The children of political candidates are useful adornments in campaign literature and ads, and when they are older, as character witnesses on the campaign trail. Rarely are they used as attack dogs, let alone armed with shameless talking points to try to dampen the rise of an inspirational political rival. But nothing is beneath Bill […]
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Republican race enters survivor phase
By Jonathan Bernstein Bloomberg View Technically, presidential nominations are supposed to be won through the votes of delegates at the national conventions. The possibility of contested conventions aside, however, we know that victory really depends on winning the largest number of delegates in primaries and caucuses. So the rules for how those delegates are apportioned […]
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Desert Storm showcased U.S. military power
Twenty-five years ago this week, in the early hours of January 17, 1991, the remarkable Persian Gulf War political coalition assembled, and led by U.S. President George H.W. Bush, moved “from Shield to Storm.” The “Shield” was Operation Desert Shield, code name for the hastily organized political and military response to Saddam Hussein’s August 2, […]
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Clinton needs a different 3-point plan
Hillary Clinton is the Great Underestimator. Eight years ago, she underestimated Barack Obama and now she has underestimated Bernie Sanders. We know this not only from what happened in 2008 and what is happening now but from the pitiful confessions of her campaign staff who admit they never saw Sanders coming. That’s understandable. It’s not […]
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Perils of technology fall on the vulnerable
The following editorial appears on Bloomberg View: Much like the humans who invented it, the Internet is both wonderful and terrible. It creates and destroys, empowers and represses, edifies and stultifies — often at the same time. A new report from the World Bank finds a few more things to worry about: The Internet disproportionately […]
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Flint, Mich., a disaster in the making
“Them that’s got shall get. Them that’s not shall lose” — Billie Holiday It was in April of 2014 that the water turned bad. Residents of Flint, Mich., reported that the stuff smelled. It was yellowish brown. You drank it and your hair fell out. Or you developed a rash. Or you were nauseous. Again, […]
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HomeReady mortgage scheme bound to fail
Movie sequels are rarely as good as the original films on which they’re based. The same dictum, it appears, holds for finance. The 2008 housing market collapse was bad enough, but it appears now that we’re on the verge of experiencing it all again. And the financial sequel, working from a similar script as its […]
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Sanders’ single-payer plan is a distraction
If you’ve successfully landed on the beaches, but your forces are still taking heavy fire, what do you do? Do you concentrate on trying to hold the line and make further advances or do you sit in a circle and design a better landing craft? The problem with Bernie Sanders’ health care vision isn’t the […]
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Technology alone can’t power economy
WASHINGTON — It’s only January, but what may be the year’s most important book on economics has already been published. Called “The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War,” it argues that we can’t expect new technologies to rekindle rapid economic growth. Advances in living standards will […]
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Kasich trys connecting with working class
WASHINGTON — Two facts stand out about the constituency that has rallied to Donald Trump. His supporters are angry, and they come overwhelmingly from the less affluent reaches of the Republican Party. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is betting on the aspirations of these voters over their anger. For the angry vote, there is a lot […]