Michael McKenna

Gavin Newsom’s shift on energy is a sign he’s running for president

Gavin Newsom, the current governor of California, is running for president -- maybe in 2024, certainly in 2028.

September 3, 2023

Political parties’ presidential nominating process is greatest risk to our democracy

Democrats have been working on a theme for the last couple of years that former President Donald Trump and his supporters constitute a threat to democracy because, well, because they have the temerity to support Mr. Trump.

August 30, 2023

Voters need to know who will serve the next president

Here's an idea: instead of wasting time on questions about UFOs and climate change, maybe the moderators of last Wednesday's debate should have asked about important and relevant questions.

August 26, 2023

GOP presidential contest has come down to Trump vs. DeSantis

The Iowa State Fair has mercifully come and gone, and the first debate among the GOP presidential candidates is upon us.

August 23, 2023

On the GOP debate stage or not, Trump will dominate the headlines

The current candidates for the Republican presidential nomination seem to think that former President Donald Trump won in 2016 because he won the debates.

August 18, 2023

Congress led by octogenarians stuck in Cold War mentality

The great Jonathan Martin recently wrote a story that lays bare all the pathologies of the Republican Party and the chasm that exists between its "leaders" and the voters.

August 16, 2023

Biden outflanks Republicans on China

This past Wednesday, President Biden signed an executive order banning new American investments in advanced semiconductors and quantum computers in China starting in 2024.

August 13, 2023

College football: Where profits are more important than education

Last week, the Pac-12 conference, which was founded in 1915 and has won more NCAA championships in team sports than any other college sports conference, dissolved in a matter of hours.

August 9, 2023

National commission on COVID-19 could protect more Americans in the future

We need some sort of national reckoning with respect to COVID-19. If we don't get a firm grip on what went right and what went wrong and why, we are likely to repeat the lethal mistakes that were made.

August 6, 2023

Decline of Hollywood followed the summer of 1977

In the summer of 1977, nearly everyone in the country was seeing "Star Wars" or "Smokey and the Bandit" in movie theaters.

August 2, 2023

The limits of politics: What happens in your own home is what matters

As we wander into yet another election that will no doubt eventually become the "most important election of our lifetime," it might be worth thinking about the limits of politics, especially with respect to the presidency.

July 28, 2023

Why skipping the GOP debate makes sense for Trump

Former President Donald Trump does not seem very excited about the opportunity to participate in the first Republican presidential primary debate.

July 26, 2023

New York Yankees and Pentagon are both guilty of overpaying for mediocrity

The New York Yankees, one of the premier sports franchises on Earth, are in last place in the American League East division.

July 21, 2023

GOP must stop yelling about ‘weaponization’ of Biden’s DOJ

As the next indictment against former President Donald Trump creeps closer, it seems like a good time to review a few simple yet often forgotten and perhaps outdated concepts about American justice and governance.

July 19, 2023

Cramer’s energy tax: It’s tough to get a straight answer in this town

Washington suffers from a lot of pathologies, but the most annoying has to be the chronic inability of federal government officials to give a straight answer to a simple question.

July 14, 2023

How Trump can both win and lose: A third-party spoiler

David Axelrod tweeted: "One thing that separates Trump from DeSantis and much of the rest of the field is that Trump's core supporters don't see him as a politician. They see him as the blunt-talking leader of an anti-establishment insurgency."

July 12, 2023

They’re coming for your kids, and have been for some time

In some respects, the children of this nation are now less educated than their parents.

July 7, 2023

In the greatest nation ever, why are progressives so glum?

Earlier this week, most Americans took a day and celebrated their good fortune in being a part of the greatest nation on Earth. Unfortunately, not everyone felt like celebrating.

July 5, 2023

DeSantis and Trump must support an immigration policy good for all Americans

In the event that you did not receive the memo, last week was immigration week in the Republican presidential primary.

July 3, 2023

Good political operatives take campaign defeats personally

As I retrieved yard signs from polling places in the midst of a driving rain after the recently completed (and lost) primary election in Virginia, I wondered why this loss hurt a bit more than others.

June 28, 2023