Tag Archives: U.S. News

The First Amendment Under Siege | USNews.com | 5.23.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: May 23, 2013
It has been a bad few weeks for the First Amendment. The sinister commonality to the Internal Revenue Service and AP scandals and the James Rosen affair is that each appears to have been (strike “appears “: each was) an attempt to suppress a core American right. Freedom of the press was clearly the target […]
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Beyond Boston | USNews.com | 4.29.30

By Clark S. Judge | Published: April 30, 2013
Missed in all the talk about the Boston attacks is that key details suggest that something new is going on. Consider this about what we used to call the “Global War on Terror.” In its early stages, it was clearly a product of global forces that were almost a century old. World War I blew […]
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The Case for More Sequester | USNews.com | 4.08.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: April 8, 2013
I’m guessing you missed the latest troubling economic news. I am not talking about last week’s unemployment figures. A record 90 million Americans are now out of the workforce, taking the U.S. labor participation rate back to Carter administration levels – 63.5 percent. The White House tried to blame The Sequester. But the job trend […]
Posted in Economic Policy: The Great Financial Crisis | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

The Biggest Surprise of the ’12 Election | USNews.com | 11.12.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: November 12, 2012
A day or two before the election, U.S. News opinion editor Robert Schlesinger and I exchanged predictions to the percentage point for both tickets. Robert is the son of former John F. Kennedy presidential speechwriter and historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., so you can imagine his preference, as you can mine. I’m a former Reagan presidential speechwriter. Our prognostications […]
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The Bottom Is Dropping Out of the Obama Presidency | USNews.com | 10.29.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 31, 2012
Last week, we may have seen the bottom beginning to drop out of the Obama presidency. Even the MSMosphere is starting to feel the good Mitt Romney (or maybe it’s bad Barack Obama) vibrations. Last Friday, ABC News’s Terry Moran tweeted, “Obama’s campaign seems small-bore, predominantly negative, and downright weird (Lena Dunham)—a candidate off-stride in […]
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Biden Unhinged! | USNews.com | 10.12.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 16, 2012
What was that all about? The inappropriate smiles, the aggressive laughs, the all but unhinged finger-pumping raging at moderator Martha Raddatz–I suppose Vice President Joe Biden could have come in with a less appropriate performance last night. I just don’t know how. Then there was the substance. The vice president’s charges that Rep. Paul Ryan […]
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Why the Obama-Romney Race May Not Be the Dead Heat Polls Describe | USNews.com | 09.04.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: September 6, 2012
As the Republican convention closed on Thursday night, a new poll pointed to the potential for a major surprise when Americans go to the voting booths in November. Pollsters will tell you that they cannot always count on voters to level with them about which candidates they favor. For example, Gov. Scott Walker’s victory in the […]
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Joe Biden Is the Problem VP Candidate, Not Paul Ryan | USNews.com | 08.18.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: August 23, 2012
It wasn’t supposed to go this way. For more than a decade now, the announcement of a GOP vice presidential pick has, with few exceptions, sparked a trumpeting from the Democratic campaign of the day on how extreme the candidate was, how unfit for the office.  The idea has been to use the lesser-known veep […]
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Americans Are Not Stupid … But the Obama Administration Is | USNew.com | 07.28.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: July 30, 2012
There is a web video making the rounds. According to the YouTube counter it has been up for five years and received 31 million views. Its title is “Americans are not stupid—WITH SUBTITLES.” Perhaps you’ve seen it. An interviewer stumps people on the street with questions such as: “Name a country whose first name begins […]
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The Best Alternative to Obamacare | USNews.com | 07.09.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: July 9, 2012
“Repeal and replace” has become the GOP slogan for how to deal with President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, now that the Supreme Court has declined to declare unconstitutional the unprecedented U.S. government takeover of one-sixth of the economy. But replace it with what? In fact a plan has been circulating on Capitol Hill for […]
Posted in Economic Policy: Health Care | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

The Invisible Romney Vote Obama Should Fear | USNews.com | 06.15.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: June 18, 2012
Something strange is going on in the election campaign.  Former president Bill Clinton seems to look for every opportunity to undermine the sitting president of his own party. His former political aides publish a memorandum saying the White House message strategy is failing. The morning reports have the press corps dismissing President Obama’s supposedly major […]
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Don’t Believe Obama on Income Inequality | U.S.News.com | 05.21.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: May 21, 2012
You’ve heard it a thousand times at least. The incomes of middle class Americans have stagnated in recent decades. Those of the rich—the 1 percent—have soared. It is a very compelling, very troubling, and very widely believed observation and, according to three economists from Cornell and Indiana universities, not true. If they are right—and their […]
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The Beltway Snobbery of Hilary Rosen’s Attack on Ann Romney | U.S. News and World Report | 04.13.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: April 18, 2012
This week—in the person of attack pro Hilary Rosen—the Obama campaign tried out what must have struck them as a gambit born of genius.  Call it the mother of all linkages.  How do you link Big Campaign Theme No. 1 (class warfare) with Big Campaign Theme No. 2 (the GOP “War Against Women”)?  I’ve got […]
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Few Questions Answered for Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich on Super Tuesday | USNews.com | 03.09.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: March 22, 2012
With a not-so-Super Tuesday behind us (only about half as many states participated this time as in 2008), where does the GOP nomination race stand now? The voting this week revealed both nothing and everything about the contest—and general election in the fall. The nothing part was thanks to an unappreciated oddity about this year’s […]
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President Obama’s Stimulus v. Milton Friedman’s Rule | USNews.com | 02.06.09

By Clark S. Judge | Published: February 6, 2009
Milton Friedman had a rule: Increases or decreases in the money supply take six to nine months to alter economic output and as much as two years to move prices. As the Senate takes up the president’s stimulus package, the administration argues that, to avert another Great Depression, it is better to do too much […]
Posted in Economic Policy: The Great Financial Crisis | Tagged | Comments closed

Obama Inauguration Speech Marks Moment Solidly and Well | U.S. News & World Report | 01.21.09

By Clark S. Judge | Published: January 21, 2009
As a former presidential speechwriter, I have been asked over and over in interviews how I would grade President Barack Obama’s inaugural address. My answer: solid A. Not A plus, like Jefferson’s first inaugural or both of Lincoln’s or Franklin Roosevelt’s first or JFK’s or Reagan’s first—but a solid A nonetheless. Like most incoming presidents […]
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McCain’s Challenge: Redefine the Campaign as Inside Change Blame Versus Outsider Reform | U.S. News & World Report | 09.02.08

By Clark S. Judge | Published: September 2, 2008
U.S. News asked speechwriters from past Republican administrations to weigh in with their thoughts on John McCain’s acceptance speech. Clark S. Judge wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan. Republican nominee-to-be John McCain has a chance to redefine the 2008 presidential race on Thursday—if his convention acceptance speech lives up to the standard set so far by […]
Posted in Political Commentary: Campaign 2008 | Tagged | Comments closed