Presidential Politics for America
Where We’re Looking Forward to Our Government Bailout
This website has earned its dozens of readers from writing about either the past, through its historical posts, or the present, through political analyses. Aside from an upcoming primary or election, however, PPFA has never taken a look too far in the future. Until now. I recently found myself drawn into a disturbing internet spiral… Continue reading The Future of Everything
“In the world of thought, it was a political philosophy which made rights the foundation of the social order. . . . The first famous exponent of this philosophy was Locke, in whom the dominant conception is the indefeasibility of private rights.” -R. H. Tawney This ranking's "top six" captures the most important individual in each of Western history's six most important eras.… Continue reading #4. John Locke
Happy New Year's Eve, PPFA readers! Just like last year's final post, this is a great time both to reflect and to also look ahead. Let's do the latter first. When I wrote 2017's year-end column, I previewed Presidential Politics for America's year to come. I promised an analysis of the 2018 Midterms, a topic… Continue reading PPFA’s Most Read Posts of 2018
("Quick Hit Fridays": Where lame posts about random topics go to quietly die.) In the century before this election, the Democratic Party nominated a candidate for president 24 times. Of those 24 nominees, just five were from the northeast (a geographic region I consider to be everything from DC to Maine). And of those five,… Continue reading Quick Hit Friday: Northeast Democrats
With Saturday's four Republican states behind us, today the GOP turns to its first non-state: the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. (The Democrats also head to Maine, which is mostly known for being the exact opposite of Puerto Rico.) It's just one contest worth a mere 23 delegates, so this I'll keep this short. ("Hallelujah!" -Everyone)… Continue reading ¡Vamos a Puerto Rico!
What a difference a week makes. Popular narrative heading into the week of February 29 said that Donald Trump was dominating and would have a great SEC Primary, potentially becoming an unstoppable force. The narrative said that anti-Trumpers' best hope was for John Kasich, a total afterthought in the delegate count, to drop out so Marco Rubio, who had just beaten Ted Cruz… Continue reading Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine…
Today, Republicans will vote in Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maine. (What's up with these four states appearing consecutively on an alphabetical list?) Democrats in Kansas and Louisiana will also vote today, as will Democratic Nebraskans. Their Mainers hit the polls tomorrow. (Kentucky Democrats have to wait until May.) Let's take a look. Republican Contests It's no Super Tuesday. Four days ago,… Continue reading Four Candidates, Four States
And then there were four. Ben Carson, in a move telegraphed since Wednesday, expected since February, and necessary since December, has dropped out of the Republican Primary. He still had a solid five to ten percent out there, which we can expect to be partitioned by Ted Cruz (from those who were attracted to Carson's evangelical… Continue reading Ben Carson Makes It Official
Who knew that Mitt Romney watches John Oliver? Four days after the HBO comedian's often hilarious, mostly accurate, shamelessly one-sided, and certainly ineffectual 20-minute diatribe against Donald "Drumpf," the 2012 Republican nominee converted nearly every broad stroke into a precise carving of Trump's record, disposition, and general election chances. In truth, the two takedowns might be unrelated, but they share… Continue reading Romney v. Trump
In no way am I in a position to tell you "I told you so." Let's put aside my predictions for the Republican Primary, where last July I had Trump as the 11th most likely nominee and as late as the New Year he was still just third behind Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. My Democratic prognostication… Continue reading Democratic Super Tuesday Analysis
Presidential Politics for America 