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ELYRIA, Ohio — In theory, Dan Imbrogno shouldn’t be a voter George W. Bush has to worry about. Imbrogno, a lifelong Republican, Ohioan, and business executive, looks like central casting’s idea of the model Bush voter. Imbrogno is president and chief executive of Ohio Screw, a precision-parts manufacturer located in this working-class suburb of Cleveland. […]

A feeble economy could help make John Kerry president. But then it would suddenly be his economy and his problem. Despite high deficits and low interest rates, both of which provide economic stimulus, this economy is barely treading water. Last month, the best the economy could manage was a paltry 32,000 new jobs. And it’s […]

A few months ago I got on an elevator in the Dirksen Senate Office Building with retiring GOP Senator Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois, the man whose decision not to seek re-election set off what has been one of the weirdest election contests in recent memory. Lamenting the lack of diversity in his party, and what […]

A few months ago, the Federal Reserve made it clear that, given that the recovery was more or less on track, it was going to start raising interest rates off their 46-year low. It did so at its most prior meeting in June, raising the federal funds rate — the interest rate banks charge each […]

Are we on the edge of another savings and loan debacle? That one, in the late 1980s, cost taxpayers an estimated 150 to 200 billion dollars. It happened because too many of the nation’s savings and loan banks, knowing that their depositors were insured, took big risks with their depositor’s money — investing in all […]

As Republicans continue playing politics — such as persuading a Democratic congressman from Louisiana to register as a Republican shortly before the election filing deadline on Friday — Democrats are returning to Washington Tuesday to talk about national security issues. “It’s a historic opportunity to enact into law the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission,” Rep. […]

How does a candidate go about getting nearly a majority of the votes while advocating a tax program that will overwhelmingly benefit a tiny, super-wealthy elite? As the invaluable All The President’s Spin, a new book from the editors of Spinsanity.org, ably documents, you mislead people. You say your plan will benefit all taxpayers when, […]

After the worst jobs report in months came out last Friday, the President, in an almost Stepford-like fashion, asserted that his tax cuts are working and the economy is “strong and getting stronger.” In fact, fewer than 100 days before the presidential election, unemployment is stuck where it was when the recovery began two-and-a-half years […]

Back when Bill Clinton was first running for president, it was obvious early on that Arkansas would prove to be a vulnerability. The propagandists of the right intuited — correctly and rather ingeniously, it must be admitted — that New York and Washington sophisticates would easily believe that in a hick state like Arkansas, any […]

If you follow politics, you’re probably familiar with the idea that reform sometimes backfires. You’ve probably heard the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform cited as an example of such unintended consequences. Critics say McCain-Feingold eliminated the one form of political money on which Democrats had an advantage, while increasing the kind of money — contributions from […]