2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 Barone Blog

Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. He has written for many publications–including the Economist and the New York Times. Barone graduated from Harvard College and then Yale Law School and was an editor of the Harvard Crimson and the Yale Law Journal.

2006 Columns

Jerry Ford in History: Gerald ford, who died last week at age 93, lived longer than any other president and survived after leaving office longer than any other president but Herbert Hoover. (12/31/06)

On Barack Obama: He's wildly popular, but it is not clear whether he has the capacity to be a strong and effective president. (12/17/06)

Sticking to His Guns: While George W. Bush's many critics and detractors portray him as facing the same dilemma as Lyndon Johnson in Vietnam, Bush himself seems determined to proceed the way Harry Truman did in Korea. (12/3/06)

Wanted: New Ideas: Back when Republicans were winning elections in the 1980s, Tip O'Neill used to say that was because Democratic policies made a lot of people rich enough to vote Republican. (11/19/06)

Post-Thumpin' Politics: "The "thumpin'" that the Republican Party received last week will make profound changes in policymaking in Washington and in presidential politics. (11/12/06)

Stuck in the '60s: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." Those two sentences, spoken by John Kerry last week, tell a lot about the mind-set of many-not all, but many-Democrats who supported him for president in 2004. (11/05/06)

Uneasy for a Reason: In the midst of the campaign month of October came the news last week that the population of the United States has passed the 300 million mark. (10/22/06)

A Democratic House?: It is time to take seriously the possibility that the Democrats will assume control of the House of Representatives in the elections next month. (10/08/06)

The Growth of a Nation: Demography is destiny. The framers of the Constitution recognized this when they mandated for the first time in history that a census be conducted at regular intervals. (9/24/06)

A New Narrative: Narratives matter. stories that make sense of the messy realities of the world, that connect cause with effect, that have a beginning, middle, and end. (9/10/06)

A Rare, Intriguing Race: The 2008 presidential race looks to be quite different from all recent contests. (9/3/06)

A GOP Terror Bump: There seems to have been a change in the political winds. They've been blowing pretty strongly against George W. Bush and the Republicans this spring and early this summer. (8/27/06)

And Now, the Good News: The world seems aswirl. Where do we stand today? (7/30/06)

Edging to the Right: There is a fascinating symmetry in the election results in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. (7/9/06)

Stronger Than He Seems: Views of presidential incompetence are not set in stone. They can be altered by good performance. (6/26/06)

Bush Knows His History: Bush, as Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis has written, has changed American foreign policy more than any president since Truman. (6/12/06)

Heard the Good News?: Despite all the grumping, the world is currently enjoying a record period of peace and prosperity. (5/29/06)

The Ugly Duckling Issue: Politicians are divided every which way over immigration, and most wish the issue would just go away. (5/15/06)

Blowback on the Press: Two prize-winning stories may upend an informal pact between the press and the prosecutors. (5/8/06)

What's Up Down South: From Mexico to Brazil, a rich political stew is bubbling, and we ought to be paying attention. (5/1/06)

Slouching Toward France: We have a public sector that's gobbling an increasing share of the pie–and no political will to stop it. (4/17/06)

Living With Illegals?: Immigration highlights a vibrant economy--and a government on the verge of breakdown. (4/3/06)

The Lessons of 1994: The contours of the political landscape make it very difficult for Democrats to take back the House. (3/20/06)

Bush's Grand Strategy: The president's security plan is sound and working better than it might seem. (3/6/06)

The Politics of Negation: Presidents try to write their own history before someone else does. (2/20/06)

Messy but Not Broken: It is not a pretty season in our politics. Both our major parties seem to be busy disqualifying themselves. (1/30/06)

Other Americans Vote: Our neighbors' campaigns will provoke all sorts of nasty rhetoric, but they don't really hate us. (1/16/06)

The Wal-Mart Model: The differences between Wal-Mart and GM explain why the U.S. economy is doing so well. (1/9/06)