In the mid 1990s I had the honor of coaching my first Little League baseball team. Many young and inexperienced players made up this team. The team’s record at the end of the season was 0-12, losing every game by a lot. After each loss, I told the kids to keep smiling, shake hands and […]
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Health insurance for Mainers fails to meet people’s needs
It wouldn’t be a Maine election season without yet another opinion poll, only this one will still matter long after Nov. 8. That is why we should start paying attention today. According to a recently released national and statewide survey from the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, 42 percent of Maine residents have seen their […]
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Dealing with the post-election hype
WASHINGTON — Elections regularly inspire an orgy of hype — and so it is with this one. The Democrats are in disarray, it’s said. Unless they’re enormously skillful or lucky, they risk becoming a minority party indefinitely. Be skeptical. The reality is that these dire forecasts have a habit of not coming true. Remember Barry […]
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Liberals showcase their lack of responsibility
Pity the anti-Trump protesters thronging the streets of American cities. Apparently, no one ever told them that they live in a geographically, economically and ideologically varied nation, and that about half of its inhabitants might support a Republican candidate for president. They mistook the country for the campus of Oberlin College. The news that it […]
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Obvious now that identity politics don’t work
What follows here is remarkably similar to what I had planned to write after an expected and prayed-for Hillary Clinton victory: Obsessive appeals to racial, ethnic, sexual and gender identity groupings are bad politics. That’s because at a certain point, “inclusivity” takes on the air of exclusivity. Clinton’s fervent messaging to Latinos, African-Americans, Asians, Muslims, […]
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Bangladesh battles Islamist terrorists
Impoverished, predominantly Muslim and below-media-radar Bangladesh continues to wage a careful war on militant Islamist terrorists. This is good news. Bangladesh is the world’s eighth most populous country, with around 168 million people. Unfortunately, the latest news begins with an act of calculated Islamist terror that also had a greed-driven criminal angle. Beginning October 30, […]
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Republicans won, Democrats lost, deal with it
Three years ago when Republicans were battling President Obama over the debt ceiling and a government shutdown, the president said, “You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election.” That is what Republicans did on Nov. 8. In addition to winning the […]
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Time for some old school activism
It is time for the country to heal, time for us come together. Or so people have been telling me since last week when democracy laid the biggest egg in American history. Well, here is my response: I have no interest in seeing this country heal. And I refuse to come together. Understand: If this […]
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Trump’s big plans may be unrealistic
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump, it seems, embraces the old dictum: Make no small plans. Already, he’s published an agenda for his first 100 days in office, recalling Franklin’s Roosevelt’s launching of the New Deal. Not surprisingly, near the top of Trump’s to-do list is a pledge to double economic growth from its recent desultory rate […]
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Victory speech was part Lincoln, part Trump
By Noah Feldman Bloomberg View The financial markets thought Donald Trump’s conciliatory victory speech last week meant something. That interpretation seems plausible. If nothing else, Trump’s tone suggested that he realized the markets were getting volatile and that he wanted to calm the waters by giving the most conventional speech he has ever delivered. The […]