angry," Obama said. ...more

March 22, 2009

Following the crisis on Wall Street and criticism of his contention that the economy is fundamentally strong, John McCain injected a new economic populism into his campaign in a brief speech Tuesday in Tampa. ...more

September 17, 2008

The parting comments of presidents are of value because they tend to be the most nonpartisan of all their speeches. ...more

July 19, 2008

Karl Rove was impressed with Barack Obama when he first met him. But now he sees him as a "coolly arrogant" elitist. ...more

June 26, 2008

This time last year it looked as if Hillary Clinton's path to the Democratic nomination would be a cakewalk. She had the best brand name in American politics. She controlled the Democratic establishment. She had money to burn and a double-digit lead in the opinion polls. And as the first American woman to have a chance of breaking the presidential glass ceiling, she had a great story to tell. ...more

June 11, 2008

In his memoir, the legendary Elia Kazan wrote about directing Vivien Leigh in "A Streetcar Named Desire." While he did not think that Leigh was a great natural actress, he was impressed that she would crawl through glass to get the role right. ...more

May 8, 2008

President Bush signed a U.S.-Peru free trade agreement Friday, paving the way for stronger economic ties with the Andean nation and boosting the administration's efforts to shore up relations with Latin America. ...more

December 15, 2007

that a government be democratic or that it be a friend and ally in the war against al-Qaida and Islamic extremism? ...more

November 24, 2007