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As the election approaches, Barack Obama is now in full campaign attack mode. Actually, he’s always in campaign mode. It’s what he does best. He’s a failure as a chief executive, a diplomat, an economic policymaker, a leader and certainly as a uniter. But, to the gullible, he’s a smooth talker and he loves to…

With Republicans moving ever further to the right and Democrats to the left — though not so far as Republicans are to the right — there really is a crying need for a centrist alternative. President Barack Obama hopes to win re-election with populist appeals for “fairness,” meaning raising taxes on the highest earners regardless…

On Saturday The Times reported on an apparently growing phenomenon in Europe: “suicide by economic crisis,” people taking their own lives in despair over unemployment and business failure. It was a heartbreaking story. But I’m sure I wasn’t the only reader, especially among economists, wondering if the larger story isn’t so much about individuals as…

WHEN CONGRESS first considered allowing shareholders to cast a non-binding vote on executive compensation — “say on pay” — three years ago, we were skeptical. One of our concerns was that the votes would be meaningless if they were truly non-binding. The other concern was that “say on pay” might prove harmful if it empowered inexpert shareholders motivated…

Amelioration of today’s drug problem requires Americans to understand the significance of the 80-20 ratio. Twenty percent of American drinkers consume 80 percent of the alcohol sold here. The same 80-20 split obtains among users of illicit drugs. About 3 million people — less than 1 percent of America’s population — consume 80 percent of…

Unemployment remains high, job growth is sluggish and millions of Americans have given up hope of ever finding work. So how do creative legislators propose to generate new hiring? Easy: Make it more expensive. That’s right. In Congress and several states, some lawmakers want to increase the legally mandated minimum wage. They think employers should…

The electoral map reveals how perilous is President Obama’s grip on the White House. Let’s start, as RealClearPolitics does, with a base of 170 electoral votes for Mitt Romney. It’s hard to imagine that Obama could win any of even the less-red states that comprise that batch (e.g. Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, Montana). To get…

President Obama is an intelligent, judicious man who can see all sides of an issue. But every once in a while he tries to get politically cute, and he puts on his Keith Olbermann mask. I suppose it’s to his credit that he’s most inept when he tries to take the low road. He resorts…

During the presidential campaign, Cabinet departments are wide targets for candidates touting efficiency and fiscal responsibility. This makes for a nice sound bite, but how badly are these departments performing? It is high time to have a top-to-bottom review of all Cabinet-level departments to determine the purpose, mission and efficacy of the organization. Every Cabinet…

THE Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently set off a ruckus when he attacked America’s colleges as “indoctrination mills” from which God-fearing Americans should keep their distance. Calling President Obama a “snob” for urging all Americans to go to college, he joined a long tradition that runs from Andrew Carnegie, who more than a century…

The 2012 major party presidential candidates have put forward a variety of ideas and plans to deal with our huge deficits and mounting debt. All four of the GOP presidential candidates have proposed plans with varying degrees of specificity, and President Barack Obama set out his plan in his recently proposed budget. Unfortunately, all the…

The new Post-ABC poll shows that “46 percent approve of the way Obama is handling his job; 50 percent disapprove. That’s a mirror image of his 50 to 46 positive split in early February. The downshift is particularly notable among independents — 57 percent of whom now disapprove — and among white people without college…

The rate of sexual assaults on American women serving in the military remains intolerably high. While an estimated 17 percent of women in the general population become victims at some point in their lives, a 2006 study of female veterans financed by the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that between 23 percent and 33 percent…

For centuries, the best and brightest from around the world have come to America seeking a better life and economic opportunity. They come to study in our universities and work at our companies. We take this “brain drain” to the United States for granted, but times are changing and other countries are catching on to…